Chapter 12

Consequences

A bit over a week had passed since Gibbot’s death. Ever since the news broke out, the town had gone eerily quiet, with people doing everything they could to stay inside. Only few police officers were brave enough to walk the streets in search of Gibbot’s killer.

The reason for the tense atmosphere was obvious to everyone. Due to Gibbot’s death, there was now a power vacuum in the area that a lot of big shots wanted to fill. At the moment, no one was making a move, as they all wanted to wait for someone else to make a first move. This was due to the fact that no one had made an official declaration in regards to Gibbot’s assassination. If someone were to step up in order to fill the dead goblin’s place, they would become an obvious suspect.

As one might have guessed, a large scale manhunt was conducted in order to find Gibbot’s killer. Despite their best efforts, no one had been able to find even a clue to Erin’s whereabouts. Thanks to her knowing about all the perfect hiding places Ryan had left behind, she could easily stay hidden up to months. Not only that, but the only ones who really had any idea what she looked like were the surviving personal guards of Gibbot. After their employer had died, they had fled the town out of fear. Not only were there quite a few people in town that wanted nothing but to take personal revenge against them, but there was also a fear of punishment from Gibbot’s own higher-ups. With their future prospects looking grim, they had decided to try their chances at simply running away.

None of this really mattered to Erin, however, as she was holed up in one of Ryan’s safe houses. The redheaded assassin had hoped to bring a better future for the town or at least improve the lives of the citizens a bit, Unfortunately, it seemed like her actions had the opposite effect, as the town was now far worse than when she had arrived. Not to mention, she couldn’t help but feel like things were about to get even worse.

“I suppose it doesn’t even matter who gets to be in charge. In the end, another scumbag will take Gibbot’s place,” Erin muttered to herself, as she watched the dead streets from the window of her safe house. “Honestly, why did I even bother trying?”

The redhead’s sad thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she heard the sound of engines from the distant. At firs, she thought that it was just a few gangsters using the chance of empty streets to drive around wildly, but then the sound only got way louder and closer. Soon it sounded like a thunderstorm of motors, as a small army of vehicles made their way through the streets.

Erin looked down from her window to see the chaos that had suddenly erupted. She had imagined that the people making their way to the middle of the town square were just members of some criminal group, but one look at the people driving told a different story. All the people in the vehicles were wearing a uniform that consisted of a bright red jacket, dark brown pants and black combat boots. The clothes had armor covering them in several places, enough to let the wearer move around while providing protection. They also wore helmets that had red visor to shield their eyes, and despite the race of the person wearing them, the helmets had been modified to fit them.

The vehicles themselves looked like they were from a post-apocalyptic movie, as they looked like old muscle cars and other similar vehicles that had at some point been abandoned. But while the cars looked old and dusty, the engines spoke a different tune. The Western Continent in the Five Realms game had been designed as a post-apocalyptic badlands type of area, so the vehicles were made to look the part as well. Yet they were not junk that would lose to more advanced-looking cars and such, as the mechanics had made these metal steeds powerful enough to compete with such contraptions.

However, there was one thing about this group that made Erin’s face turn pale. On different parts of the cars, she could see Gibbot’s former guards tied on them. The guards also looked beaten and bloodied, a clear sign of torture.

All of the soldiers seemed to be heading towards the center of the town, where the town square was. A lot of the residents in the town were staring out of their windows, wondering what was happening. As the soldiers were starting to finish gathering and were turning off their engines, some of the people began to get out of their homes, hoping to find out what was going on.

Erin herself had a bad feeling about this, so she put on her mask and draped a cloak over herself, hoping to hide her identity. Considering some of the things that had happened not too long ago, there was no way this was a friendly visit. The redhead got out of the safe house from an exit that wasn’t all that visible, before making her way to the town square using the alleyways to hide herself.

It took some time, but Erin was able to get close to the town square without drawing much attention to herself. She had climbed up on the roof of one of the nearby buildings to get a better view as well, thus allowing her to keep herself safe in case things turned ugly.

The area was bursting with people. A small army of soldiers was gathered in the middle with their hands on all types of weapons at the ready. Surrounding the soldiers was a sea of the town’s residents, which was made of civilians, police officers and even some members of criminal groups. All of them wondering what was going on.

Next to the statue of Devin’s group was a large truck that had a trailer behind it. The trailer suddenly started to open up and changed into what looked like a stage. A single man then walked to the stage and turned to look over the crowd that had gathered around. The man looked like he was either in his late 20’s or early 30’s and was wearing a red uniform similar to the outfit the soldiers were wearing, except his was of obvious higher rank. This was made evident by the lack of armor and the medals hanging from his chest. He had slick hair and a short beard, and glasses over his eyes.

This man hadn’t even spoken a single word yet, but Erin could already tell that he was someone that she needed to be vary of. There was just something about him that oozed maliciousness, like a venomous snake ready to strike when you least expected it. The redhead knew that this was the type of man that would use any dirty trick to put himself in favorable positions just for his own sake, like a parasite feeding from a host. and he wouldn’t care if he had to betray friends or family to do so. A truly disgusting being if you were to ever encounter one.

“I am general Milas Lune of Lord Golorath’s army!” the man announced as he spoke into a microphone. “It has come to our attention that the previous officer in charge of this town, Gibbot Gibbroz, has been assassinated by a criminal with dangerous intentions towards our benevolent rulers! As you can surely guess, we have come here now to apprehend this menace before anymore horrors can be caused by her! In order to accomplish this, we request the aid of this town’s residents!”

The people in the crowd began to murmur among themselves. Some of them were wondering who the person who had assassinated Gibbot could be, as numerous people had already tried to do so and failed miserably. Others were expressing worry over the soldiers now occupying the town, as the townsfolk had no idea what would happen if the assassin wasn’t apprehended.

Hearing the commotion within the crowd caused Milas to smile. While he himself wasn’t a fighter at all, he was an expert when it came to manipulating others. It was thanks to his skills in this field that he had been able to rise so high in the rankings of the military in the first place. The general believed that if given the chance, he could rise as high as The Five Lords themselves.

However, now wasn’t the moment to think about such things. He had a job to do and he had already laid the foundation for its completion. Now he just needed to make the final push.

“Of course, we don’t expect any of you good citizens to do this for free!” Milas announced, getting the crowd’s attention. “If any of you are able to catch this criminal, you will be rewarded with the position of becoming the overseer of not just this town, but three other towns as well! And you’ll get a high-ranking job as an officer right under the command of yours truly! We hope that this is more than enough to ignite the spark of righteousness within you all for the common good!”

After hearing what the person who found Erin would get, the crowd erupted into cheers and yelling. There were numerous people making promises of being the one to catch the assassin and others who were asking if the soldiers had any information on the criminal. Seeing the crowd’s excitement caused Milas to smile widely. This was just what he needed.

“I am overjoyed to see so many of you willing to bring justice to this town!” the general announced. “Please go talk to one of my subordinates in order to receive a picture of the criminal that was done based on descriptions gathered from eyewitnesses!”

Erin watched with cold sweat running down her back as the soldiers were handing out papers with her picture to townsfolk that approached them. In just one moment, she had become the number one most wanted person around. She needed to either find a place to hide or make a run for it. Whichever she was going to do, she needed to do it very quick.

With fast and light steps, the redhead was able to get down from the roof of the building she had used to watch over the general’s announcement. Once she was back on the ground, she immediately hid herself in the shadows. Luckily for her, most of the people were still occupied with the soldiers handing out papers, so she could hide herself with relative ease.

It took some time, but Erin was eventually able to make her way to the safe house. Cold sweat was still dripping from her brow, as she began to think about her situation. Right now, most of the town was out looking for her in the hopes of getting a reward. Some of them weren’t even your average townsfolk either, but trained police officers or armed criminals. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was also the soldiers as well that were obviously more dangerous than Gibbot’s goons.

The way she saw it, Erin had two options. One was to try and hide herself and try to keep herself out of sight as much as possible. Option two was to try and escape the town. While she hated the fact that her options were literally to either run or hide, they were the only ones she really had. When considering her chances, it was safe to say that fighting would only lead to a quick death.

Hiding seemed like the safest option, but it wasn’t exactly a long-term plan. Erin had no idea how long the hunt for her would go on and there could be those who knew about Ryan’s safe houses. Just the sheer paranoia over fear of someone kicking down the door was going to be the end of her by driving her insane.

“Guess there isn’t any other option then,” Erin said to herself as she stood up. “Now I just need to figure out a way to get out this town.”

Deciding to use the cover of darkness to her advantage, the redhead assassin waited until nightfall, before she went out to conduct some reconnaissance. Using alleyways and rooftops, she was able to avoid anyone walking outside, whether they were soldiers, police officers or just people hoping to get their hands on the bounty on her head.

Despite being the middle of the night, there was a surprisingly large number of people still walking around. With just one look, it was easy to tell why they were outside, though. Pretty much anyone that was moving during this time had some sort of weapon on them. Erin couldn’t help but lament the fact that the only reason there were people moving about was due to the promise of a great prize.

Even with the increased amount of population on the move, Erin was able to make her way close to the edge of town. She climbed on top of a sizable building in order to get a better look t her situation. Right after the town ended, there was nothing else ahead but miles upon miles of barren wastelands. She could see some mountains far in the distance, but getting there was not going to be an easy feat. With the land so barren, there wasn’t any type of natural cover she could use for her advantage. Because of this, going on foot was a fool’s errand, even with darkness looming over her.

However, it seemed like there was a way for her to get out of the town, as there were vehicles parked on the outskirts of the town. These were from the soldiers that had come to apprehend her, but had stayed at the edge in order to watch out for anyone trying to leave. Using her binoculars, Erin was able to get a good idea of their numbers. There were five cars parked there, with at least two soldiers stationed around each of them. If the redhead could get just one of them, she could possibly make it out alive. All she needed was to distract the soldiers long enough so that she could steal one of the cars.

Erin had an idea for a distraction. With nimble and quick movements she made her way down to the ground. She had work to do.

Meanwhile, the soldiers that were standing around the cars were keeping a lax guard, not expecting anything to happen on their end. The way they saw it, with most of the town and General Lune’s troops taking part in the manhunt, the assassin would be found in no time. However, they did make sure to have at least two of their group keep a watchful eye over the area, so no one managed to slip by them.

Just as the two people on the watch were about to return to their comrades to enjoy some warm drinks and gambling, they heard gunshots from nearby, along with the sound of someone screaming. The soldiers took out their binoculars and looked at the direction the sound had come from and saw the light of a fire with smoke rising up from it. It seemed like there was trouble brewing at the town.

The guards immediately informed their comrades of what had happened and split their group in two. Most of them would go and investigate what had happened, while two of them would remain behind to keep watch. Once their groups had been decided, the soldiers split up to perform their duties. The two troopers that remained in the area watched as the others drove away, leaving them behind.

Some time passed with no word from the investigating group at all. Eventually, one of the two remaining soldiers got nervous and decided to call the other group on their radio.

“Hey, what’s going on over there!?” the soldier called out on the radio. “Did you guys find anything over there at all!?”

“We did find something, but not what we were expecting!” a voice on the other end of the line answered back. “There’s nobody here at all, except a burning trash can! It’s like someone pulled a dumb prank on us or something!”

“Wait, what-”

The soldier was unable to finish his question, as the blade of a knife suddenly sunk into his neck. His partner was laying on the ground behind him, having been killed in a similar fashion, without him noticing at all.

With the two troopers taken care of, Erin quickly searched their bodies and found the keys to their car. She wasted no time in getting in and turning on the engine, and in no time she was speeding away from Rockmoore Town.

The radio on the car was getting calls from the other soldiers, trying to get an answer from their colleagues that were no longer there. The redhead quickly turned the machine off, hoping to keep them in the dark even a couple more seconds longer. With any luck, she would be able to get enough of a head start from her soon to be pursuers that she wouldn’t have to worry about having to face an actual chase.

However, Erin knew that this was most likely wishful thinking at best. It wouldn’t take long for the other soldiers to realize what was going on and go on pursuit. The best she could hope for was that she wouldn’t have to face all the people that Milas had brought along with him.

“I’ve gotten through the first hurdle. Now I just need to see this through to the end,” Erin mumbled to herself, as she kept driving away. “All I can do is put my everything into this and-”

Before the redhead could finish her thought, a large explosion boomed behind her, causing her to turn her head. What she saw shocked her to the core. There were explosions going off on the town and the buildings were being set on fire as well. For whatever reason, Milas had decided to let his troops loose upon the town, to burn the whole place to the ground.

Erin couldn’t understand why this was happening. She asked the question in her mind over and over again, in an attempt to find reasoning for such brutality, but couldn’t figure it out. There was just no way for her to rationalize such an action.

Despite how much she wanted to find the answer to the question, she didn’t have the time for it. The soldiers that she had distracted to make her escape were starting to gain on her. The redhead had to focus on her escape for now in order to survive.

Even if it meant pushing back bitter and angry tears.