Chapter 10: Road to revenge

Josh, Raymir and I have been searching for an hour or so and we finally found the camp of thugs, and with a base this organized, there had to be some other HQ type base. It was built out of scaffolding that they walled in for cover on a ruined building. It's actually quite impressive how only in a few weeks someone made something this big yet this organized. Too bad I'm gonna have to make it crumble.

We get dressed in the armor we took off the thugs that attacked us and walked towards the entrance. Surprisingly, there was no one in the entryway, only a gunner above it. We walked in, guns drawn which seemed common with everyone around. Suddenly, a large man walked up and started barking orders but we didn't know anything about this place. Nervous, I quickly raised my AR-14 to his face and blew his head off.

"Xander, what the hell?" Josh shouted, only bringing more attention to us. Before we even knew it, we were behind a wall taking heavy fire. I raise my gun above me without looking and fired blindly. Raymir pulled out his SMG since he couldn't kill people this close with a sniper rifle. By the screams, I could tell we were hitting people.

Over the gunshots, I began shouting orders. "We gotta get on top of the scaffolding. Raymir will go first so he can support us with his sniper." I nudged Raymir with my shoulder and pointed to the ramp up the scaffolding.

He nodded and began running as me and Josh got out from behind the wall and began firing at the thugs on the ground as I heard Raymir's SMG firing from the scaffolding. A bullet flew right by my ear and hit the wall behind me. It scared me so bad that I fell to the ground. Josh looked down at me and put one of his hands out to help me up. I took it and pulled myself up.

I looked at the top of the scaffolding and saw Raymir setting up his rifle. I nudged at Josh and gave another order. "Cover me, I'm going up with Raymir. He nodded and took another shot at the thugs with his shotgun.

I ran out from behind the wall and fired at a few thugs I saw but wasn't too accurate. Once I entered I put away my rifle and pulled out my pistol, aiming it around each corner. The air smelled of cut wood boards covering the windows let in just enough light into the room to see clearly but it was dark enough that every gunshot lit up the room like lightning. As I turned one corner, a thug grabbed my gun and went to punch me. I ducked his punch and uppercut him in the jaw.

He let go of my gun and stumbled back. I walked towards him and hit him across the face with the barrel of my pistol. He fell to the ground, knocked out. I looked down at him and fired two more shots into his back.

Suddenly I heard Raymir yell from the level above me. I rushed up and shot a thug in the stomach without thinking. When I reached the top my vision was blurred by the sun for a second. I saw Raymir being held by his neck getting pushed by a thug towards the edge. I holstered my gun and pulled out my knife, running at the thug and jamming half of its six inches into his neck.

I pulled him back and pulled the knife out. As I did blood squirted on my shirt and pants with a grotesque squishing sound followed by the thump of his body. I pulled Raymir down and threw him roughly to the ground as a shot flew by where he was. I pulled out my rifle, shooting the guy who fired at Raymir.

"Josh, hurry up here!" I called out to Josh. He looked up at me and gave me a thumbs up, letting off one more shot and running while reloading. I heard his loud footsteps running up the platforms and a gunshot, followed by a yell I didn't recognize. As I saw Josh coming up the ramp, I put a hand out to help Raymir up. He took it and pulled himself up.

I took a look at Josh and he no longer had his shotgun. He now carried a shiny all black AK-47. "Where'd your shotgun go?" I asked him.

"The barrel broke when I shot a guy down there. Now let's take care of these guys." He shouted over the gunshots and bullets flying over us. I ran off the scaffolding and on top of the house where I found a small crate. I opened up the top and found an LMG and a few grenades, along with some ammo straps.

I wrapped. The ammo around my torso and grabbed the LMG, putting the ammo in. I dragged the crate over to the edge and put my hand on the side rail grip, opening fire. Thugs either fell dead or ran for cover that I eventually mowed down with bullets. I started thinking of Mason and started screaming.  I stopped suddenly and proped the barrel of the gun on the ground to keep myself up. There was a long silence and I was exhausted, breathing heavily. Some thugs decided to peek their heads out from behind their cover and when they did, they saw me, tossing a grenade down with the pin between my teeth. Some started yelling as it exploded, that's when we started firing again.

Soon enough, the battlefield was silent again. The barrel of the LMG was melting, so I took off the straps, throwing the gun off the roof. I looked over at Josh and Raymir and they had terrified looks on their faces. I took a deep breath and began walking down the scaffolding ramps. I looked around the rooms in the building until I found a locked one. I shot the lock with my pistol and kicked it open. I saw a man with a rifle, aiming right at me. Seconds later, a bullet zooms right by my ear for a second time. I aim for the man's knee and pull the trigger. One loud bang and bright flash later, the man was on one knee yelling in pain. I began walking towards him and grabbed him by his breastplate 'armor', pulling him up and putting a gun to his head.

"Who sent you?" I shouted, Raymir and Josh running into the room with me. "Where did you come from?"

The man only stuttered and I punched him across the face. "Tell me or lose your fucking brains!" I shouted again. I finally got an answer from him.

"I- I was sent by a large camp south-west of here, not that far. Please don't ki-" before he could finish I pushed him out of the window. He fell, letting out a blood-curdling scream. It soon ended followed by a loud thump. I walked past Raymir and Josh, them quickly following. I left and started walking south-west.