America was nuked, and the government has fallen. The
major cities were destroyed and many small towns were
caught in the radiation and lost all of their people.
Whole country sides turned barren, and farm yard
animals have become wild. Alot of people survived
though and the once united America, has been divided
by towns acting as countries, with their own military,
there own currency, and their own ideas. This has
caused many small-scale wars, and have created
roaming bands of mercenaries. Many towns have fallen
and it is utter chaos in most towns, due to the fact
that it never seems as if a government is never able
to hold power, in most cases, for over three weeks.
But in the small town of Mallard, located in the Ozark
mountain range in Missouri, there was peace for
several months, and it seemed to flourish under its
government.
Annie, was running a message to the mayor of Mallard.
She ran past empty side streets and full bars. She
took no notice of any distractions, even when her
friend, Budar, yelled for her to come into his house
for a drink and a card game. When Annie finally
reached the Government Building, she threw open the
doors and barged inside.
“Annie, this is a unexpected visit!” said the
secretary.
“No time to talk now ma’am, is he in his office?” The
secretary nods and motions her to go right on in to
see the mayor. When Annie opens the door to the
mayor’s office, she finds it deserted. “Now, where the
hell can James be?” She said to herself, “I need to
get him this message from the General, it is way too
important to wait!” she scream this last bit.
The secretary, hearing Annie’s voice raised comes to
the door and peaks into the office. “Oh, he isn’t
there? He must have gone home early.” The secretary
looks at the uniformed girl and notices the new
stripes on her shoulder. “Oh, so you’ve been promoted
have you? that makes you what? The Colonel?” The
secretary knew very well that the girl was promoted,
she was the person who delivered the order from the
mayor, and the leader of the army, to the General
ordering the promotion of their finest fighter and
strategist.
“Yeah, I’m the Colonel now, third in command, just
James and the General above me.” Annie said this with
a smile on her face, she joined the make-shift army
that Mallard had created shortly after the attacks.
She knew James and the General before the attacks and
when James was elected Mayor three days before the
attacks, she was going to be his chief adviser. Then
James called for the creation of a defense force, she
gave up the life of a politician for the life of
soldier. Annie flourished under the pressure that was
put upon her over the next few weeks and quickly was
put in charge of her own battalion. She fought several
skirmishes well she was leading her men, and after
pushing out all people apposed to James, and
confiscated all the farm land within 50 miles of
Mallard, she was their most decorated soldier and was
given credit for the survival of the town.
After Annie supplied us with farm, James put her in
charge of patrolling the streets of Mallard. After
getting into several firefights, all of which were
attempts on James’ life, she was promoted and given
the job of personally protecting James. Thus the
reason why she lives with him and is seldomly away
from him, but today she was called to a meeting with
the General at a outpost several miles outside of
town.
When she met with the General, she was told of her
promotion, and then the worse news possible. The news
that there has been a mutiny in the army, and a
sergeant named Nick, has convinced 500 soldiers that
he should be the true leader of Mallard and that James
deserved to die. 500 men, half of the whole army. She
was given a description of Nick, tall, skinny, blond,
and not very muscular but strong.
Annie, upon hearing this news quickly rushed back to
town to inform James of this new development, and now
thats she has found him not to be in the office she is
scared for his life. She pulls out her phone and dials
James home number. After ringing several times there
is a answer.
“Hello?”
“James are you alright?” Annie was thinking Nick had
already taken James and that she was too late.
“I’m fine, so where are you? Should i expect you home
for dinner? It’s almost done right now.”
“Ok, I’ll be right over, but James, keep your sidearm
close to hand. At least tell I’m home.”
“What?! Annie, what’s wrong?” James voice sounded very
concerned and Annie didn't respond for several
seconds.
“I’ll tell you when I'm home.”
“Fine, just hurry up and get over here before your
steak is well-done ok?”
Annie walked out of the office and traveled the mile
to James’ house, which was located on the outskirts of
the town and was isolated. As Annie walked through the
trees surrounding the house she sees a light on in the
kitchen. She decides to scout the house before
entering. When she looks through the window from a
distance she can see the tall, heavy-set, curly haired
man known as James. James is a kind enough man but has
a deadly temper. He was elected because of his
background in the military, his friendship with
everyone, and the fact that he is stable and can focus
his energy on key issues. After the attacks James
quickly decided to form a militia, as the need for the
military grew James had gotten many men and women to
join, he has created a sniper battalion and has
personally trained all 50 men in that unit. When the
fighting was brought close to town James was right in
the thick of it fighting off the attackers. All the
units James has led has come out of battle with
minimal casualties and always the victors.
Annie watched trough the window to make sure that
James was alone, but shortly after she started
watching him, she saw him set the food onto plates and
then walk out a door into the living room. Annie
assumed that he was just going to prepare for her
arrival but she heard the sound of a shotgun slide. He
had seen her and thinks she is a enemy!
Annie quickly crosses over to the building and waits
till she is sure James is outside before she makes
another move. When she does it is to take a step into
the open.
“James it is me! Annie!” She says into the darkness.
Just as she finished her sentence she was blinded by a
light and then she feels someone embracing her.
“Sheesh your advice of staying armed kept me on my
toes, then i saw the movement outside so i had to
check it out.” Said the deep but kind voice that could
only belong to James. James had turned of the light
and slung the shotgun on his back. “So, girl, will you
tell me what is going on that i need to stay armed in
my own home?” James looks into Annie’s eyes and
frowns. “Annie, i haven't seen you this shooken up
since the attacks, what’s wrong?”
“Well, umm, there was a mutiny in the army, a soldier
named Nick is leading it, he has convinced 500
soldiers that he should be the new leader of Mallard
and that you need to me killed.” When she started
talking James could hear the fear in her voice, the
fear that he might die, and then Annie seemed to grow
weak and started shaking.
James picked Annie up, gave her a kiss on the
forehead. “I’ll be all right, no one has been able to
kill me yet and some brat who thinks that i don’t have
a trick or two left wont stand a chance.” James
carried Annie into the building and set her down on
the couch, then he crossed to his stereo and selected
a Beatles CD to play, and then went and got their
food.
The next day Annie and James couldn’t find any clue
where Nick was hiding, but everyone knew one thing, he
was wanting James’ head and had put a price on it.
Most people were scared that if James had left office,
that their enemies would come in and sweep them all
out.
Annie and James argued throughout the day on whether
or not he should go into hiding. Currently they are
walking home and are still talking about James hiding.
“What type of leader would i be if i hid and let
someone else do my work?” James desired to either go
back to the office or go on the hunt for Nick himself.
“You’d be an alive leader thats what you would be!”
Annie had argued back.
“And when have you ever known me not to be alive?”
James purposely made the joke to get a smile to appear
on Annie’s lovely face.
“Don’t joke, this is serious! he means to kill you!”
“Annie, you know I'm always serious and i am serious
about not hiding, now either you agree to protect me
or you are officially going to be assigned to another
duty.”
James knew this was a empty threat, he would never
send Annie from his side. He is the one who assigned
her to be his body guard, and he did it so he could
protect her.
As they were walking past a street James caught
movement out of the corner of his eye.
“Annie you continue home, i need to take care of
something for a minute, I’ll catch up later.”
As Annie continued to walk down the street James
turned around and drew his .45 automatic. He started
back towards the street and when he was five feet away
from the corner three men, armed men, came running
around the corner. As the first one saw James he
barked a order to fire. As he finished his order James
put two .45s into his head. James sidestepped and
quickly switched to the next man, who was just
leveling a shotgun at James, and when James fired, he
hit the man in the stomach, the man grabbed his
stomach and fell froward.
The third man was in position to shoot James but
hesitated, James knew he was dead and just waited for
the man to pull the trigger on his AR15, but just when
James had given up all hope there were three shots.
James watched as the man’s shirt tugged in three times
and the man fell, dead before he hit the ground. James
turned around and Annie was standing thirty yards
behind him, with a m16 in her hand.
“Don’t you ever send me away from your side again!”
Annie yelled at James, she was furious.
“Well, babe, just be happy i am alive, i thought i was
about to take a .223 to the heart and you’d no longer
have a employer.”
over the next week many of James’ subordinates had
gone missing. Annie finally convinced James to stay
home, and he appointed the General as the temporary
leader. Annie continued to stay with James in those
long days of solitude, then there was a day, two weeks
after the mutiny, that Annie had come from bed to find
James packing.
“what are you doing? Were supposed to stay here,
remember?” Annie glared at James as he shrugged and
continued to place dried and canned food into his
back-pack.
When James walked to their living room, he selected
two weapons from his gun rack, a Remington 1100
shotgun, and a 7 mm rifle. Annie continued to stare at
james in disbelief as he he poured hundreds of rounds,
per weapon, into a sack and placed it to the side.
“Well, are you at least packing for two?” Annie
finally
asked. James just looked at her an smiled.
“I was wondering when you were going to ask.” James
glanced to a second backpack that was next to the
door. “Well, I am going on a little hunting trip, most
dangerous one i have ever been on, and if you want to
come and help me bag my target then pack up, we’ll
leave in the morning.”
They spent the rest of the day packing, James supplied
with Annie with camouflage clothes and had her pick a
rifle,
she chose a bolt-action .270. James loaded another
sack with more rounds for his shotgun, several
hundreds .45s for both of their side arms, and a
variation of shot sizes for the shotgun.
The next morning they left the house, an hour before
dawn, they walked till and hour or two before night
came. they spent a few days at a good sized pond and
ate what fish James could catch with home-made poles.
After several days of living at the pond James got
down to business, he’d check for smoke every morning
and at dusk, he would scout around for any sign of the
deserting soldiers. On the fifth day James found a
camp
of theirs from a few days before, he went back to
where he left Annie to tell her.
“Annie, i think we’ve got them!” James glanced at
Annie, who is getting worn out from all their hiking.
Her pretty blonde hair laid dirty, tangled, and
ignored. Her face was smudged with mud and dirt, but
her body had a bit more muscle on it then it did
before the trip. To James, she was even more beautiful
then when she took care of herself.
Annie looked at James with eyes full of sorrow. James
knew that the only reason why she was still going was
because she wasn’t willing to leave him.
“James, do we really have to go after them? Why don’t
we just go build a cabin next to a pond miles from
here and forget about this place?”
“Well girl, don’t think i have not thought of that.
But i
can’t just leave knowing that id be running from
someone and would be considered a coward, i wouldn’t
be
able to live with myself!” James looked deep into
Annie’s eyes, and at that moment, if she suggested it
again, he would have left with her.
“How about this, Annie, after i take care of this
Nick, we will move away, ill resign my post and we
will move someplace where it can just be us.”
“Do you mean that, James? i mean you are not going to
back out on me right?” Annie knew James wouldn’t lie
to
her, but she needed it confirmed.
“Annie, i have never lied to you and i don’t expect to
now. Besides i was already thinking of resigning and
going somewhere quite with you.” James didn’t mean to
say the last part, he was planning on doing a more
formal proposal and not under these conditions.
Annie upon hearing James words hid her face in
embarrassment, James walked over to her and embraced
her. She looked up into his eyes and started crying.
“I would love that James, i really would.” She
continued to gaze into James’ eyes and he bent over
and kissed her. he quickly drew away but she grabbed
his head and brought his lips to meet hers. they
stayed in this embrace for what seemed like an
eternity, but was truly only a few minutes, then they
broke apart.
After the kiss James backed up a step, not knowing
what to do or say anymore. This is what he had wanted,
always wanted, but he didn’t want things to turn out
bad for Annie, what if he got killed? She would be
left by herself, no one to turn to if the General was
killed too. James’ eyes filled with tears at the
thought of Annie being helpless, and in pain.
“Well, umm, lets, uh, go see if we can, uh find the,
uh enemy.” James couldn’t talk he was so flustered. He
lead her back to the camp that he had found and they
tracked the crowd several miles that day, they were
heading back to town. James decided to not track them
but to see if they might be able to get ahead of them.
James and Annie didn’t speak much as they covered the
distance between the town and themselves. The trip
took them all day, and part of the night. When they
finally got close to town, and found a place to
observe the streets, James decided they would wait a
day and see what was happening in Mallard.
The next day Annie and James took turns at the
spotting scope to see if they could spot any enemies
or friends. James was taking a nap when he heard Annie
softly say his name.
“Yes, Annie?” James was tired from all the work that
he had put in the previous day, he slowly got to his
feet and walked over to where Annie was sitting.
“Well, this is bad,” Annie was crying silently to
herself, and James heard her voice quiver.
“What is?” James had a idea of what could be the thing
that would cause Annie this much distress. She didn’t
answer so James walked over to the spotting scope and
looked towards the capitol building and saw the worse
thing he expected.
The Generals body was hung from a balcony window with
the sign around his throat reading ‘This happens to
all who appose Nick’s rule.’ it was written in blood,
most likely the general’s. A closer look, with zoom,
showed that the body was hung by the throat but his
legs were severed at the knees.
James knew that he couldn’t walk freely into town
anymore, the people would fear for their lives if they
were caught anywhere near him. But James did have a
couple friends in town who he knew he could meet up
with, Kate, Kyle, and Sarah would not turn James or
Annie in even if it risked their own lives.
As dusk fell James loaded up with only gear needed for
battle, his shotgun, rifle, sidearm, combat knife and
ammunition. He had Annie prepare for the fight that
was more then likely ahead of them, and then they
crossed into the outskirts of the town together, not a
noise made. They were most of the way to Kyle’s house
when James spotted a pair of armed men patrolling the
street that Kyle and Sarah lived on. James screwed a
home made silencer onto his pistol and aimed for the
man on the lefts head. the second the other guard
realized his partner was dead he was shot by a quite
bullet to the temple. James crossed over to the
bodies, moved them into the bushes next to the road,
and then stripped them of weapons that could be of
use, including a half dozen HE grenades.
James walked over to Kyle’s door and knocked, he then
slid into the shadows to see who answered. James heard
a slide on a shotgun worked, and then a voice, Kyle’s
voice, ask who was at the door. When James replied
Kyle quickly opened the door and allowed James and
Annie inside.
Once inside James closed all the curtains and triple
checked that all doors were locked. When he was done
with this Kyle had coffee ready for him, James
accepted graciously. After briefly telling Kyle what
they were doing for the past month James was briefed
on what has been happening inside the city.
Nick had come in a week after James left and quickly
captured and imprisoned the General, after declaring
himself the new leader of Mallard, many of the
citizens approved whole heartedly and they voted to
impeach James on the grounds of cowardice, and elect
Nick. Then after the General continued to give James
up he was tortured and then hung as an example to
others. Very few people respected James anymore and
were happy with Nick’s leadership.
James was depressed, he had lost all his credibility
with the city, he lost most of his friends, he lost
his home, he lost EVERYTHING, but he still had Annie.
James looked at her, she had taken a quick shower well
James was securing the house. Her hair was combed, she
was wearing her cleanest pants, and a baggy shirt of
Kyle’s. Her face was no longer smudged with dirt, she
looked beautiful. She looked ready to drop of
exhaustion and ready to fight off the Roman empire
with only a steak knife. This was the reason James
loves her, she is prepared for anything under any
situation and she could keep her head and be
relatively cool headed.
“Well Annie, i guess we shall just be going then, but
I’m going to pay one last visit to the office and
leave Nick a present.” He tapped the grenades he had
lifted off of the guards.
James and Annie ate and spent the next day hidden in
Kyle’s bedroom. At about two-o’clock in the afternoon
Sarah came and brought them gunpowder, more grenades,
and food. She stayed and visited with Annie and
allowed James to sit in a corner by himself and plan
what he is going to do that night.
As night fell Kyle served them dinner, and gave them
clothes he had scrounged for and washed. Now James and
Annie were dressed in black, not a inch of their skin
showing, gloves, masks, Kyle had even stripped the two
men killed the night before and was able to provide
them with kevlar jackets to protect from low caliber
or low speed bullets.
James led Annie out into the night around midnight.
And they crept through the shadows over to the capital
building. James picked the lock to a back room of the
office and crept in through a window. He gave Annie a
hand through the door and they turned off the security
system that would automatically alert everyone in town
of the intruders by a series of loud, ear piercing
blasts.
Once through this obstacle they crossed into James’
old office. James drew out one of the cans of
gunpowder from his backpack and filled several large
metal balls with the explosive, these he placed spread
about the whole office space and in places such as
under the window, to try to prevent escape. He then
took out four of the impact detonated HE grenades and
set them up in places where they were bound to be
nocked from there spot, some taped to the door to
where if shut or opened to quickly they would go off,
thus igniting the powder balls and papers to destroy a
whole section of the building in seconds. Annie had
gone and placed different charges in other rooms and
offices. James made sure she exited the building then
placed a single grenade behind the bookshelf, with a
timed detonation set for 11:15 am, a time when
everyone should be in the office and it should be its
busiest. the timed grenade should send a concussion
setting off every impact grenade, destroying the whole
building and everyone in it.
James felt good with what was going to happen the next
morning and decided that he and Annie would stay in
town to watch, they walked to a church building with a
tower and James picked the lock and climbed the ladder
to the top of the tower, Annie soon followed. They
slept in the tower with James on top of the trapdoor
to make sure no priest would accidently come upon
them. The next day was bright and sunny and James sat
with his rifle out and was prepared to fight if
discovered. He had his cross hairs on Nick as he
walked in to the office building at roughly 11 o’clock
and fought the urge to end it right there without
punishing the city that he had built, and that had
betrayed him.
James was waiting for there to be a shout if Nick
discovered the planted bombs that were placed, but was
not surprised when there came no sound of alarm from
the building. As he sat there watching the watch on
his wrist, it read 11:25, Annie swore and pointed.
Nick had exited the building and was starting to walk
towards the church. they watched as he entered the
church building and looked at each other in terror as
they realized the bombs were going to go off anyways.
They looked up at precisely 11:30 am, and heard one
loud explosion quickly followed by many others and the
collapse of the whole capital building.
Then James decided he may as well complete the attack
and stood up, picked up his shotgun and rifle, slung
the latter across his back,and opened the trap door,
he descended the steps quickly and peered around the
corner into the main church building. As he looked
around the corner Nick walked up to four other men and
asked them something, they laughed and said something
in reply. All the men were armed, so James decided to
have a little fun.
James motioned for Annie to stay where she was and to
cover him if needed, James then silently as possible
crossed over to a different side of the hallway they
were in, James then went up another set of stairs and
crossed to a second story seating for the church. He
looked back down on his enemies, who were still
oblivious of his presence and laughed quietly to
himself for what he was about to do. He identified the
two exits other then on that Annie was covering and
then took out two of his three last grenades. He threw
one into each of the doorways of the church preventing
escape. All five men whipped around covering anywhere
they thought the attacks might have come from. they
took strategic positions around the church and James
chuckled to himself, it was going too easy. He looked
for the toughest looking man and decided it was time
to even the odds, he shot the man from thirty yards,
in the head, with a rifled slug form his shotgun.
James, knowing the rest of the six rounds in his gun
were 00-buck quickly took shots at two other men,
killing one, injuring the other. James then set down
the shotgun and picked up the rifle and took aim at
the final man, other then Nick, and shot him through
the heart.
“So, Nick, you still think your a better fighter then
me?” James called out to the man cowering below him.
James took a step forward to get a better look at Nick
and slipped on a empty shell, he fell forward and off
the second story, he landed on the seats below and
heard a crunch, his leg was broken.
Nick just looked at James in shock, James’ weapons,
all of them, did not fall anywhere near him, he was
defenseless. Nick stepped forward, a smile spreading
across his face, he stared coldly at James.
“Why don’t you just kill me already?” James gasped,
the pain he was in was obvious in his voice, and James
sounded as if he was trying to talk Nick into shooting
him.
“Why would I do that? I can shoot you right now and
then I wouldn’t have the ability to show off to the
Mallard community that i had captured the great
James!” Nick was sounding hysterical with happiness,
and was looking around to find a way to tie James up.
Annie was standing at her post listening to Nick, she
was amazed at how fast James had taken out the other
men, but she heard James’ weapons hit the floor on the
upper level, then the railing broke, and the sound of
James’ leg breaking was the most audible thing thing
she had ever heard. She was standing hidden, in
disbelief of what may kill the man she loved. She
listened to Nick taunt James and a cold, hard anger
went through her. She wanted to tear Nick’s head off
with her own two hands, but decided that would only
get her, and James killed.
Annie looked around the corner and saw James laying in
a weird position next to the pews, his leg
unnaturally bent, when she looked up to his face it
was twisted in agony. Nick was standing off to the
side collecting handcuffs from the dead men and walked
over to James.
When Nick lifted on of James’ arms and placed the cold
metal to his wrist, Annie stepped out from her cover.
“Stop now!” Annie’s voice was loud, and angry, she
held a colt .45 in her hand, but she didn’t have it
pointed at Nick.
Nick quickly dropped the handcuffs and dropped to the
ground, rolling behind one of the pews and drawing his
pistol at the same time.
Annie ran forward and ducked behind a pew herself.
James laid where he was praying that Annie would have
enough sense to run and save herself, she didn’t.
Nick stuck his head out from behind the cover and saw
Annie’s leg, he took aim and fired, just as Annie
withdrew the target, causing a miss. He then looked at
James, and shot him in the chest, five times. James
screamed in pain.
Annie couldn’t believe it, James was dead, how could
that happen? She leapt out from cover and ran to where
she knew the enemy to be, leaping the pew she came
down hard on Nick’s groin with both feet.
Nick knew that he had killed James, he couldn’t
believe that the woman would charge him because of it,
he was hoping it would discourage her from fighting.
When the he heard the running feet he planned on
letting her leave, but when he rolled over he saw her
just in time to know what was coming. When her feet
hit him he was in more pain then he had ever been in
his life, he felt tears roll down his face, and he
knew he was dead.
Nick groped for his pistol,, which he dropped when
Annie landed on him, finding it he lifted it up and
tried aiming at Annie through the tears in his eyes.
Annie looked down at the man below her, her weapon
aimed at his head. when the man aimed at her she was
in disbelief, she thought the man would be knocked out
by the pain. She stood in shock as she saw the man’s
finger tighten on the trigger. She fired at the same
time as his gun would have.
Annie stared down at the bloody hole that used to be
Nick’s face, she couldn’t believe she was still alive,
she bent over and pried Nick’s lifeless hand off of
the pistol and dropped the clip, it held three .45’s,
she slid the slide on the pistol, and it ejected a
round, it had a dent where the firing pin hit the
bullet, her life was spared by a dud round.
Annie cried as she walked over to the body of James,
she bent down and hugged his body. When she neared his
face she felt his breath, HE WAS ALiVE!
She felt his chest and then remembered the kevlar he
was wearing under his shirt, she ripped off his shirt
and saw that the kevlar had stopped not five, but
seven bullets.
He was regaining consciousness and hugged Annie when
he realized who was standing over him.
“I told you I would never leave you, and that is still
true.” James’ voice was weak and Annie was sure that
the impact of the bullets had broken his ribs, and
maybe even had collapsed his chest.
Several days later, James felt good enough to travel
again. Kyle had fixed him up and hidden him from the
other citizens, James’ attack on the capital building
had kissed over fifty people, and nobody wanted him
around anymore. James suffered three cracked ribs from
the bullets Nick fired, Annie didn’t have a scratch on
her. When JAmes mentioned going back into the
mountains to build the cabin for them, Annie had
started packing the required gear, and all his
weapons. Kyle had secured several horses for them to
take with them, so they could cover more ground, haul
more of their possessions.
The two of them left Mallard for the last time and
traveled North, that was the last anybody had ever
heard of them.
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