Author's Note:
In this chapter The Judge will be the primary POV.
Warning there may be some brutality in this chapter if you don't like it then tell me. I like to think of the Judge as more than an archer and sometimes he will kill brutally.
Another day has passed in the Fight against the Twins; Marcus, the Teens and Nana have been scoping out the Coal Mine to see if Rush is being held there, and Rush is being held there. Finally after weeks of searching Marcus has finally located Thomas Rush but rescuing him will be difficult.
The Mine is well guarded by the Highwaymen; they won't be able to just barge in, they'll need a very strategic plan in order to rescue Rush and the other prisoners from the Coal Mine. Prosperity is unaware however that a masked individual is spying on them.
For almost two weeks, the Judge has spied on Prosperity reporting anything of note back to Ethan which wasn't much, mostly attacks on Convoys and outposts nothing really Major. Ethan believes a major attack is going to happen soon against the Sinners and he may be right.
The Judge stood over a squad of dead Highwaymen, he attacked a Highwaymen patrol single-handedly and killed all of them. He kept his eye on this patrol for a while and when the time was right he ambushed it. The Judge looked down at his kills, he did good work in his opinion he pulled out his arrows form the bodies but saw that one of the locusts survived, he was trying to crawl away from the Carnage but the Judge walked over to him, turned him over and placed his foot on his chest to keep him from trying to escape.
The locust held his hands up at the Judge in surrender. "Please man, don't kill me. I don't deserve to die!" He begged him.
The Judge slowly tilted his head as he looked down at the man, he could see that he really didn't want to die, but he would be the one to decide his fate, he looked at him for another moment and decided that the Judgement is DEATH.
"Please man, just let me go I promise I won't bother you anymore!" The Locust begged again, tears of fear running down his face.
The Judge ignored his plea and delivered a hard stomp on the Locusts face, he repeatedly stomped his face until he turned his head into a pile of goo. The Judge looked over the corpse and gave a low grunt, it felt good to rid the valley of these locusts even if it was just a small patrol it still felt good, he enjoyed murdering the Locusts because it made the valley a little safer and demoralized the Highwaymen but only a little bit. He moved away from the corpse and inspected the other bodies to see if there was anything useful he could take from them, there wasn't anything useful on his freshest kill.
He kneeled down to search the corpse of a young woman who he emptied an arrow deep into her skull, he grabbed her head and pulled out the arrow,wiped it off, then put it back into his quiver. He searched her and found a Machete holstered to her back, he pulled out the machete and looked at it; The blade was pretty sharp and it could be useful but he should test its sharpness, he rolled up his left sleeve then brought the blade up to the exposed skin and cut it, the machete cut well blood was gushing from his arm but the cut quickly closed itself up due to the Gift, he put the blade in his left hand and rolled up his sleeve.
"HEY!" A voice shouted, before the Judge could react a bullet suddenly pierced the back of his left shoulder, the Judge gave a quick grunt of pain he quickly looked behind him to identify the shooters and saw Two Locusts: One had a 1911 Semi, he was definitely the one who shot him, the other one had an AR-15.
The one with the AR-15 walked a little closer and said,"You just killed two of my best friends, you son of a bitch!" The guy yelled angrily.
"Look's like he's one of those fuckin' New Edener's, let's kill him and avenge our dead buddies." The other Locust said.
They quickly raised their weapons and opened fire on the Judge. He quickly moved to cover behind a car, as soon as he was in cover he brought his hand to his shoulder and applied pressure on the gunshot wound. The bullet hurt but not as much as it should've. He then pressed two fingers into the wound to remove the bullet from his shoulder, a second later he got the bullet out of his shoulder and threw it away. He looked up from the car and saw that the Locust with the rifle was moving up to him, he was amused that the locust was doing something that stupid, but he readied his new blade and as soon as he was right in front of him he quickly brought his machete up and decapitated him, blood gushed out of his neck soaking all over him he didn't mind it though blood soaked on him so many times that he gotten used to it.
He turned his attention to the other one, he had a horrified look on his face looking down at his dead friend then looked up at the Judge, his face turning to anger. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT ASSHOLE!" He shouted at him then raised his pistol and fired two more rounds, they hit him in the chest he groaned in pain at the bullet wounds but quickly shook them off he then felt anger rising up he looked up at the guy who just shot him again and slowly walked over to him.
The Locust was shocked that the Judge just shrugged off two bullet wounds to the chest and was now slowly walking over to him. "Oh shit." He gasped, he tried to fire more bullets at him but his gun was empty, he unloaded his clip and quickly loaded in a new one but before he could fire at him the Judge grabbed his pistol out of his hands. Judge put a hand on the stock then brought his other hand to the barrel then broke the pistol in two and threw the two pieces aside.
The Judge turned his attention back to the locust who was terrified at him now and then grabbed grabbed him by the throat with his left arm and raised him up from the ground gripping his neck, the guy struggled for air he coughed and gagged he tried to get him to let go by squeezing his arm but Judge just tightened his grip on the man's throat then broke his neck, he looked at the man for a moment then threw the body aside. He looked at the body, still angry that he shot him so he repeatedly stroked the head of the body until it was sliced to bits. He then looked at the machete in his hands and realized that he preferred knives and bows better than machetes so he just dropped it.
He looked at the their car and realized that he should destroy it so the Locusts cant use it, so he took a lighter and rag from one of the bodies, rolled up the rag, walked over to their truck, opened the fuel tank, put the rag in the tank, and set set the rag on fire with the lighter then ran as fast as he could away from the truck before it exploded.
The Judge removed the bullets from his chest then two hours later he followed a group of sinners led by the Captain that consisted of Hunter, Carmina and Nana. He followed them to the old Coal Mine where they seemed to be scouting the place, he got as close to them as he could without alerting his presence to them. He listened in on their conversation for anything useful.
"I don't understand why we're just scouting the place Marcus, if Rush is in there somewhere we should just rescue him right now." Hunter stated as the Captain was looking through his binoculars.
Carmina nodded at Hunter's statement. "I'm actually with Hunter on this one, if Rush is here we can rescue Rush here and now, yet we're only here to scout the place?" Carmina questioned.
Marcus sighed, he lowered his binoculars to look at Hunter. "Hunter, Carmina we don't know for sure if Rush is here so we need to be sure, besides this place isn't like the other strongholds we've attacked, it's well guarded, has more troops and is prepared against an attack. If Rush is here then we need to be smart about this."
"The Captain's right kiddos, going in there guns blazing is a good way to get yourselves killed. We need to plan carefully on this one. Besides, Rush probably isn't here." Nana said.
Marcus looked back through his binoculars to scope out the place.
"See anything?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah, do you see Thomas Rush anywhere?" Carmina asked too.
The Judge's eyes widened at the name of Thomas Rush, he and the New Edener's have heard that name many times from the Locusts and Sinners, they've heard that Rush has built communities and helped people fight back against the plague of Locusts in the past. An ally like that could greatly benefit the people of New Eden if they got to him first, but the Sinners were correct the Mine is well guarded, but a small group of Chosen could manage to rescue Rush from the Mine.
He continued to listen in on their discussion, Marcus ignored them and kept focusing on scoping out the place a few moments later he gasped. "Oh my god." Marcus said incredulously.
"What do you see him?" Hunter asked as he moved closer to Marcus.
"See for yourself." Marcus said as he handed Hunter his binoculars. The Judge looked where they were looking and saw two figures dragging a man into the Mine, based on the Captain's reaction that must be Thomas Rush, he now knew that Rush was being held here.
"Oh shit Gina was right, Rush is here." Hunter said to Carmina then gave back the binoculars.
"Alright now let's go get him." Carmina said as she and Hunter pulled out their weapons but Marcus and Nana stopped them before they could do anything stupid.
"Whoa, guys we can't do anything right now" Marcus stated.
They both looked at Marcus surprised that they just found Rush but he wasn't going to rescue him from the Highwaymen.
"We know that Rush is here now, but you don't want to rescue him?" Hunter said angrily.
"It's not that I don't want to save Rush, but if we just charge in there we'll be killed in a matter of seconds, and there are too many highwaymen to use stealth so we need to figure out a strategy." Marcus explained to him sternly.
"But they'll kill him." Carmina argued.
Marcus shook his head in disagreement."No they won't Rush is a valuable asset they won't just kill him."
"Marcus is right you kiddo's, we'll need more people if we're gonna rescue that man the four of us will just be killed if we tried to attack." Nana reasoned.
After arguing a little longer Marcus and Nana convinced the Teens convinced the Teens to wait until they had a plan but they still didn't like it, after another few minutes they left, they were likely heading back to Prosperity. When they were gone the Judge sneaked away to return to New Eden to report his findings to Ethan Seed.
The Judge walked for an hour until he finally made it back to New Eden, It was nearly sundown as he made it home,he went to Ethan's tent and reported his findings to him. Ethan called a small group of four Chosen into his tent along with the Judge to discuss a plan to attack the mine. Given the Information the Judge has provided about the Mine it won't be easy.
"If this Thomas Rush is really being held at this old Mine Judge, then we're gonna need a plan to rescue him from the Locusts that guard it." Ethan pointed out. The Judge stood right beside Ethan with his arms crossed.
"I don't like the idea of rescuing a Sinner from the Locusts." A Chosen opposed Ethan's plan.
"Me too, I'm not willing to put my trust in Sinners after all they've done to us in the past." Another Chosen stated.
The Chosen argued about Ethan's plan to rescue Thomas Rush from the Highwaymen not many were willing to put their faith in a Sinner, after what they've heard about this particular Sinner it seemed like he could be of great help to them.
Ethan held his arms out to calm the arguing. "Everyone calm down! I know many of you aren't willing to put your trust in the Sinners but after everything I've heard about this Sinner he could be of extreme use to us in fighting against the Highwaymen. With Joseph not here to lead us and the Flame taken we need to consider outside help if we want to fight back."
"I'm with Ethan on this one, if this particular Sinner can be of great use to us then I say we must do whatever we can to rescue him." A young female Chosen agreed.
The Judge was surprised that Ethan was having a young chosen help attack the Mine. She looked to be around 15 years old, had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail, and had green eyes. But the Girl wasn't the point of this meeting so the Judge turned his attention back to the task at hand.
"If the Sinners from the South are trying to rescue Thomas Rush, then they'll likely attack us if we managed to rescue him." Another Chosen argued.
The Judge then spoke up but whispered. "Sinners...push...back...we...push...back...too."
The Girl spoke again. "The Judge is right if the Sinners can push back against this plague of Locusts, then we can too if this sinner can help us then I say we rescue him. Joseph may not be here to guide us but we can still fight." The young female Chosen said confidently.
The Judge admired the girl's confidence, but he worried about having a child fighting beside him and the Chosen, The Judge trained the young Chosen but she wasn't ready to fight against the Highwaymen, she didn't even have the fruit that Joseph gave him and the chosen that allowed them to survive the Nuclear fallout, she would be vulnerable to injury while the others would fair better against the Locust and their weapons. He knew Ethan was overconfident but having the young fight is going too far but Ethan was the leader so he couldn't oppose.
"The girl is correct Joseph may not be here to guide us, but we can still fight." Ethan stated.
"From what we know about the Mine it's well guarded, and there are guards patrolling it all day, but it seems to have less guards patrolling at night though, if we use the cover of night to launch our attack then they'll never know what hit them." Ethan explained.
Ethan looked at The Judge and said. "Judge, you will stay here. In the morning I need you to keep spying on the Sinners, the Chosen will handle the Mine."
The Judge looked at Ethan with his eyes widening through his mask, he would be needed for the Mine with him they would have a better chance he was New Edens best fighter and he's seen the Mine but Ethan was ordering him to instead keep spying on the Sinners. Without him to help the Chosen they will likely get killed.
"We need to know if the Sinners have anything else planned and you're the only one who can sneak over there undetected." Ethan stated. The Judge wanted to protest but he was obedient to the leader of New Eden and Ethan was the leader so he remained quiet.
The Chosen agreed with Ethan's plan, the cover of night will make it harder for them to be detected and it will allow them to attack them easier given that they can see better in the night than they can, but the Judge will be needed in this attack.
Ethan discussed the plan with them for a little while longer and they finally had a plan in motion. Nightfall was only an hour away and if they moved now they can get there by the time night comes. When they wrapped up Ethan ordered them to leave but for the Judge to stay for a moment, the Judge complied with Ethan's request and stayed.
He stood in front of Ethan with his arms crossed, Ethan stood silent for a moment then walked over to a shelf and retrieved a small wooden box. "Judge, as you know my father Joseph has told me a lot about you." Ethan stated as he looked at the small box, then looked at him and continued. "You were once a Deputy, then one day you came to arrest my Father, but failed,then you killed his Brothers and Sister, and destroyed everything he worked towards." Ethan said as he took a few steps closer to the Judge.
The Judge took a few steps back at Ethan at what he just told him, it pained him that he brought up his past he tried so hard to move on from that but hearing it now just brings that guilt back, he did kill Joseph's family he thought he was doing right he thought he was helping people but in reality he was dooming them. He took no pride in killing the Peggies at first, but as he fought that changed he actually started enjoying killing Joseph's followers. When the Collapse came he became Joseph's adopted son and his most loyal and obedient follower. Joseph helped him move forward with the guilt of what he did, but it still haunts him sometimes.
"What is he getting at though?" The Judge wondered, beginning to feel uneasy around Ethan.
Ethan then placed a hand on the Judge's shoulder. "Don't worry Judge, I hold no grudge against you, maybe that...man doesn't either anymore after he claimed that they weren't worthy of being in this so called... New Eden." Ethan turned away from the Judge and took a few steps then turned back to the Judge. "But you know, one interesting thing he told me about you... was your conditioning." Ethan said as he started winding up the box.
"That man told me that his brother Jacob put something in your head that triggers some sort of hypnosis whenever you hear a certain song." Ethan said as he kept winding up the Music box.
The Judge's eyes widened as he saw the Music Box in Ethan's hands, he took a few more steps back raising his arms in fear. Many years ago Jacob Seed used that same music box to condition him. He remembered the times Jacob used that box on him and every time he did he killed friends and allies, those memories still haunt him to this day. He swore that he would never be affected by it again, but now Ethan held the box in his hands and he felt powerless to stop him from using the Conditioning.
"I know that some of your friends are still alive in that community in the south, I know that after all Joseph has done to you there are still traces of who you once were still inside you, I know that you still care about them somewhere inside, and I know that you are only loyal to me because Joseph told you to look after me before he disappeared into the north. Well, you should know that you will serve me, you will never serve him again." Ethan threatened, holding out the box placing his hand on the top preparing to open it.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to condition you, but you should know that if Joseph is alive and he comes back then I will have nothing, I won't have you to help me anymore, so..." Ethan said then opened the box, playing the song.
The Judge quickly brought his hands up to his ears to block out the song, but it was already too late the song had started taking control causing him to fall to the floor feeling what's left of his mind fading, but Ethan quickly closed the box, stopping the conditioning from taking over.
Ethan kneeled down to the Judge."You will never abandon me ever and if you do then I will take control of your mind and then I will make you kill your former friends, you will watch as their lives end at your own hand." He finished.
The Judge looked at Ethan anger coursing through him, he knew Ethan was hungry for power and that he cared about him but he didn't expect him to stoop this low. Joseph wouldn't stand for this if he was here, but he wasn't and despite everything the Judge was devoted to Joseph and he told him to look after his son Ethan so he needed to obey.
The Judge got up and nodded at Ethan.
"Very good, now get out, there will be much to do tomorrow." He ordered.
The Judge gave a low grunt and nodded, then left the tent and went back to his Hut to rest, then in the morning he will leave for Prosperity to keep his eyes on the Sinners.
Authors Note:
Ethan had a personal reason to use the conditioning on the Judge, because Ethan cares about him. More will be revealed later.
Leave your comments and let me know what you think.