Urban Dead: The Price of the Oath

[Dark Silver]

"Negative, will call back when we finish up..."

Silver then turned off the radio. Simple as that, a few moments later, the crunching of booted feet on asphalt was head, as Decimus and the rest of thier team appeared. Silver nodded in approval, they came loaded for bear.

Silver was quick with the others, Punt was assigned three men, Decimus, six, and Silver took the rest. He reexplained the plan to Decimus, and the man took the orders.

They were going to have twenty minutes to get into position, and take out any perimeter guards before striking the house.


Decimus and Punt both scrambled out, and Silver spread his men out. positioning them for optimal coverage and protection.

They settled in for the long wait.

--- reserved rest for log posting ---

[Pcm979]

Punt spied the rooftop guards from a distance.

"They're mine." He said simply, mouth beginning to water again.

They snuck into a neighbouring building and slowly ascended to the roof. Punt set his men up in sniping positions, ostensibly in case something went wrong.

He wasn't going to fail. He was just going to succeed in as spectacular and bloody a manner as possible.

[Josh]

The guards were fairly casual. Casual for Malton, anyway. They weren't particularly inspired by their 'fearless leader', to be certain.

[Pcm979]

The first one went down with nothing more than a muffled 'thud' as Punt cleared the short space between rooftops using the man as padding. Landing in a crouch, Punt tensed momentarily, waiting to see whether his partner had noticed...

[Josh]

His partner had indeed noticed, and was turning, cigarette falling out of his mouth as he fumbled for the machete at his waist.

[Pcm979]

Punt was quicker, whipping his axe from his belt and throwing it in a spiral that ended at the man's chest. Punt leaped off the first guard's body and tackled the second one as he fell, ready to quash any remaining signs of life.

[Josh]

The main sign of life was the fact that the man didn't actually fall, instead staggering backwards as he screamed. Loudly. While staring at the axe imbedded in his chest.

[Pcm979]

Punt's tackle brought the man down, hands wrapping around his throat and choking off the scream almost as soon as it had started.

[Josh]

Nevertheless, noise had been made. It was now up to Silver and Punt to make their decision as to how to continue...

[Pcm979]

"Shit." Punt hissed, drawing his radio from his belt and flicking it to the secure channel with sticky fingers.

"Yeller, boss. I'm going in."

And quickly, he dragged the man towards the skylight...

Those below would be rather surprised as their rooftop guard plummeted through the skylight, pausing briefly to hang some distance in the air by his severed intestines, and then crash to the floor in time to be blown into bloody chunks by a grenade lodged in his sternum.

"Showtime." Punt cackled.

[Josh]

There was much screaming and confusion down below.

[Dark Silver]

The radio cackle broke him out of his reverie, as did the scream of the guard.

"All Units, fall in!" he bellowed, as his he rushed the front door, flanked by one of thie Militia men, his shotgun raised, the battleaxe in easy reach on his back. He shot the lock off the door, kicking it in and liquidfied the head of one of Jaycee's men who was reaching for a machette.

In the rear of the building, a explosion sounded, as Decimus and his team breached the rear wall, and wadded in weapons blazing through the smoke.

[Josh]

It was a slaughter, not a defense. Disoriented by the grenade and the savage speed of the attack, the 'defenders' fell quickly.

All but one. A long-haired man emerged from the shadows to jab a knife into the throat of one of Decimus' people and tossing him through the window, before following him on out and onto the side lawn...

[Pcm979]

Punt hissed into the radio. "There. Side lawn. Got a shot." He raised the magnum and waited for Silver's word.

[Pcm979]

The first fifteen seconds of the operation was a clusterfuck. Punt had just called out Jaycee had fled, and wanted to shoot him. "I want the fucker alive Punt!"

"I 'n do it." Punt replied steadily. He was the best shot in the Second.

The house was cleared quickly. The shocked residents didn't put up much of a fight. Jaycee had already dodged behind cover in the time it took for the pair to have a conversation, though.

"Shit." Punt snarled. "'M takin' the shot next time." He stood on the roof, and concentrated. Blood leaked from his eye, and he saw Jaycee's presence like a flickering candle.

Jaycee was moving away quickly, scampering down through the alley. The survival instincts of a rat, this one. Speed and darkness were his friends, or so he thought.

Silver shook his head, the round up was almost too easy, though they had spilled the blood. "Decimus, round these fuckers up." He was already reloading the shotgun. "Punt!" he bellowed, "get your ass down here, We're going after him!" Silver was already moving out the door, chambering the last shell.

There wasn't much to round up. The wounded were the lucky survivors, and upon further examination only one of them would turn out to have any reasonable life expectancy beyond 'the next few seconds'.

"He's movin'." Punt said. "Follow me." He shimmied down a drainage pole and tore off after Jaycee, ripping the patch from his eye once he was comfortably ahead of the militamen.

Silver followed the man, the years of tactical training slipped back into place. The Militia followed close behind, but the two Irregulars were pulling ahead.

As if sensing the presence at his heels, Jaycee accelerated his pace, running as though his life depended on it. Because it really did.

Punt ran easily, hands braced on the Magnum. He saw the flicker ahead of him, and fired. The huge bullet went right through a door and carried on going.

There was a scream from ahead of them, and a thumping sound of a body falling.

Punt went to the body via the most expedient route; the one the bullet had just taken. He bashed through the door, rolled on the ground and came up in a crouch.

Silver called for the two militiamen to stay back as the magnum's report filled the alley. Silver moved down it, shotgun rested on his shoulder, only picking up his pace when he saw Punt.

The shots snapped just above Punt's head, the first missing by mere centimeters, recoil carrying the others higher up. Jaycee's effeminate face was contorted in a twisted mask of hate-filled rage.

Punt continued rolling, tackling the black-haired man and flinging their guns away. Punt had the size and strength advantage in close-combat. As well as the intimidating eye.

Jaycee screamed out loud and sank his teeth into Punt's ear, tearing the top part away as his hands flailed ineffectually.

Punt headbutted the man, grabbing his long hair and slamming his head repeatedly into the ground.

Silver rushed forward with the sounds of struggle, and the clattering of guns. He came upon them just as Jaycee took a bite out of Punt. He cocked the shotgun menacingly, and pointed it at Jaycee's face. "Punt" he called out, "stop it, we want his ass alive."

Jaycee was well and truly unconscious at this point, blood running through his long hair, jaw hanging open.

Punt looked up at his boss with no comprehension in his eyes. "Wha-?" He looked down, and let go of Jaycee's hair. "Sorry, boss."

He sat back on his haunches and dabbed his bloody ear, licking his fingers compulsively.

Blood was spreading across the floor, from the wound in Jaycee's back. He'd taken the round in the lower back, near the spine.

"Shit." Punt groaned, seeing the wound. "Sorry, boss." He repeated.

Silver growled, looking at the li'l bastard, the cause of so much trouble. He kept the shotgun trained on Jaycee's head, instinct and desire..."Don't worry about it..."

He reached into the ouch at his hip, and dug out a pair of handcuffs, tossing them to Punt, "Cuff his hands, then see about stopping that bleeding. I won't let a bullet take away our payment..."

Punt cuffed the man, squeezing the locks down perhaps a little too tightly, and rolled him over. "Hate 't waste meds on him." He growled, but stopped the bleeding as best he could, licking the blood from his fingers once he was done.

Jaycee wasn't looking good. Pale and shadowed, his breathing was very shallow.

"Why can't we just gut 'im?" Punt asked, a hungry look in his eyes. "A warnin'."

Silver racked his shotgun, moving to crouch next to the unconscious Jaycee, gauntlet hand grasping the man's face. "It's simple....we do it here, no one will see it....Petro wants us to be the protectors of the flock. If he dies here, there's always the question, did they do it?"

"We could bring back 'is head." Punt grinned.

The slow grin came over Silver's lips, squeezing Jaycee's cheeks lightly, "Don't die yet sweetheart....I have a lot of fun things planned for you.. And when we're done, no one will ever....EVER...fuck with us again..."

Jaycee was not looking good. "'F you wan' him alive, we best move." Punt warned.

The cold metalshod hand released the cheeks, and placed a slap on Jaycee's cheek, then radioed for Decimus to bring the survivors back to the mall, "Yeah, we will...I want Petro to see him. You grab his feet."

Silver moved around Jaycee's head, and grabbed his shoulders, ready to lift when Punt was.

"'Sec." Punt pulled his eyepatch back in to place, and then hefted Jaycee's legs. "He caused us all that shit?" Punt laughed. "Looks like a fuckin' girl."

Silver laughed, not loudly, "Looks so much like one...you know, it's been awhile since I had a piece...if he lives long enough..." He let the sentence hang, as they moved Jaycee out of the alley.

Punt laughed darkly. "Like the way yer mind works, boss."

[Dark Silver]

Ten minutes after Jaycee was captured, Punt and Silver carried him out of the alley, and met up with Decimus. The two men holding the the unconcious and handcuffed boy between them, were flanked by the two militia men.

Only one of Jaycee's gang had survived the assault, the others were either dead or dying by the time the shooting had stopped. The one survivor was a gangly boy, not much beyond 18.

They stopped after the meet up, Decimus holding out the radio so Silver could speak into it, while still holding the man up, "Hunter to Base....we got him. Over."

Decimus brought the radio down, and without another word, the squad fell into a protective formation, eyes peeled out. They were heading for the mall, they all knew that. The bodies from the attack would be left to rot, or rise up, whatever would happen to them.

Don't you fucking die on me you lil bastard....you have tomuch to answer for..., those words kept rolling through Silver's mind during the entire trip, like a prayer... Don't fucking die yet...

[Josh]

A light rain was falling. Petro stood outside, oblivious to the drizzle, waiting for the Irregulars to return. The sky was darkening slowly to twilight. Melanie stood behind him, as did a couple of militia members. Her hand rested on his shoulder as he watched for his people to come home with their prey.

"So this is it, huh?" she asked. "Kind of anticlimactic."

"All I care is that it's over," he said.

She rested her head slightly on his shoulder, unable to resist what with being at that perfect height and all, and nodded. "Guess a part of me still wants to see him suffer," she said.

"I'm past that. It'd be like torturing an animal," he said. "What we're doing here is setting an example of what happens to anybody who crosses us."

[Dark Silver]

They had taken the shortest route back to the mall, what took them most of a afternoon to cover before due to thier search pattern, barely took twenty minuteson a straight trek.

The procession was solemn, quiet, not the exuberant party one would normally expect from a group of hunters bagging thier kill. Everyone in the group knew this wasn't suppossed to be the end, that if Silver and Punt had thier way, this was only the start.

The Mall rose into view on the horizon, but the company did not increase thier pace, Silver didn't want to risk further injury to Jaycee, he wanted the boy to heal first.

Minutes pased, they were in the shadow of the mall, and prepping Jaycee to be brought inside.

[Josh]

He approached the team. "Let Mel take a look at him and see if we're wasting our time here." he ordered.

She followed, approaching them with caution. Punt was covered in blood, and she didn't bother asking who had caused the injury to the man's head. Only when she looked down, she realised he wasn't a man at all. Long hair, large eyes swollen painfully closed... He hardly looked legal. But she felt no sympathy, for she knew the mind behind the face. She inspected him with tentative, careful touches.

"He's concussed. Badly. Might have a hairline fracture above his right eye..." She trailed her hand down to the boy's abdomen, where blood was pooling as a result due to the damage from the gunshot. "Looks like his left hip is shattered. What bits of it are left anyway." Because he had no hip there to speak of. "Might be spinal damage, but he's responding to my hand..." Even if only through groans of pain.

[Dark Silver]

Silver listened to the diagnosis, and his face never changed. Normally, when he looked like this, you could see some form of warmth in his eyes, or the quirk of his lips, despite what he was pushed to, the man beneath was never fully hidden.

Until now. No amount of searching in his eyes, listening to his voice, could emotion be traced. His voice was cold, dead, and leadened.

"Patch him up." It wasnt a request, it was a order.

With that, Jaycee was handed to a militia man, as Silver walked off down the malls side.

[Josh]

"No," he said suddenly. "No, we're not. We aren't wasting time and supplies. Cut his body up, stick his head out front, and dump it in the trench."

"Then I'll do it myself," Melanie said with a shrug. "We'll use crude implements. Silver wants him alive for a reason." Although who knew fuck-all about what it was.

He looked back at her, eyes flashing at the defiance of his authority.

[Pcm979]

Punt turned back to them, blood smearing almost his entire torso.

"I'll do it." He said. He'd do it and he'd enjoy every moment of it.

[Dark Silver]

Silver wasn't out of earshot when the words were spoken. He spun on his heel, eyes showing the first emotion since they started back.

The emotion was rage, white hot rage.

His voice was still cold, but had a meanacing quality to it, like a animal giving the warning it was not to be triffled with, "I said patch him the fuck up....Don't fuck with me on this...."

Silver stared at Petro and Punt, with those hard eyes, the fury seeping into the edges.

[Josh]

And Melanie was not in a position to argue, sickened by the wounds on Jaycee and the smell of the blood and cerebrospinal fluit covering Punt's shirt. Back wounds were the worst. And... Hey, what a coincidence, the fucker deserved it considering she'd been hit mere centimetres from where he had. Swallowing audibly, she quickly cleared the area and searched for a place to vomit in relative peace.

He turned to look back at Silver, his eyes cold and flat, absent the usual fiery passion they had.

"This is more personal for me than anybody here," he said. "Every person this bastard's hit is part of my family. But we are not going to patch him up so we can carve him some more."

He stalked toward Silver, not breaking his gaze.

"And that..." he said with the same cold intensity. "Is final. He makes the same example either way."

[Dark Silver]

Silver strood forward, coming face to face with Petro. His eyes locked onto the other mans, his face was twisted in rage, his upper lip twitching.

He kept his voice low, "I didn't bring him back so a bullet can take my glory....You wanted an attackdog....you wanted a example. This won't fucking set a example! He dies from a bullet, then what's to stop the next cocksucker with a gun and a nasty streak to come by and decide to take what we have? What are you going to do if the next wanna-be Warlord puts a fucking bullet in your woman's brain?"


As he said these things, Silverhad drawn closer to Petro, till thier noses were nearly touching, "Maybe you don't think I care enough about these people, that I don't considr them my family. Fuck you. You should know better. All those he's hurt is everybit of my family as much as yours. I want him to suffer as much as he made us all suffer, I want him to pay for his sins....and none of you will stop me from doing that"

Silver's breath was coming hard, deep and quick, "And I'll put down anyone who stops that from happening."