I was in my element. I slid my goggles off my eyes, and pulled down my bandana exposing my teeth. It was one versus at least 23, but in the dark I had a real advantage. I moved quickly on the nearest of the men. I’d have the biggest window of opportunity in the short period before their eyes adjusted to the dark. I struck with my machete, worried the muzzle flare of my guns would reveal my position. I wanted to even the odds as much as possible before I reached that point. I slammed the machete into the first ones shoulder and it buried itself halfway through his chest. I yanked it out and moved on the next one. His eyes were wide open and bloodshot, and he was waving his gun around wildly. I swung at him, but his wild movement meant I just cut off the arm holding his pistol. He screamed and I slashed again, this time slicing his head in two horizontally.

I dove into the nearest building after that, as a few gunshots rang out in the direction of his screaming. I ignored the two still forms I saw sleeping in the dark, and dove out the nearest open window. Then I crept out to the alley and watched as the glowing lights representing the raiders swarmed like bees in a hive. About half of the men went to the bunker to determine the cause of the power outage and most of the others were just then stumbling onto their dead friends, though the leader had two men go to his side and there were a couple on the outskirts of everything, that seemed eager to wait out any potential fighting.

I chose one on the outskirts as my next target and slipped between buildings, and ruined structures toward him. I sheathed my machete, and drew my knife. When I was certain his back was turned I jumped up, pulled his head back by the hair, threw him to the ground, and slit his throat. I left him there and moved on the last one that was away from the larger groups. He was hiding behind the corner of a building. I crept behind him and slammed his head into the concrete wall he was crouched behind, dazing him, then I drove my knife into the back of his neck and kept moving.

By now there were almost a dozen men around the wires I’d cut, they were clustered together and I saw the best opportunity I’d have to really thin their numbers. I pulled out the gun I still didn’t recognize, and found a piece of cover. With the way they were clustered together, I didn’t need to be accurate. I felt the new ranks in long gun steady my hand and improve my stance subtly as I took aim. I squeezed the trigger.

The rifle dug into my arm as I fired more than twenty rounds in only a few seconds. Screams rang out as their bodies fell to pieces. The power of the gun surprised me, but I was still able to keep it steady as I mowed them down. By the time the magazine was empty, all of the glowing lights that had lit the raiders had faded to black.

I went to move and at that moment a red beam of light sliced through the cover I was behind and scorched my back. I bit back a scream and forced myself to keep moving as more red beams started cutting through the buildings around me. I ducked behind a bar. I had just a few moments to take another headcount and found that there were only seven of the marked raiders left. Four were up where the boss had been, and three were scattered, having run when I’d opened fire on their allies. Before I could think of my next move more beams of red light cut through the bar, one of them hitting my shoulder. This time I couldn’t stop myself from crying out.

Red beams slammed into me and I had to force myself to move more quickly. I ran in the only direction I thought might provide more cover. Directly under the building the shots were coming from. I watched the movement of the men from below and when they attempted to shoot down, I’d make sure their shots wouldn't hit me. Calmly moving to the side when they lined up shots. I was gritting my teeth the entire time, riddled with holes, and standing was becoming harder and harder, but I wasn’t done yet.

After a few more pot shots, two of the lights started to come down the stairs to where I was hiding. I slowly made my way behind a pillar and waited. Once they were completely in the room, I slowly peeked out, aimed my rifle and fired two more times, dropping them both. As soon as I’d made that noise a flurry of red blasts slammed through the ground wildly. I was lucky this time, as none of them hit, but the raider leader wasn’t so lucky. All of the shots they’d taken had weakened the floor he was standing on, and the building began to collapse inward.

I ducked down behind the pillar, covering my head with my hands. There was screaming, the sound of the building groaning as the floor fell in, and then silence. I pushed off the debris that had fallen on me and made my way to the fading light of the raider leader. He’d been impaled by a piece of rebar and desperately reaching for the weapon that was a few feet from him. He looked up at me with a look of pure malice. I smiled back, malice was a step up from the fear people usually looked at me with. I picked up his gun, and left him there to bleed out.

I was surprised at how light it was. It was almost like lifting nothing at all. I began aiming it at the remaining men marked in light. Because of it’s ability to cut through cover, it only took a few shots to kill the remaining raiders. After I was done with them, I dragged myself under some debris and collapsed. My breathing was heavy, and I was too hurt from the fight to move anymore. After I was certain I was hidden, I let unconsciousness take me.

…

I was surprised when I woke up. I was surprised that I woke up. The debris were still on top of me and the area sounded quiet, but I waited for a couple minutes before pushing them off. I put my hands on the spots where I knew I’d been wounded. I found holes in my clothes, but none in me. I had always been tough, but that was new.

Once I stood my vision was suddenly swallowed up by a notification. I tried to dismiss it, but it didn’t move from my eyes. I looked at it, it was highlighted in the same way the raiders had been after I’d marked them, and the text was bolder as well.

Destroy the Weapons

Destroy the bunker

All PP and Job benefits will be lost permanently if this is not completed

That brought my attention back in full. I’d never seen a message from the R.A.S. like that before and it almost brought me to a panic. I moved over to where I’d killed the raider leader’s two guards and collected their guns. Then I put them and the one I was holding all together in a small pile. I retrieved a piece of rebar that still had some concrete on the end of it, and hefted it above the guns. I hesitated. The benefits of the system were great, but those guns were incredible. They would give any group in the wasteland an incredible amount of power. Unfortunately it would also completely destroy all the progress I’d made, and cut me off from the only currency accepted everywhere. I brought down the makeshift club with all my strength. There was a flash of red light, and the concrete shattered off the edge of the rebar, but it worked, and when I looked the guns were shattered into scrap metal and circuitry.

I walked into the center of camp, in the sunlight I was able to find a couple cans of gas. I went into the bunker and began pouring out gasoline, running it from room to room. I stopped for just a moment when I saw a map. There was a bright red dot on a town named Porteau that linked up to the same roads a Porto did. I quickly made a mental note, memorizing all the city names with similar red dots. All my time as a courier had given me a good mind for maps.

The system messages filled my vision again

Destroy the Weapons

Destroy the bunker

All PP and Job benefits will be lost permanently if this is not completed

I went to the generator room and turned it off before moving out of the bunker. I lit a match and tossed it in. The place was up in flames after only a few moments. I kept focusing on the map I’d seen. The fact that the system itself wanted me to destroy the bunker meant something, and if there were more it couldn’t hurt to know where they are.

Once the bunker was a roaring blaze the notifications faded and disappeared from my attention, replaced by much more welcome ones.

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned a rank in Investigation! Here in the US we have the right to question everything, except freedom!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned ranks in Long guns! Good job exercising your 2nd amendment rights!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned ranks in Melee Weapons! From Bowie knives to Pickett’s charge, the US may have been too advanced for swords, but it’s spilled blood for freedom!

Congratulations Citizen! You have completed the investigation into the former Marshall’s death! You have earned the job of Federal Marshall!

I’d done it. I’d solved the previous marshall’s murder and killed the men who’d done it. With this job, on top of postman, I could actually do something. I could be the first deadman outside of Pott’s Field with any kind of power. I was worried about the system’s odd behavior since I’d gained the job, but the benefits the job came with were already clear from the damage I’d managed to do last night. I only wish I’d been able to earn patriot points before I’d gotten the job, I would’ve leveled multiple times.

I searched the town one last time, but it seemed to have been picked completely clean. No men had weapons left on them, and I was only able to scrounge up a handful of bullets. I was confused, until I searched the houses and realized that all the people who’d been kidnapped and enslaved were gone. They must’ve managed to free themselves and each other after I’d killed all of the raiders. Even safer settlements like Boon bred tough bastards apparently.

I left the settlement and collected my hunting rifle. The automatic gun I’d retrieved was nearly out of rounds, and would be dead weight unless I could find more. I threw it into my pack and started walking back toward Boon. As I did I repeated the names of the towns and cities I’d seen on the map. If parts of the system could be taken from me, I needed to have a fallback. If each of those dots represented something like the guns these raiders had stumbled onto, their value couldn’t be measured.