章節 4: IV. The Hunters' Guild
Dozen, or even more, hunters came crawling out of the truck. All armed to the teeth with the finest armors and weapons. Amongst them, was the leader, Lejin, a man who never parted ways with his large broad-brimmed hat. It was strapped to his head as if it were part of him. His attire was customary for his kind: the large dark brown coat, the dark open shirt, the two shotguns on his back, the dark pants, the belt full of ammo, and the brown ropers.
Lejin stood at the front, while the rest of his guild stood on guard with their weapons right behind him. He stepped forward with ease — accompanied by his second-in-command, Dara, who looked more or less menacing than the rest of the guild — looking around the place with disgust as if he had never seen the Outlands before. Lejin paid no attention to the technorunner, barely even noticed him, for the man was his target. The man began to walk backward in panic. But he wasn't going off Lejin's eyes for one second.
'Hand over the child, Ed!' Lejin shouted with a clear voice, dropping the aitches.
'Unless he hadn't eaten them yet,' Dara mumbled.
'Be optimistic, mon chou!' Lejin slurred, as he had a cigar in his mouth.
The technorunner took his chance while the guild was busy with "Ed" — or so Lejin called him — and hid behind the ruined structures that landed in the garden as a result of the impact. The weather was clear, and the desert was wide open for him. He couldn't run away just yet, otherwise, he would be an easy target for the guild. The technorunner had knowledge of this guild, he knew who Lejin was, not from the stories he would usually hear, or that he had seen him before in a tavern like many claimed they did, but because he had a run-in with one of his people. And he knew very well that Lejin was a force not to be trifled with.
Ed, the man, backed away with every step Lejin took forward. Until Lejin stopped in his tracks, and so did Ed, like a machine following orders.
'I… I… I ain't handing ya shit!' Ed bellowed.
'Ed, please! No need for dramatics,' Lejin lit his cigar, 'Dara, secure the area. You're a killer, I'm a killer—'
'A hired gun!'
'Nuh, don't interrupt me!' Lejin opened his arms as if he was wrapping them in a hug, 'The point is, we're all killers here. So let's not resort to violence — I apologize for your hut or rather what remains of it. So how about… parley. I'm sure it can greatly benefit both of us. The child won't wipe your record clean… A bargain with me however…, just state whatever your heart desires, and I will abide. As long as you hand over the child.'
Negotiation went on, even though it seemed to be going nowhere with someone as stubborn as Ed. The technorunner moved away from the ruins he hid in. Lejin and the guild were too busy with Ed, but not Dara — Lejin's second-in-command. She began to sweep the area, searching for anyone nearby, or in this case, looking for the corpse of the technorunner. The guild did spot him when they were driving, they didn't care whether he was a bounty hunter like themselves, an accomplice, or an innocent bystander, and aimed to run him over to have Ed all for themselves. Now, Dara was making sure he was dead.
If only there was a stealth camo suit the technorunner could use, hiding might have been smoother. All he had was the temperature-controlled body bag. It aided him before, but not now. He held his magnum gun up straight, finger on the trigger, ready for any surprises. Though, it wasn't the magnum gun that would save him, since he carried a smog grenade with him. Using it was the only solution if things ever went south, and then he would flee to the abandoned town, where he can run among the ruins to hide his presence.
Fate, however, had other plans for the technorunner.
Before he can even enact his first step, something latched onto his shoulder and pinned him against the ground. The only thing that faced the technorunner's eyes was the ray of sunlight, covered by a large silhouette, and the barrel of a shotgun. His magnum gun dropped out of reach, and his shotgun was strapped to his back, which was facing the ground.
Upon closer inspection, light came to the silhouette, turning it into the physique of a woman. It was Dara, one of the guild members. In a strange manner, she looked more and less dangerous from others at the same time. Perhaps it was because of her face, which had that elegant feel to it, yet it was roughed up from all the guild work. And then the moment of realization came to both of them, her dark eyes matched with his blue eyes, and both locked for a good minute.
'You're…,' Dara was shocked at what she was seeing, she turned her shotgun away from the technorunner's sight. Even though the mask covered most of his face, except for his eyes and his dark long hair, Dara knew who this technorunner was, she knew his identity.
The technorunner did not know how to react as well. One solution he and Dara both came to agree on was that they can't kill each other.
'Darling!' Lejin called out to Dara.
It seemed the matter with Ed was still not over yet, but Dara's rush to capture the technorunner was highly noticeable, that it grabbed the attention of Lejin. Although, now that Dara had figured out who the technorunner was, she didn't want him captured. The technorunner's fate was left in Dara's hands.
For a moment, Dara hesitated on what to do, which was something the "Red Thorn" of the Broken Jackals guild never did. There was a reason she was Lejin's right hand. Personal matters be damned, she thought, as she held the technorunner up for all eyes to see. She wrapped his hands in cuffs and marched towards Lejin with the technorunner as her prisoner.
'Well, what do we have here?' Lejin was surprised.
'I found him skulking around in the ruins!' Dara pushed the technorunner as if to throw him off as a prisoner to Lejin.
'I thought we had him run over,' Lejin expressed his dismay, 'Did you search him well?'
'Yes!' Dara threw his weapons on the ground.
Lejin chuckled, 'You're well-equipped! Strange for a technorunner, don't you think?' He aimed his gun at Ed, to not let him escape, as he focused on the technorunner, 'What is your affiliation with this man?'
The technorunner didn't speak.
'So you don't like to talk, I see…' Without warning, Lejin punched the technorunner in the stomach, 'Take off his mask!' He commanded Dara.
However, Dara was not so sure about obeying Lejin's rules, it was the first time for her to ever think about doubting Lejin's words. Lejin was not a man of patience, and he definitely did not like to be defied.
'Are you deaf? I said take off his mask!'
Dara finally listened to Lejin's words. But before she can do anything, the technorunner pushed her aside and dropped his smog grenade.
*BANG*
It was a smog grenade, but it was a grenade nonetheless, and grenades had a strong impact upon being fired. The impact sent everyone around to the hills, blinding their vision temporarily. There was a great silence that filled the place. It remained for a few moments before nothing could be heard except for the sounds of shotfire. The guild was at its limit. Lejin was nowhere to be seen, but his screams could be heard. Whatever happened to him, it wasn't good by all means.
Dara was fully awake and aware of her surroundings, but instead of rushing to help Lejin, she helped the technorunner get back on his feet. She grabbed his cuffs and cut them open, freeing him, before giving him back all of his weapons.
'Why are you helping me?' The technorunner was shocked, 'We've only—'
'I… I-I don't have time to explain,' Dara blurted, 'Meet me at the Aime-moi Inn!'
'Wait?! What?'
Dara handed the technorunner a chip and pushed him away.
With no clear indication of what was going on, the technorunner fled the scene, but shotfire was everywhere. He had to take cover to avoid getting hit. Those hunters were either firing with a fog sensor, or they were simply firing for the sake of firing, the latter seemed likely — they were barbaric in their actions after all.
The technorunner placed both his guns in his holsters and held his shotgun in a defensive position. Although the vision was a bit blurry from all the smoke, the technorunner could see Ed, the man that brought him all that trouble, running away in panic, making himself an easy target for the hunters.
That idiot! The technorunner thought.
Something — whether it was his consciousness or something else — was telling him to help Ed. Both their lives were at stake, the technorunner could hold his own, and despite Ed's barbaric attitude, there was no way in hell he could survive.
The technorunner jumped quickly out of cover. He kept firing back in the opposite direction of the fire until he reached Ed, and tackled him to take cover. It was unbelievable how the tables have turned. A few moments ago, the technorunner was afraid to kill a beast who wanted to kill him. Now, that beast was cowardly running away from an army of hunters, taking shelter with the technorunner.
'Why are ya—' Ed muttered.
'You want to die?' The technorunner said as he was reloading his shotgun.
Ed shook his head in fear.
'Then get up and help me!'
The technorunner aimed back at where the shotfire was coming from, but he could barely see a thing. Dara had told me to get away from this place as fast as possible, but that seemed unlikely. The smog was going to fade away in a couple of minutes, and the hunters didn't seem like they would stop any time soon.
Out of nowhere, an arrow struck Ed in the shoulder. He screamed and fell to the ground. The technorunner was surprised by that attack. There were archers that could be seen with their lights on top of the track, shooting arrows in unison. The situation was getting by the second, the hunters had the upper hand from the start. If the technorunner had ignored saving Ed, the one who caused all this trouble for him in the first place, he would have been on his way a long time ago. But what could the technorunner do, it wasn't in him to do such a thing, even to a killer.
He grabbed Ed, and held him still, before pulling the arrow out of Ed's shoulder, which sent him screaming once more. A strange liquid was on the arrow, it wasn't Ed's blood — it wasn't blood at all — the liquid was of green color, if anything from what the technorunner learned about alchemy, that arrow was poisonous. In other words, Ed had been poisoned.
With no other solution at hand, the technorunner grabbed Ed and ran away to find another cover. The archers were still targeting them, however. To avoid him from getting hit again, the technorunner threw Ed under the ruins to cover him. Instead, an arrow scraped the technorunner's leg, slightly injuring him. He made it to the cover and rolled up his pants to see his injured leg. It wasn't anything major, and the technorunner didn't feel too much pain, but if this poison worked like any other poison, then its effect on him was already coming into play.
Dammit!
Hope was slipping away. The only thing that could head the technorunner's wish to escape was a miracle. The technorunner sat quietly, giving up entirely on shooting back on the hunters. Ed lied beside him, holding his hand against his injured shoulder. Both of them needed emergency aid, but that sort of thing didn't exist in the Outlands. You get poisoned, you are done for. You face death, you die. Death is inescapable in the Outlands, it was why the dead plane inhabited it.
The Dead! An idea came to the technorunner.
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