by Will Wallner
"Wait! I think I see someone!" The military soldier shined his light again into the truck, revealing Hunter, who froze in the light beam. "Stop right there! You better have a good explanation for this!" The two soldiers pointed their military assault rifles directly at the figure who shouldn't have been there. Hunter slowly took a step forward. "I'm warning you, don't come any closer or we'll fire!"
Hunter grinned at the MAW soldiers and clenched his fist. A charge of Phthalo Blue sparked from his body like a protective force field which illuminated around him. He readied himself, like a sprinter at the starting blocks waiting for the starting pistol, then charged at the soldiers. They reacted immediately out of instinct and opened fire at Hunter, who seemed to transform into a meteor of blue energy. Their bullets couldn’t penetrate Hunter's force field and ricochet off the truck's interior. No matter how much they fired, the blue energy mass kept getting closer and closer. The soldiers had no idea what they were witnessing, and no chance to defend themselves.
Hunter charged right them like a stampeding bull. The impact was a lightning strike of exploding energy. It struck the two soldiers with such force that they left their feet and flew back towards the ground. One of the soldiers received the brunt of the force and fell unconscious immediately. The other was only stunned, and as quick as he could, painfully got back to his feet, and limped away towards his own vehicle. Hunter jumped out of the truck in pursuit. He knew he had to incapacitate the soldier before he could call for back up. As the soldier reached the safety of his armored vehicle and hid behind it, Hunter, once again, built up a powerful charge of Phthalo Blue. The soldier tried again to fire his weapon at Hunter. He had hoped that in the confusion of what just happened, perhaps they had both missed their target when they first fired. He couldn’t believe that someone possessed a 'force field like' power that could resist bullets. This time he was without doubt that his aim was perfect, but the bullets still couldn’t penetrate the Phthalo Blue.
Hunter ignored the soldier who was shooting at him and instead targeted the MAW armored vehicle he was using for cover. He charged forward again and struck the vehicle as hard as he could with all of his might. A powerful explosion of Phthalo Blue tipped the vehicle on its side, crushing the second soldier, who had been hiding behind it. The MAW soldier, who had survived the first impact, hadn't been so lucky this time. He was killed instantly. Hunter hadn’t intended for him to die, on the contrary, he really needed one of the soldiers alive for what he had planned next. All he wanted to do is was prevent their means of escape by disabling their vehicle.
Satisfied that the military vehicle would no longer be of any use, Hunter inspected the corpse of the second soldier. He was surprised by how powerful his burst of energy had been to actually knock the vehicle onto its side. A military vehicle of this size would weigh many tons. Concerned he might have screwed up his plan for getting the information he needed, Hunter went back to inspect the body of the first MAW soldier who was still unconscious from the first blast. Luckily for Hunter, the soldier was still breathing. He walked back towards Simon, who had watched all this all happen in the rear-view mirror of the truck. He sat in the driver's seat, trembling in fear.
"Simon get the rope, it's time to get the answers we came for."
The soldier woke up as freezing cold water poured directly onto the back of his head. He was so disorientated that he couldn’t figure out that he was face down in the sandy desert with his arms tied behind his back. Hunter emptied the bottle of water, then began the interrogation.
"Good, you’re awake. Now you're gonna answer my questions." Hunter stood over him with his foot pressed down on the soldier's back, driving him into the sand. The soldier could barely breathe, but Hunter made sure he had just enough air so he could speak.
"You're a dead man. The people I work for won't let you get away with this. You have no idea who you're messing with." The soldier defiantly tried to shake his body free from Hunters control. "You too, fat man, your life won’t be worth shit!" It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he was referring to Simon.
"It wasn't me, he made me do it! Please believe me, I would never betray you or the people you represent." Simon sounded as pathetic as he looked.
"Shut up, Simon!" Hunter understood that Simon only cared about saving his own skin. His focus was getting the information he needed from the MAW soldier. "Alex already told me about the people you work for, they're called Nexus, right? Now what I want to know is, where have you taken the children? What is Nexus doing with them?" Hunter applied more pressure with his foot.
"I'm not telling you shit, if I do, then I'm as good as dead. Just do yourself a favor and let me go." Hunter didn’t like that response. He reached down and picked up the soldier by his neck, lifting him off the ground and holding him up so he could look directly into his eyes.
"You don’t seem to understand. For what you've done, for what you're involved with, I have no problem killing you. But understand, I can make it very painful. It's your choice." Hunter tried to sound intimidating, but he lacked conviction behind his words. As the words left Hunter's lips, he questioned himself whether he could actually bring himself to torture someone to death. It was only the night before, when for the first time, Hunter took a life. He questioned how far he was willing to go to get what he wanted. How much pain could he inflict. Those thoughts scared him. He didn’t want to become a monster.
The months he spent living in the artist's cabin in Valley Village, surrounded by nature, had given him a deep appreciation for life. As he looked into the officer's eyes, the idea that he could kill him so easily, made him reconsider if he was doing the right thing. At what point had he taken the wrong path and lost his way? For all he knew, the person he was before he lost his memories would have been horrified at the thought of taking a life, but right now, in the present, it just seemed so easy. Then again, he could have also been a stone-cold killer. He had only his gut instincts to guide his decisions. Hunter didn’t have the luxury of exploring his philosophical beliefs. If he was ever going to stand a chance of saving Malcom and the other children, he would need to act fast, without hesitation.
"So what's it gonna be? You fear the people you work for, but you have no idea what I'm capable of. I'd rather avoid having to kill you. I value human life, but when there are so many innocent children's lives at stake, it makes killing you very easy for me. This is your last chance, tell me what I want to know, or die now."
The soldier took a moment to consider his response. In actual fact, he was taking a moment to read Hunter's body language.
"I don’t believe you. I don't think you have what it takes to kill me. I'm a soldier. I kill for a living. When I look into your eyes, I don’t see a killer." The soldier was certain Hunter couldn’t kill him.
"The truth is you’re right. I'm having a hard time deciding if I can kill you. I don’t want to be vicious, but there's something I can’t escape. I killed a lot of bad people yesterday. I've been trying to convince myself that I was justified because they were involved in terrible things. But am I qualified to make the decision of who deserves to live or die? Again, I don't know the answer, but I know one thing for certain. Even though I don't want to be a killer, when the time comes, I can. So while in your eyes I may not look like a killer, and I may hesitate until the very last moment, even during the act itself, I will kill if I believe there's no other way."
"Alright, I'll talk." The soldier could feel the sincerity in Hunter's speech. He didn’t want to die. He believed that Hunter would kill him unless he answered his questions. "We're taking them to Tiberia. There's a top-secret military base out in the desert. We deliver, drop them off and leave. That's all I know."
"Alright, now tell me who's behind all this? Tell me about Nexus." Hunter believed the soldier was telling him the truth. He released his grip from around the soldier's neck and let him stand on his own two feet. The soldier let out a short series of coughs, regaining his composure, then answe
red Hunter's question.
"As you can tell from my uniform, I'm with the MAW military, but this operation is not official MAW Corp business. It's very complicated and I honestly don’t know much. I have no idea what Nexus is, because everything we're doing is within the MAW military. It's almost like, MAW Corp is working for a separate entity that hires the MAW military to perform certain covert operations, and based off rumors I've heard, that separate entity is called Nexus, but I could be wrong... "
"Why can't you be sure?"
"I've never actually heard the name 'Nexus' used in an official capacity. My superiors at MAW make sure to never use that name, but I've overheard them let it slip a few times while they thought I wasn't listening. There's also rumors that circulate among the boys, about similar operations being carried out in different squadrons. I make sure never to reveal that I'm part of it, but some people are suspicious about this stuff going on behind our backs."
"So the people who give you your orders, your superiors, are from MAW Corp?"
"Technically yes, everything I'm doing I've been ordered to do directly from my MAW Corp superiors, but it's very apparent they are working for someone. Not everyone in MAW Corp is aware of what's going on. They make sure to only give me a very limited amount of information with each assignment. I'm sworn to secrecy, even to my other superiors. My job was just to transport the cargo from Tech City to Tiberia. I was told to keep this job completely secret from everyone else in my squadron. I only ever spoke to, or reported to one person in MAW about this operation, and only me and my partner knew about the cargo deliveries. As I said, most of the MAW Corp military has no idea about what we're doing. Or maybe they've also been given similar assignments and are keeping it secret, I don’t know. One time the person who gives me my orders let slip that he needed to report something to the General. My guess is he was referring to General Ryuu. If that's true, then this goes all the way to the top of MAW Corp."
"Alright, final question, tell me about the facility in Tiberia where you deliver the cargo. Where is it located?"
"It's run by MAW Corp personnel, but again, it’s not an official MAW Corp facility, and you won’t find any record of it at MAW. I've never been inside; I have no idea what goes on in there. I can’t tell you anything else."
"That's alright, you can take me there and I'll find the answers out for myself." Just as Hunter was about to lead the soldier back to the truck he was blinded by a bright light. A huge metallic mass smashed directly into Hunter. It was only due to his instinct that allowed him to create a partial Phthalo Blue barrier to protect his body. Without it, he would have been crushed to death. He was forcefully thrown up in the air as the object was driven right through him. When he landed on the ground, pain ran through his body. He's suffered a massive amount of damage to his torso. His partial barrier had absorbed most of the impact but hadn’t been enough to protect his body fully.
As Hunter lay on the ground, he saw the rear tail lights of the truck as it vanished into the distance against the night sky. As the fog cleared in his rattled brain, Hunter realized what had happened. He'd been so focused on getting information out of the MAW soldier that he hadn’t notice Simon had slipped away. The truck had plowed through Hunter like a freight train. He lay on the desert floor, writhing in pain, he then realized that although he had been able to protect himself, the MAW soldier hadn’t stood a chance. His body had been trampled by the truck and he most certainly was dead.
"Screw you!" Simon screamed, as he forced his foot down on the accelerator as hard as he could. He chuckled to himself, overcome with madness, at the idea that he had built up enough courage to escape Hunter.
~
"I saw him kill the second soldier after he was done interrogating him. When I saw that, I'd had enough. He tried to get me to go along with his plan, but I told him 'no way'. So, I got back in the truck and ran his ass over. He never saw me coming, haha! Simon had finished explain to Viper what happened the night before. Of course, he embellished some of the facts.
Viper tried to process everything he had heard. He let out a long sigh. There was a lot about Simon's story which didn’t make sense
"So, are you saying you left his body out in the desert after you ran him over? He started with the part that troubled him the most.
"Yeah, I got out of there as quickly as I could."
"Are you certain he's dead?"
"Yeah, of course! I hit him with the truck. There's no way he could have survived that."
"But you didn't actually check to make sure." Viper rubbed his temples. "Here's my problem Simon, this guy, whoever he is, seems to know a lot stuff which he shouldn't. I don’t know whether he heard it from Alex or from our man out in the desert, either way, I wanna know for certain that he's been taken care of." Viper couldn’t believe someone knew so much about Nexus. The fact that one of MAW Corps most precious secrets had been leaked, not just by Alex, but by the MAW soldier as well, was further evidence that General Ryuu had too few people within his inner circle who could be relied upon and trusted. If Viper had been given the task of hiring Alex, he would never have let that information slip. Unfortunately, now there was nothing that could be done to fix this obvious blunder. This was the result of MAW Corps recourses being stretched incredibly thin while they laid the foundation for their next move.
"Well uh…" Simon squirmed in his chair. "First of all, Mr. Viper, sir, I just wanna reassure you he ever heard any of that bad stuff from me." He leaned in close to Viper and whispered. "I'm talking about Nexus. But the truth is, I can’t be one hundred percent sure he's dead. I mean, the guy does have some crazy ass abilities. Maybe he could survive being run over by a truck."
"I see…in which case, the only thing left for us to do is drive out to the desert and make sure." Viper stood up and signaled to Simon that he wanted to leave right now. "Take me to where this all happened, I wanna see for myself."
4. THE VISION
In the Desert between Tech City and Tiberia, Middle Continent
Day 11 Month 4 Year 2037
The sun began to rise early. Even though its rays didn't reach Berlin on that morning, they certainly reached the harsh desert on the eastern side of Middle Continent. Somewhere between Tech City, which was located centrally on the continent, and Tiberia, which was far east, vultures circled a wounded animal, who was clinging onto the fragile existence of life. As the sun heated the sand like a furnace, this dying animal looked up to the sky.
"Where am I?"
The vast landscape was incredibly harsh terrain, comprised mostly of sand and rocks. Only dry vegetation could exist here and even those were few and far between. It was almost a miracle that even a thin wiry bush or a undernourished succulent could survive out here. Still, nature found a way for some form of life to exist in this environment. A select few creatures were granted the privilege, through evolution, to live in the desert. An outsider, however, stood no chance of survival, and would surely be consumed by this extreme environment within a very short period of time. This creature, which lay on the desert floor, wouldn’t last long, and the vultures above were ready to feast. While they circled in the air, another bird, landed on the ground, not far from the dying creature. This wasn't a vulture. It was a single crow.
"Am I alive?"
Hunter tried to muster enough strength to move his body. As consciousness returned, he started to remember what had happened last night, and although his mind was still foggy, he realized he was still in the desert and in a lot of pain. He finally opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was that damn crow, looking directly at him.
"You again."
Hunter reached with his hand to try and push the bird away, but he wasn’t close enough. The crow didn’t flinch and continued to stare with its jet-black eyes. Out of frustration, Hunter grabbed a handful of dirt and weakly threw it at the bird which tormented him. The cloud of dry dust was enough to force the crow to abandon its position, but it simply moved to another spot on t
he ground and resumed its surveillance of Hunter. This crow wasn't like the vultures in the sky. It wasn't looking to feast on Hunter's corpse, it had another purpose. Hunter could feel from his already dry mouth, that he needed to escape the unrelenting heat from the sun. He was in desperate need of water and shelter. Those two most precious commodities were virtually none existent in this place. Even Hunter's extraordinary abilities couldn’t protect him from the effects of dehydration and exposure. He was in real danger, and he knew it.
It took every ounce of his strength, but Hunter managed to crawl along the ground. Luckily for him, one of the two things he needed to survive was very close. He might even make it there before he dried up completely. As much as it sounded like a cliché, Hunter was literally crawling at a snail's pace. Every movement of his body amplified the agony he felt from his injuries, but he had to keep going. Shelter from the sun was so very close. The MAW military vehicle remained in the same position since Hunter had driven his body into it the night before. It looked heavily damaged and probably wouldn't operate, but at least it would give Hunter the lifesaving shade he needed from the sun.