Strength and Stupidity

At the same time that Martin and Zach were surveying the area where the five guards had just been mercilessly slaughtered, the culprit was quickly making his way towards the entry gate to the camp.

Grant figured that based on what he had seen from the guards and what he had heard about the leadership of the camp, if he didn't move quickly, then it was likely that innocent people would be forced to suffer for his actions.

Knowing that, Grant forced his body to move at the fastest speed it could while still managing to maintain complete control over his ability to make subtle adjustments. His speed resulted in him reaching the gate in a fraction of the time that it would take for a normal human to travel the same distance.

Since Grant was capable of such speed and agility, he was able to move without creating much sound or disrupting the earth below his feet which enabled him to approach the makeshift guard towers basically unnoticed.

As Grant approached, he noticed that their were only two men guarding the gate and neither of them was looking in his direction but were in fact looking over the edge of the wall.

He couldn't quite make out what they were saying since the wind rushing past his ears was masking his ability to hear clearly, but he knew that they were shouting at something or someone just on the other side of the gate itself.

After quickly analyzing the situation, the only logical conclusion to who the person standing on the other side of the gate and drawing the guards attention, was Ethan. Grant figured that Ethan must have approached the gates once he heard the sound of gunfire in an attempt to gain access to the camp to assist whoever was in trouble, since deep down Ethan was still more concerned with other people and their safety than he was for his own.

In the time that it took Grant to analyze the situation and come to his conclusions, he had finally reached the base of the first guard tower. After slowing down his speed drastically, Grant took one strong step forward before launching himself into the air and landing in the guard tower.

Since Grant had leapt a good fifteen feet into the air, he was unable to land silently in the tower, which resulted in a loud thud and the creaking sound of wood upon his landing. Hearing the sound that came from directly behind him, the guard slowly creaked his head and waist around to look in the direction of the sound.

Seeing that the cause of the noise was in fact human, the guard seemed to regain a small portion of his wits, until he realized that he didn't recognize the person standing in the tower with him. He immediately raised his gun and aimed it directly at Grant before shouting at him with obvious fake bravado.

"HEY! Who the hell are you?! You can't be here! This is authorized personnel only!"

Grant just looked at the guard with an amused expression on his face and a small grin on his lips.

"Authorized personnel you say? Who gives the authorization? You?"

Surprised by the obvious sarcasm oozing from the words of the stranger in front of him, the guard started to show obvious signs of concern for the situation.

"Um, no, not me. I-It's Martin's job to assign people their roles. Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Who I am isn't important at the moment and neither is why I'm here. I'm going to need you to go to sleep for a bit though. Your buddy in the tower over there looks like he's about to fire on both of us."

While Grant was speaking, he gestured towards the other guard tower with his hand and sure enough, when the guard in front of him looked towards the other tower, the second guard was aiming his weapon directly at Grant and him.

"WAIT WAIT! Don't shoot Brock!! I'm still a virg..." startled by the admission he was about to make, the guard slapped his hands over his own math to stop himself from finishing the sentence. A mere moment later though, as if struck by a sudden realization, he started shifting his head back towards Grant before everything went dark and he collapsed onto the floor of the guard tower.

The moment his hand made contact with the back of the guards neck, Grant leapt off the edge of the tower and quickly plummeted towards the ground.

The second guard, seeing his friend killed for all he knew, immediately opened fire on the freefalling Grant.

Grant knew that if the guard was even a remotely decent shot it was likely that he would take at least one bullet so he raised his arms to cover his head while he fell. His thought process was, even if the bullet managed to wound him, as long as he didn't die instantly it was unlikely that his bodies ability to heal quickly wouldn't be able to save him.

Contrary to his expectations though, not only was Brock a much better shot than anticipated, which resulted in multiple bullets hitting his body, none of the bullets even managed to so much as scratch him.

Pleasantly surprised by the fact that he was apparently immune to the damage that normal rifle bullets caused, Grant finally made contact with the ground before immediately turning and jumping towards the direction of the second tower.

The entire time Grant was flying towards the second guard tower, Brock never stopped firing his weapon.

Since it had only been a few seconds since he started firing, he still hadn't managed to unload the full clip until Grant was standing directly in front of him. The final shot from Brock's rifle impacted Grant's chest from merely a few inches away and yet still caused no damage at all.

"Looks like your little toy will be useless here buddy. How about you just surrender quickly so that I can be on my way? I'm not a fan of killing needlessly and I can respect the fact that you are just doing the job assigned to you.

Oh, and by the way, your buddy over there isn't dead, just unconscious, so if you're thinking of throwing away your life to avenge him, that would be the very definition of futility and I advise against it."

Brock just stood there with a stunned expression on his face. Most of his surprise stemmed from the fact that the man in front of him had just managed to absorb the impact of at least a dozen rifle bullets and emerged unscathed while the rest stemmed from what Grant had just said.

For a few seconds, both men just stared at each other in silence without anyone so much as moving an inch. However, Brock eventually dropped the weapon in his hands and then raised his hands above his head.

"I surrender. I can see from your eyes that you are telling the truth."

Grant was surprised by Brock's actions. He had expected the man to fight back and attempt some kind of retaliation for what had happened but that didn't appear to be the case.

After starting at the man in front of him, Grant completely ignored Brock and poked his head over the edge of the guard rail to see if his earlier assumption was correct. And sure enough, standing at the front of the gate and looking up at him, was Ethan.

"What the hell are you doing Ethan? I thought we agreed that you would wait until I came back and got you?!"

"Same goes for you Grant! What are you doing up there in the guard tower?! Plus, I would bet my God's Love that you are the one responsible for those gunshots earlier!"

"You know what!!"

"What?!"

"Fuck you! I won't admit that you're right so just get your ass through the gate and I'll explain what's going on!!"

"You're really a dick, you know that?!"

"If you don't stop speaking truths that make me look bad, I'm going to come down there and kick your ass!"

While breaking down the gate of the camp with his God's Love, Ethan continued to whisper to himself under his breath, grumbling about his partner for this excursion.

"How you got those two kids and Ally to think so highly of you, I'll never understand... must be a case of Stockholm syndrome or something...."

"What did you say Mr. Bible Thumper?! Speak up!"

Ethan immediately stopped talking and quickly finished breaking the door down before walking into the camp.

Brock, who was still standing behind Grant, was confounded by the two men who were now "raiding" the camp. He couldn't help but gawk at the simultaneous strength and stupidity that the two were displaying.

Brock decided at that moment, that if he managed to survive the night, he would spend some time reevaluating his view of the world.

It was difficult for him to believe that the two men in front of him might actually be the peak of humanity at the moment.