The Protagonist System

I didn't have to wait long before Jenkins showed up and opened the door of the community centre for the last guard. Since he always did that, the guard didn't ask him why he let him go in first and didn't notice that Jenkins didn't follow him inside.

“Everything's all locked down, boss.” The guard said and stopped walking in front of the leader of the resistance cell and Marius.

I hopped up from my box and cocked my shotgun, which was completely unnecessary unless I wanted to get the three men's attention, which I did. The leader whirled around to face me and he and the guard drew their guns from their holsters as I fired. With them so close, the single shot clipped both of their arms and they both yelled in pain and dropped their guns without getting a shot off.

“How dare you come here and terrify these good people.” I said and walked over to them and swung the butt of the shotgun into Marius' shocked face. His nose crunched and he dropped to the floor, screaming in pain. I slung the shotgun as my Bowie knife sliced through the last guard's throat.

“I assume you're the reason I'm here.” The leader of the resistance cell said and his hand was clamped onto his arm wound to stem the bleeding. “Eli Williams.”

I nodded and pretended to sheath the knife behind my back as I stored it into inventory. I whistled twice and Jenkins came inside with a smile on his face at the 'all clear' signal. Funnily enough, everyone inside the community centre started talking at the signal and it was like a dull roar after all the silence.

The leader looked back into the room and didn't see any of his men trying to keep the people quiet. “What happened to my men?”

“Dead.” I said and didn't say anything else or elaborated.

The leader gave me a searching look and then his eye twitched. “The work crew should have heard that gunshot and rushed in here by now.”

“What work crew?” I asked with a crooked smile.

“Fuck.” The leader said and several emotions played across his face. “Academy trained?”

“Six years between that and the Fireflies.” I admitted.

The leader's face seemed to drain of color and he looked pale. “SpecOps?”

I didn't say anything and let him think what he wanted.

The leader closed his eyes briefly and then opened them to lock eyes with me. “They're never going to stop coming for you, even if they find out what happened here.”

“Who are you talking about?” Jenkins asked.

“Everyone, Jenkins. Both the FEDRA troops and the resistance. They all want my knowledge on how to make a working long distance communications network for themselves.” I clarified and the leader nodded.

“Fuck.” Jenkins said and I agreed with him.

“I won't be able to come back here after we clean this place up and remove all the evidence.” I said and he nodded.

The leader's eyes widened as he stared at me. “Wait, I thought you let me live to let me go and I could warn the others.”

I had to smile at that reasoning. “Like the judges said to me at my trial, your own words have condemned you to be judged harshly.”

Janine and a large group of people stepped out of the main room to glare at him.

“Fuck.” The leader said as the crowd rushed around Janine and tackled him before beating the hell out of him.

“Haul him and Marius into the main room for their fair trials and then executions.” Janine said and both men were grabbed by their arms and unceremoniously dragged away.

“I love you so much.” Jenkins said and hugged and kissed her.

Janine blushed for a moment and looked at me. “Where did you hide the other bodies?”

“Two of them are tucked against the wall behind the bookshelf near the reading nook and the other two are on the other side of the room behind the last table.” I said and cancelled the concealing spells. “You can't miss them, now that everyone's not distracted by the hostage situation.”

Janine gave me a look that I hadn't seen from her before. Admiration. “You used their own tactic against them!”

I nodded. “They were keeping the tension ramped up so high that I easily moved around without anyone noticing me until I touched them. By then, it was much too late for them to do anything about it.”

Janine's admiration was briefly replaced by regret and then she smiled to cover it up. I still saw it, though. When I thought about our interaction, I realized she wouldn't have minded if I had taken advantage of the situation and copped a quick feel from her.

“Then I'm even more grateful they kept a tight watch on everyone.” Jenkins said and motioned for me to follow them. “These trials should be quick.”

I shook my head. “I have to head out to the last stop we made before coming here. Sandra and Tammy will be worried that I've been out of contact for so long.”

“You can just use the CB to...” Janine started to say.

“They tore it apart.” I interrupted her and she looked horrified. “There's only a half ruined metal tower left.”

“N-n-no.” Janine whispered and hugged Jenkins tightly.

“We can't repair it, either.” Jenkins said, understanding the problem before Janine did. “Whoever shows up after this, needs to see that the tower's been wrecked and we don't have what they're looking for.”

Janine started crying and he led her inside the main room.

I left the building and gathered up the ward stones after ending the illusion of the work crew. With that done, I ran over to the main gate and used my temporary door trick to pass through it without hassle. My feet didn't slow down as I left the town at a fast run and it was still going to take me a while to get within range of the normal walkie-talkies.

An hour later, my walkie-talkie came to life with Sandra's panicked voice asking for anyone to tell her what was going on. I held in my sigh and double clicked my walkie-talkie, cutting her off with the signal that I wanted to talk, then I waited for a few seconds.

“I'm listening, over.” Sandra said.

“It's me, Eli. Over.” I responded.

“What happened after we left?” Sandra asked, sternly. “And don't think I'm going to forget to yell at you later for sending us away. Over.”

I wasn't worried about that and told her a condensed version of what happened. I skimmed over the details that would give away my powers and ended the story with the leader and Marius being taken into custody for an immediate trial. There was silence on the radio for almost a full minute as they digested that.

“We're on our way to you now.” Sandra finally said. “Over and out.”

“Roger that. Over and out.” I answered and hug the walkie-talkie back onto my belt. I didn't have to wait long as the horses easily found their way to me and came to a stop.

Sandra had a normal look on her face and motioned to Hermes. I looked at Tammy's face and it was like it was made of stone. I didn't sigh, even thought I wanted to, and climbed up onto the saddle behind her to hug her from behind. I didn't whisper any words of encouragement or reassurance, because I knew they wouldn't be accepted.

Tammy set Hermes to a fast trot and Sandra did the same to Aphrodite. The hour of jogging I did was traversed in only 15 minutes and the town's gate was wide open with no one on guard, which was a bad sign. We trotted right in and there were a few people milling around with sad looks on their faces.

The community centre still had a lot of people inside when we arrived there and I hopped off of Hermes and took the reins from Tammy to wrap them over the horse rail. I helped Tammy down as Sandra tied Aphrodite next to Hermes and she met us at the building's open doors.

“Guilty on all counts.” A woman's voice said and the sound of knuckles rapped on a desk. “You are hereby unanimously sentenced to hang until you are dead. Take the condemned into custody and carry the sentence out immediately. Court adjourned.”

Tammy gasped and ran inside to see Marius and the resistance cell's leader being hogtied, her eyes full of tears. She didn't bother asking him why he would betray everyone to get back at her for throwing him away, because he had reacted in the way he did since he knew it would hurt her the most to have the people of the town suffer.

Jenkins and Janine came over to us and held Tammy back from attacking the men holding Marius and they didn't have to. Tammy wasn't going to try and have him released, not after what he had done. She still loved him, though.

We followed the men out to the side of the building and it was poetic justice that both men were strung up on the ruined communications tower and were hug there by the neck until they died. Tammy clung to me and Sandra and cried the entire time. Rather than cut them down and burn the bodies, they were left there as proof to anyone else that showed up as what happens to raiders and traitors.

“They took the walkie-talkies, the extra food you gave us, and a good portion of our built up stock of alcohol and meat.” Janine told us as the hangmen went back inside the community centre. “Along with Tammy's truck.”

“Bastards.” Tammy cursed. “We'll have to check over the truck they left to see if it can be used instead.”

“It can't.” Jenkins said and Tammy glared at him. “It's almost out of fuel and won't get far. The resistance was going to bring more when they came back for their comrades next week.”

Tammy sighed and turned away from him to look at me. “Eli...”

“If you want to make a statement, hang the rest of the bodies on the walls around the gate. That should put them in clear sight of the road and it should make the fireflies nervous about approaching here.” I told her.

“Until they leave and come back with reinforcements.” Sandra said. “I don't think escalation is the solution.”

“My first thought to remove all evidence won't work if this is left up as a display.” I said and waved at the tower used as a gallows. “Cell leaders are usually recognized by most of the members on sight, so they know who to report to when in certain areas.”

“We can't leave the town open and undefended like this and we can't cut it off by attacking everyone that comes here.” Tammy grumbled. “We need the traders and the patrols to keep the town afloat.”

“Which we are going to struggle with, thanks to the resistance taking everything they could pack into your truck.” Jenkins said and hugged his wife.

“Our resources are down that far?” Tammy asked.

“Bare bones.” Janine said and earned into her husband's embrace. “I also heard a few people saying they might pack up and head off on their own while the winter keeps the infected at bay.”

“Dammit.” Tammy said and started pacing. “We can't lose more people! We're already struggling with keeping the place running smoothly as it is.”

“The Hendersons are thinking of staying out after they do their little cattle run in the spring. If they take their ranch hands and their other animals along, we're kind of fucked.” Jenkins said and I gave him a questioning look. “They do the majority of our meat and milk production. Without them...”

“It's just a waiting game as the rest of the town withers and dies.” I said and Tammy looked devastated. “There's not enough time between now and then to have new cattle birthed, assuming they let you breed replacements and didn't keep them for themselves.”

“Any small group trying to survive would kill to have them set up shop nearby.” Janine added and tried to not look over at the bodies. “A constant source of fresh food is a rare commodity everywhere else.”

Tammy thought about that and nodded, a determined look on her face. “I need to go talk to Hank. I'm sure I can convince...”

“He's not going to listen to you.” Jenkins interrupted her.

“Excuse me?” Tammy asked, surprised.

“A lot of people know you're not at fault for things.” Janine said and looked right at me. “But, ever since a certain someone showed up here, things have been falling apart. The more they visit, the more things are breaking down.” She looked from me to Tammy. “You're caught up in it all and your word alone doesn't hold the weight it used to.”

“They don't trust your judgment anymore.” I said, understanding what was really being said.

“Wh-what?” Tammy asked, even more surprised.

“Even though your choices have always benefited the town, even the bad choices you had to make, your personal life affects how people see you. Since you sided with me, an outsider, against Marius, an accepted member of the town...” I let my voice trail off.

“Fuck.” Tammy said and the devastated look was back on her face.

“Yeah, I'm not sure what we can do to fix this.” I admitted and the four of them looked at me. “I can stay and help defend the town, only that will make things worse, both inside with the townspeople and outside with the fireflies and the feds. The only answer to violence is more violence.”

Jenkins and Tammy nodded.

“If you leave, those groups are coming here anyway. If anyone resists, for any reason, you know what's going to happen.” Jenkins reminded us. They had just gone through being through a siege and none of them wanted a repeat of that.

“Why can't they just leave us alone?” Tammy asked, her voice strained. It was the only thing she wanted and no matter where she went, she never got it.

I stepped close and hugged her to try and reassure her without saying anything. Tammy ducked her head down to rest it on my shoulder and started crying. Sandra rubbed her back and we stayed there for several minutes and no one said anything.

“Fuck it, let's just go.” Jenkins suddenly said.

“What?” Janine, Sandra, and Tammy asked at the same time.

“Rather than worry about what's going to happen to everyone else, because of everyone else's stupid decisions, let's just grab our things and run without looking back.” Jenkins explained. “By the time anyone realizes we're gone, it'll be too late for them to do anything about it.”

“You... want to abandon...” Tammy started to say.

“No, no. We're not abandoning anything. This place is falling apart as we speak. If we don't leave soon, we'll be dragged down with it when it falls.” Jenkins said, making too much sense. “I sure as hell don't want to be here when the next resistance or FEDRA patrol rolls through and there's no extra food or liquor to feed them.”

“That... is a surprisingly good point.” Janine said and gave Jenkins a significantly pointed look. “You'll need to steal a couple of strong horses and...”

“Any horses will do.” I said and cut her off. “I'll start treating them like I did with Hermes as soon as we're out of sight of the town. Just pack up your stuff as quickly as you can and meet us in front of Tammy's place in half an hour.”

Jenkins patted my shoulder and nodded. “We'll be there.”

“If anyone asks, we're just clearing out some old junk.” I told them and they left at a fast walk as I led Tammy and Sandra to Tammy's house with our two horses following us.

Thus began our hasty packing and retreat mission. The horses would be loaded up with several trunks and duffle bags, that I would discreetly lighten with featherweight spells, and we would be long gone before anyone even realized we had left.