by Adrian Popa
"Well this does sound like a problem, but if the drugs been dealt, what can I do, kill everyone who's taken it?"
This development is way too out of blue for me. "Nah, you're not the type of person to be committing Genocide Adam, the Jollows can handle this, for now, you have to deal with the drug dealers." Eh, this may become interesting.
"Yea I think I can do this, Maple street right, if it's just a bunch of drug dealers then I think I've got this, they may even have a nice payload."
Zombies or no zombies, if I can earn money ill screw the world for all its worth, besides this sounds like fun, not like I got anything better to do, heck, if these guys gonna screw around with Courtlyn, I can't just ignore em. Time to deal some justice. I leave Max's store and head for my apartment to grab some things, and wait till its night.
Well it's about time for a bunch of shady drug dealers to deal some even shadier drugs. I head to Maple Street, navigating using the roofs. Well looks like I'm here. Now where are they? I scout the area and finally catch the glimpse of a bunch of guys heading to a back alley. A ladder connects them with the roof of a building, there are also two escape routes, one leading to the sewers and one leading to inside of the building. I grapple my way to situate myself on top of their escape building. I'll use this as a vantage point. If I startle them here than there bound to escape back to their base, I'll earn my payload that way. I take out my detector and shoot at the dealer in the middle. There's four of em, each wearing a hooded black robe. I make sure to aim at the back of his head. These things can sting, but it won't kill him, I'm sure that's enough to get him startled. The middle dealer begins scratching his head, not aware of what happened. Huh, looks like that wasn't enough. I take out my Blue bird, and steady my aim. Just as I'm about to pull the trigger I hear a voice behind me.
"Hey, going out late are we?"
I turn around to see who was behind me, but more precisely who could have snuck behind me. I could only think of one person. And I was right.
"What brings you here, Rat"
Rat, the best informant in the city, he knew everything, he was everywhere, and that's where his name derived from, hidden in the shadows and blending in, no one knows where he is at any given time unless he shows up in front of you. He has a 90 percent label on him, something most informants can't do, and he has a fair price as well. No one knows his real name, and he once said that if he were to disclose that, then he would have to kill everyone in the crime business. No one would dare challenge him, despite his thin build and friendly face he knows how to kill. And rumors about him taking out the Bellows gang sends chills down my spine, of course no one talks about that anymore; talking behind an informant's back is a taboo in Courtlyn. I thought he must have been pretty bored if he has time to make an appearance.
"I'm sure you aren't out to see the stars Rat"
"Of course not, I'm here on the scoop with a new name in the streets, Adam Hennings, an aspiring hitman, out on the job stopping the zombie drug dealers"
"Well you could always do that without coming to me upfront"
"Well I've got some interesting information to tell you, that is if you're willing to pay"
No thanks, not like I need to know anything right now, "Sorry, maybe some other time".
"Understandable, but it will make your job here a little easier"
Well, I could have always called up Rat and asked the whereabouts about their hideout, but then I could save on information fees if I figure it out myself.
"I'm fine really"
"Suit yourself"
And with that Rat leaves in the cloak of darkness, no one knows where he runs off to. I once again steady my aim and shoot at the ground near one of the dealers. They notice and look up, only to see that their escape route is occupied. Now which is it, sewers, or building. They make a run for it out of the dark alley. Man how lame. I wait till I see a stopped reading. Oh, looks like they aren't very far, their hideout is in an abandoned hardware store. I follow suit and head there.
Well, this is a little troubling, the roof of this thing is completely destroyed, and this place is more like ruins than abandoned. How the hell is this the hideout. Jeez , I take out my heat scanner, a device with a simple handle and a rectangular screen to show readings of anything warm-blooded. I take a quick scan of the building, there's no one there, they pulled a fast one of me, must have ditched the cloaks in there and ran for it, the detector only did attach to their cloaks. Crap, now what.
"Well, looks like you're in a bit of a rut"
I turn around to face Rat. "Fine, I'll give in, here's your money, where the hell are they?".
"Ah, that's more like it, they are at an abandoned building in Spruce Avenue, better get their quick"
"Spruce huh there's only one abandoned building there, alright thanks".
I leave and head to Spruce. The streets are quiet, but I'm gonna raise hell to it once I find these guys.
I reach the abandoned building, this is more like it. Six floors of mystery, looks like I'm gonna have to blast through them all. I grapple my way to the sixth floor and break in through a window. I work my way down checking rooms and descending floors. Finally on the second floor I hear some chatter going on at the end of the hallway. Bingo, I walk slowly making sure I don't leave any sounds with my footsteps. As I near the room, I draw Blue bird and Vendetta and have them at ready. Instead of a nice warm welcome, I decide to give them a nice explosion. I take out a grenade and pull off its safety and throw it in front of the door while I enter another room. I hear the panic of the four dealers as they scramble to get their guns. Two of them pass by the room I'm in, one is checking nearby rooms and the other is guarding the halls. I wait, and when I hear the footsteps of the one checking rooms fade, I quickly open the door to my room, and using the cover of the wall I fire towards the guard in the hall. I hit him and he goes down, I then run towards the open door and take cover beside the entrance, having my whole body, flat on the wall's surface. I concentrate, and then I fire inside of the room with my Vendetta, making sure that I hit in any possible locations that he's hiding in, I'm not trying to hit him, I'm trying to lure him out. Once I stop firing, I hear footsteps coming towards the door, he's holding a shotgun probably. As I see the barrel of his gun per through the door, I quickly push it up using my Vendetta and quickly face him with my Blue bird. He looks terrified, begging to spare his life. I laugh, and then fire, blood splatters wildly and he falls back leaving a nice echo throughout the hallways. He did have a shotgun. I put my Blue bird and Vendetta back in their holsters and take his shotgun, looks like I can use this. I hear one of his two remaining friends racing up the stairs. I take the spare shells my little dead friend had and began walking towards the stairs, shotgun at ready. As I see the shadow of the dealer I fire one round. Ineffective of course, but at least he should know that I'm here. He stops and I hear panic in his breathing and steps. Well let's make this interesting. As I approach the stairs, I sense him there, gun at hand. I peer out slightly, and a bullet misses me by a few centimeters. I take a few steps away from the entrance and then with one motion I tumble forward through the stairs, dodging all the bullets he fires. I make a clean recovery and see him on the steps of the second set of stairs, scared. I make no hesitation in my movements, acting instantly. I charge towards him, swaying left and right while he stares at me with beady eyes, I swing my shotgun butt hard towards his head. He's still alive, I then swing it again making him fumble to his right. With one swift motion of my wrists, I get ready for my shooting position. I push the shotgun against his head and lightly tap him off of the stairs, and as he falls I fire a round into his stomach. It leaves bloodstains all over the stairs. I hear the footsteps of the last dealer. I make no effort in this one, I simply throw a hand grenade and wait, one, two, three. A huge scream rings throughout the building, mission accomplished. I rummage through their headquarters taking what they have, my business here is done, I make my way back to my base. This is a pretty nice shot
gun, guess I'll keep it as a souvenir.
Chapter 3
I walk the streets filled with the chatter of people going by. I rest my head against a tree and look up towards the sky. It was a quiet day. It's been about a week since I started my business. By now, at least half of all the gangs in Courtlyn have heard word about me, how much they care is up to them. Whether they treat me as a threat or as an ally is up to them as well, at the moment I couldn't care less what a bunch of gangs think. All I'm doing is taking heads of scum that find their way over to Courtlyn, and making profit in the process. I walk towards the old alley in Fern Street. I arrive at two buildings, a candy store to my right and a toy store to my left. And if I continue to walk in between the space it allows, a hidden door would be aligned at, right about here. I touch the surface of the brick wall with my hand and reach for my cell phone. I call a peculiar number. Just as my call comes through the camouflaged door unlocks, and is pushed slightly open. I open the door completely and take a peer inside. It looks like a normal pub from the inside. Wooden tables scatter across the floor with wooden chairs and a huge bar is situated at left side of the pub. I walk inside making sure to close the door behind me and take a seat at the bar. The good thing about this pub is that you don't really need to order anything; you can just come here and relax. I look around, its empty, I look at the bartender, he minds me no attention and simply awaits me if I have any orders at all. I spin on my chair and lean against the bar. It was a quiet day, no suspicious activities by any pests, at least according to Rat. Today was truly a rarity, a day of cease fire, nothing was going wrong, and it was too quiet to be true. Suddenly the door opened. I averted my attention to who was walking in. Speak of the devil, It was Rat, he seemed serious. Rat walked over and took a seat besides me. He had something to say, but he was gathering his words carefully. The bartender stood there quietly, Rat wasn't worried over what was going to be said, after all, the bartender was deaf. Rat spun his chair and was also leaning against the bar; he took out a slip of paper from his pocket and slid it to me. I ask "What's this?" I take the paper and open it, in big letters read "Crescent Dumont".
"Crescent Dumont?"
Rat took in a deep breath. I was confused, what did this mean?. He spoke
"Hey Adam do you know anyone by the alias John"
I thought for a second, John huh what a bland name; anyone in this city could have been named John, including aliases. Of course I didn't specifically know any Johns that would want to get Rat to send me a message, what was this about?.
"No I don't"
"Well either way, something's come up and this mysterious figure, John, has sent a message for you"
By presumption this John fellow should be a gang leader or something. I mean who else would go out of their way to pay for a message sent by Rat. But Rat didn't have the expression that this was an ordinary gang leader; this John guy was someone even Rat couldn't figure who his real name is. In that case, he's a real threat. I ask "What's up?"
"This morning, I got payment for a message to be sent to one Adam Henning, and here it is, it was straight forward, and he could of always just paid me for your contact information, but he didn't, I did a little insight and, this John guy was someone who seemingly didn't exist, of course there's hundreds of Johns here but even after trying to analyze who sent this message I couldn't get a congruent answer, this guy is either really good, or is challenging me"
Rat takes a pause to remember the incident. To send a message to Rat requires one of two things, his email or his phone number. I assume "John" sent a call to Rat requesting the job and also sent a direct mail package with the payment. But if Rat couldn't trace him from those two things, than I don't know what to think. Using an alias wasn't much help to Rat either, he could crack aliases like nothing, but this John fellow, perhaps his alias was used for the sole purpose of being generic so he couldn't be traced easily. Or perhaps he really didn't exist not, literally of course; perhaps he is a nameless shut in who's just messing with Rat. I ask Rat "What do I do with this message, Crescent Dumont what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, the only request was to give you that message and he said that if you ever need any help to not call me but to call him"
"Did he give you his phone number or something?"
"No, he didn't"
What the hell is with this guy, what kind of game is he trying to pull. "This is weird, ill figure this out somehow, thanks Rat". With that I leave for the back door out of the pub. Well, at least I can say one thing; this day has gotten a whole lot more interesting.
I sit on my bed thinking about this strange message by John. "Crescent Dumont", what could they want me to do or perhaps, what do they want me to think. Crescent, as in waxing or waning? And Dumont as in the street or from the mount?. I'll assume they mean Dumont Street. What is it growing or shrinking or something? "Crescent Dumont", perhaps they mean to symbolize the artistic way of seeing a crescent, a circle with a portion of it taken out, maybe something to do with the view of the moon on a certain day. Maybe they want me to visit Dumont when the moon is at a certain crescent point, whatever that means. And then it hit me. If I exclude the artistic crescent, than that leaves crescent as in waning or waxing, and then means that Dumont is either going to increase or decrease, again a street can't really grow in size but could they be referring to the contents of that street, more specifically are they referring to the people of that street, in which putting more people into Dumont seems unreasonable, what's the point, Dumont isn't an interesting street either way, but if it's not an interesting street than what's to stop a genocide from occurring, Dumont is going to decrease. But why would they want to kill people in Dumont, it's a neutral street; it shouldn't have anything against anyone. Unless they're doing it for fun, in that case I better intervene. But then again, this message by this John, how credible is it, and how do I even know if he's warning me about Dumont, how do I even know if this is a warning, what if it's a trap, or again, what if its him just spewing out crap. John said to contact him instead of Rat, yeah right how am I supposed to contact him. And just like that, as if waiting for that queue, my phone rang. I reached for it, unaware of what I was about to hear, and unaware of what I was about to get into.
I picked up my phone and hit the talk button, "Hello?"
"Hello, Adam Henning, are you doing well?"
"Who is this?"
"Pardon my manners; I go by the name of John"
What, John?, Is this the same John who gave me that message. "John?"
"Oh sorry, you probably don't know me, neither does Rat"
Yup he's the guy. "Are you having trouble with the code?". Asshole, now he calls me about this crap, and who the hell does this guy think he is.
"Crescent Dumont, It's a warning about a mass killing at Dumont right?"
"Very good, looks like you got it, quite easy if you ask me"
Ask you my ass. "And what do you plan to do about it, Adam?". Sure as hell gonna stop it.
"I would try to stop it"
"I see, and if you can't?". Just watch me.
"Well, if I can't, than that's, that, but if your offering me a challenge, than that's another story"
"Oh please, Adam, I would very much like it if you would not address me as if I'm an evil person"
"And why is that?"
"Because Adam, I have an important job for you to do"
"You mean protecting Dumont?"
"Not only that, this is just one of many tasks you need to do"
What the hell is this guy talking about. "Adam, I'm calling you out because I need you to accomplish some things for me, less of an experiment but more of a paying asset"
"So what, you hiring me?, if you know me than you know that I'm an independent force"
"I very well know that, but what I am offering you today, isn't optional, this is a do or die situation, you don't have any say in it".
What the hell, what does he mean I don't have any choice. "What do you
mean?"
"Well, if you refuse, than not only will you not know what will happen to you next, but neither will anyone else in Courtlyn".
Hah, he's playing tough; I'd like to see him say that to my face, trying to threaten me, little alone the entire city.
"And how do I know that what you're saying is true?"
"Well, do you really want to test me? If that's all it takes, that it would be a pleasure to show you, but, I cannot, not at this time, besides, shouldn't you be more worried about Dumont, I mean this message was to say two things, One, Dumont is going to be overrun, and two, its going to be today"
What today!?"When"
"Oh, at your favorite time of the day, when the sun is down and the moon is up, at a beautiful crescent view".
A double meaning, huh, well if it's in the hide of darkness, than it should be fine. He sounds like he's about done. "Oh and when you're done with this be sure to call me again"
"Wait, hold up, one more question"
"Very well"
"Are you the one who's going to attack Dumont".
I hear a pause in his voice, he doesn't speak for a few seconds but then he continues "Who knows". And with that he hangs up. I check my call history, his number is hidden, he calls me using a private number and expects me to call him when I'm done, what kind of idiot does he take me for. Either way, Hell is gonna be on Dumont tonight if I don't do a thing, guess I'm playing the waiting game, and then heading out.
Chapter 4
I sift in the shadow as I nervously scan the area. Whoever is going to attack isn't getting away on my watch. I had bought a sniper rifle from Max the other day, a standard one without any fancy modifications. Of course I don't head into missions without my Blue bird or Vendetta either. If this guy was planning to attack Dumont, than he either has serious firepower or is coming in with a gang. Of course at this distance and at this vantage point, either won't notice me until I fire. The question now is, what the hell is this guy planning to do. I don't think he plans to stroll his way in here with his guns and shoot everything he sees. Actually, that would be pretty fun to watch. But of course, if he is planning a genocide, than he must have something up his sleeve. I watch the entrance to the street carefully as I anticipate his arrival. I had gotten here a little earlier than I expected and camped the area. I am certain that he hasn't arrived yet. I put my eyes back on the scope and scan the area. I take a sigh and sit back. Slow day, maybe traffic, or maybe he just forgot. But of course, there is also the thought that he knew I was going to be here and was waiting for me to leave. But what are the chances of that. Other than the chance that he could of went to Rat and spilled me out. Huh, now that I think of it, that could have happened. Crap, but that would be too anticlimactic, but just as a precaution I should ask Rat. As I take out my cell phone and flip it out, it rings. Huh, what a coincidence, I was just about to call someone. Before I answer the thought struck me, wait a second this is exactly like last time, it's that John ass hole again. I look at the caller, Private. Of course, what does this guy have for me? is he going to tell me that Dumont is safe for today because my target knows I'm here or some crap. Do I even need to answer this call. I think about it for a few seconds. The call stops and than I receive a text message. I look at the message and it reads