06:00, Overwatch HQ, Switzerland.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Alex was awoken from somebody pounding mercilessly at his door, he cracked open his eyes ever so slightly, agitated he'd awoken from one of the best sleeps he's had for a while.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Alex sighed, "WHAT!?" he shouted.

"Open the door!" A muffled but familiar voice shouted back.

Alex groaned and got himself out of bed and walked over to the door. The door slid up, revealing Jessica standing in the doorway, holding two coffees, she was furrowing her brow at Alex.

"I heard you can drink this now." Jessica said, holding out one of the cups.

Alex accepted the coffee, but held his annoyed glare at her as he took it.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Gabriel requested to see us for a mission brief, that is unless you want to lay on your ass all day" Jessica joked.

Alex rolled his eyes and stepped out of his room, before letting out yet another big sigh. "Lead the way"

The two began to walk down to the briefing room, the halls were rather empty, with only the occasional agent or maintenance worker passing by, and only the only noise being their footsteps; Alex liked it, mainly because people weren't staring at him like a zoo animal. But he much prfe1rd the silence.

Alex went to take a sip of his coffee, only to recoil his hand back realizing he still had his mask on.

"Hold this for a sec." He said, handing his coffee back to Jessica.

Jessica took the coffee and looked confusingly at Alex, who was tinkering around with his mask. Alex braced himself for the pain that would follow by taking his mask off. He placed his hand on the front of his mask and closed his eyes, inching it off his face ever so slightly. he instantly felt a wiff of cool, soothing air rush down his airway, causing Alex to relax his arms and take an even bigger breath.

'Thank Christ' Alex thought to himself.

Alex took his now luke warm coffee and took a big sip, letting out a large sigh as he finished.

"Tastes like shit" Alex said, before taking another generous sip.

"So…is that thing off for good now?" Jessica asked.

"Nope" He replied.

Alex proceeded to chug the rest of his coffee, he let out a large sigh before tossing the paper cup aside.

"Let's go" Alex said, walking ahead of Jessica, she rolled her eyes as she followed Alex through the empty halls.

5 minutes later

The two arrived at Gabriel's, briefing room, which was just a small room with a rectangle table and a large monitor on the wall, and was located in a secluded part of the base.

Jesse had already beaten the two there, with him sitting at the end of the table with his head resting on his hand, sleeping. Jessica shook her head and walked over to Jesse, jerking his arm suddenly to wake him. Before sitting down a few chairs down.

"Mmphh, Jesus" Jesse mumbled, he rubbed his eyes, and saw Alex making his way across the room.

"Nice face" Jesse joked.

"Thank you?" Alex replied, before sitting down across from Jessica.

"Why are you always sleeping? Every time I see you're either asleep drunk, or on your way to do one of those two." Jessica asked.

"Huh, I don't know, not much else to do" Jesse retorted, slouching back in his chair.

"Quit being a lazy prick, do something" Jessica said.

"Alright your highness, tell me what to do" Jesse replied, of course with a smart-ass undertone in his voice.

Jessica crossed her arms and leaned forward. "I do all your dirty work now, how about you run the goddamn petty errands for Gabriel, he has me running all over the base doing his bullshit, hell you can't even sit at the bar two minutes before passing out.

"Hey, you're new, and I'm not, that's how seniority works and only Gabriel will dismiss you of that privilege." Jesse joked, much to the annoyance of Jessica. Alex let out a small chuckle.

"Second of all, I do some dirty work too, why don't you badger Moira?" Jesse asked.

"Because Moira is always doing her crazy research, and she hates me, and she's unpleasant. And I would ask Genii, But I can never find the fucking guy!" Jessica said.

"Well Genji ain't with us anymore, so cross him off your list." Jesse replied.

"Wait,What happened to Genji?" Jessica asked.

"He's with regular Overwatch now. Kinda figured, you don't turn a man into a literal fighting machine and leave him to do nothing" Jesse said.

"True, now he's gonna be with all the glamor and fame!' Jessica joked.

"He didn't seem like much of a talker, from the few times I've seen him" Alex butted in.

"He's not, I'll miss the feller a bit, but not enough to mope over." Jesse stated, before putting his head down.

Before anyone could get a word in, the door slid open and Gabriel walked in, he quickly walked over to the other end of the table and placed a data pad on the table, before turning to face the three.

"Jesse, Jack needs to talk to you" He said, signalling his head to the door.

Jesse groaned, before he sluggishly got up and walked out of the room.

"I can't tell if he's hungover or not." Jessica joked.

"couldn't blame him if he was, sitting around here on suspension gets boring." Gabriel said.

Jessica's joking demeanour faded quickly, as nothing but silence followed.

"Anyway, as for you too…"

Gabriel messed around with his holopad a bit before the pictures of Three men appeared on the screen, all with M.I.A written next to their names. As well as other details regarding their jobs. Jessica looked up and squinted at the bright screen.

"Sorry to bring you two in on such short notice, but Jack says this is urgent. One week ago, Overwatch sent a small recon team to Australia to investigate its current situation, we know vaguely but have never done a thorough investigation, and we've never been able to go safely."

"What happened to Australia?" Alex interrupted.

"Short version. Overwatch took out the omnium, the government then took away farmers land and gave it to remaining Omnic's to keep things civil. Of course, the people angry so they rebelled, destroying the omnium but causing its fusion core to meltdown, now Australia a wasteland, once you get there the rest will explain itself." Jessica replied.

"Interesting…" Alex said.

"Anyway, about three days into their mission Overwatch lost all contact, and haven't been able to re-establish communication since. They don't know what happened and don't want to lose anymore agents. So, we want to send you two in to locate and return said agents, if they're alive, as well as what happened."

"When?" Alex asked.

"In an hour, we'll give you the gear you need and you'll be dropped off at their last known position."

Alex nodded.

"And what if they're dead?" Jessica asked.

"Find out what happened, then exfil" Gabriel responded.

"You two, take these." Gabriel said, pointing at the folders he had placed on the table. "read them before you arrive"

Alex took the folder and quickly examined it, seeing more details of the lost team's foiled mission, and exactly where they were before they lost contact.

"C'mon, lets go gear up, lets get this done with" Jessica said.

Alex nodded and closed the file, following Jessica out of the room.

1 hour later

Alex was briskly making his way to the landing pads. By now he remembered how to get there on his own. The base was busier now, with all the staff being awake and doing whatever it is they do, of course to Alex's annoyance people still stared at him, but only thing he could do was shoot daggers back, making them nervous or cower, which made him chuckle.

He didn't have to grab much, all he had was a backpack with food, water, ammo for his sidearm which he didn't think he would need, and extra cartridges for his mask.

Jessica had arrived at the landing pads before Alex, she was leaning against the dropship with her arms crossed. Gabriel was talking to the pilot.

"all set?" Jessica asked.

Alex took off his bag and threw it onto one of the seats. "Yep."

Gabriel finished speaking with the pilot and walked over to the pair.

"Look I wont lie to you, the situation in Australia is fucked up, and I'll be surprised if you find them alive. If you find their bodies bring em home, and be sure to report your progress, be careful." He said.

Alex didn't say anything, he simply nodded and walked aboard the ship, with Jessica following.

They both sat down, the pilot fired up the engines and closed the ramp.

"departing!"

2 hours later.

The two had been relatively quiet over the past few hours, with only a few small and brief conversations sparking up. Alex still had his suspensions about Jessica, he knew she came from a less than favourable background, he was going to find out what that was soon enough.

However, at the moment Jessica was resting her eyes, catching up on the little sleep she had. And Alex took this opportunity to read the mission file, specially the people they're rescuing. To his surprise they were all ex-special forces. Alex didn't think very high of a lot of the agents he's met, as far as he knew many were nothing without their technological crutches, so seeing people with a background similar to his was reassuring.

Alex read each of the members individual file.

Name: Thomas Bundy. Age:26

DOB: 2/3/2048

Service: Overwatch, SPEC-OPS marksman.

Prior Affiliation: British Army, SAS.

Status: M.I.A

Notes: Thomas Bundy previously served in the British Army, under the special air service. He served as a marksman and grew to be very talented, with many successful operations (And kills) under his belt. On top of his skilled marksmanship, he has showed a high level a tactical knowledge, allowing him to assume a command role where needed.

Name: Joshua Williams

DOB: 3/24/2045

Assignment: Overwatch, SPEC-OPS Field medic.

Prior Affiliation: Canadian Armed Forces, Pathfinders, combat life saver.

Status: M.I.A

Notes: Joshua Williams served under the Canadian Pathfinders as a Combat Life Saver, though further details are classified. Joshua doesn't hesitate to run into the face of death when needed, and worries about everybody in his unit before himself. If somebody is hurt, he'll trek across a desert with his comrades on his back before he'd let them die.

Name: Boris Azarov

DOB: 7/21/2044

Assignment: Overwatch, SPEC-OPS, Squad Leader

Prior Affiliation: Russian Army, Commander.

Russian Airborne Troops, Infantry Officer.

Status: M.I.A

Notes: Boris was always a natural leader throughout his life, and that didn't change in the military. He quickly rose through the ranks to the role of commander, one of the youngest in their history. However, Boris quickly grew bored of his command role, having preferred to be involved in combat. So, he reenlisted into the Russian Airborne troops, where he rose to the role of an officer, and remaining there the rest of this military career.

"These guys look to be pretty experienced, whatever got them must me fucked." Alex said.

"You're already jumping to the conclusion that they're all dead? Have a little faith." Jessica replied.

"I said got them, not killed them. Besides, three days with no contact, in what is basically larger scale Chernobyl, whatever happened can't be pretty."

Jessica sat up and slightly leaned forward. "You wanna make a bet?"

"I would if I had something to bet" Alex said.

"They'll pay you after this, and you can use that money to buy me a beer when we get back" Jessica said.

"Fine, what's the bet?" Alex asked.

"If we find them and they're fine, you buy me some booze, if they're dead or fucked up, I'll buy you some." She quickly explained.

"Short, sweet and simple, I like it" Alex said, shaking Jessica's hand.

"Two minutes!" The pilot shouted.

With that, Alex sprung up and put on his backpack, held onto a handle and prepared to jump the second the ramp opened. Jessica was behind him, although not in as much of a rush to get off.

Alex felt the ship begin to descend, his grip on the handle grew tighter. The ship came to a sudden halt, and the ramped dropped open. Alex jumped off the ship, followed by Jessica, who signalled the pilot with a thumbs up. The ship left, kicking up dust all round them.

Once the dust settled, Alex began to look around. However, there wasn't much to look at, it was a hot, barren irradiated outback. The only sign of civilization was a road far out in the distance.

"So, this is where they started their little journey huh?" Alex said aloud, though not to any anybody in particular.

"Yup" Jessica said, walking up next to Alex with binoculars in her hand.

"File said they headed straight for that road, we'll start there, let's not waste any time" Alex said.

"Lead the way" Jessica replied.

The two began their venture. As Alex looked around more didn't see anything different from the Australia he knew, yet again he hasn't been to Australia in decades, the entire situation baffled him.

"So, one omnium meltdown resulted in the entire country being a wasteland?" Alex asked.

"Not the entire country, but a majority of the farmland and townships they were fighting for were within the radius of the explosion, the rest explains itself." Jessica replied.

"Mhm, and now it's a lawless playground…..fun" Alex said.

"Y'know there were two guys who somehow made their way out of Australia, they started robbing a bunch of places around the world, and are still out there. Junkrat and Roadhog I think they called themselves. Junkrat's just a scrawny crazy guy, but Roadhog? The guy is massive, some of the people here defiantly mutated" Jessica explained.

"Jesus" Alex muttered.

"Yup, so whatever lies ahead of us can't be pretty." She said.

"Every day I find out things are getting more and more fucked." Alex muttered.

*** There was slight cool breeze flowing through the air, which balanced out the heat quite nicely. All was quiet, quiet enough for Alex to be free with his own thoughts for a while. Alex was also hoping to see some mutated animals, the thought of an entirely new species emerging from this event was fascinating. But unfortunately, all he saw were bugs, none of which were mutated.

The road wasn't far, Alex could see it clear as day. It looked depressing, all the cars were laying out abandoned, and torched. Decade old bodies could be seen in some of the cars, it wasn't a pretty sight to behold, but not one that bothered him all that much.

"We're getting close, it said they were traveling in a small 4-seater car, let me say that is one hell of a description" Alex said.

"Found it." Jessica said, looking down the highway with her binoculars.

Alex walked up beside Jessica to see what she was looking at. Lo and behold, on the distance Alex could see a car that stood out from the others, it looked like a fresh wreck, with absolutely no rust or vegetation growing on it.

"That's one of ours, I also see a few bodies around it, can't make out if its our guys or not." Jessica said.

With that, Alex said nothing and began walking towards the wreck. Jessica followed right behind him.

"So, let me ask you something" Alex asked, turning to face Jessica.

"Mhm"

"Why exactly are we doing things for Blackwatch, what did they fuck up? And since Blackwatch is suspended, what are we?

"I'll get Jesse to tell you over a drink when you get back, he knows the story much better than I do." Jessica replied.

"Okay….so what are we then?" Alex asked.

"I don't even know, I'd say we're part of Blackwatch, Gabriel calls our shots, but Both Jack and Gabriel have me do stuff for Overwatch's agenda, you're on the same boat with me now." Jessica replied.

Alex chuckled "So we're their tools?"

"In a way, but tools they need oh so desperately, you can get away with shit when they can't afford to get rid of you. Plus, most of the people treat me as one of their own, you won't feel like a tool." She said.

"interesting" Alex said.

"Now, let me ask you something." Jessica said.

"Sure" Alex replied.

"How exactly did you…end up like you are." Jessica asked.

Without missing a beat, Alex stopped right where he stood. Jessica stopped instantly as well, and worryingly stared at Alex, she knew right away she struck a nerve. Alex stared at the floor, reflecting the events of that day. They all flooded back in, it was completely out of his control

'after all those godman years, they experiment on me like some vermin' Alex thought.

Alex frowned and clenched his fist, hard. Jessica took a few steps back, thinking he might lash out any second. after few seconds he took a deep breath, and let out a large sigh.

"Let's keep moving" Alex said, continuing on down the road.

Jessica was hesitant, but she let Alex walk about 10 meters before she began to follow, clearly, she had struck a nerve, and she didn't exactly want to push him further.

10 minutes later

The two were beginning to approach the wreckage, Alex hadn't said anything for the duration of their walk.

Alex was approaching cautiously, there were multiple corpses spread out along the pavement, and they didn't look that old. However, as he grew closer to the wreckage, it was clear that they weren't the missing men.

The two arrived at the wreck, Alex walked over to the closest corpse as Jessica walked over to the car, rifle at the ready. Alex placed his foot under the corpse and flipped him onto his back. Of course, it wasn't the any of the guys they were looking for, he could tell just from the dirty old clothes and guns next to them.

"These bodies are a few days old; they're long gone from here." Alex said.

"Nothing here, just a few casings" Jessica said.

Alex began to look around, specifically at the hilltops, as the road was now starting to enter a small, rocky valley. He scanned the hilltops until he noticed a small shape pointing out, cresting the hill. Without missing a beat Alex sprinted towards the hillside, before jumping off a nearby rock and clinging onto the rocky incline, and began rapidly making his way to the top.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Jessica shouted.

Alex didn't answer, as he already made it to the top. There was a small crater at the top of the hill which was being used as a camp. The shape he saw at the bottom of the hill was a sniper rifle barrel, with a very dead sniper behind it. However, Alex took notice to the rifle he was using, as well as an ammo box stashed near his bedroll. They were both very clean looking, sleek, and higher-grade than the rest of the gear these guys were using.

Alex dropped into the sniper's nest and walked over the corpse, tossing it over the side of the cliff to get to the rifle. Jessica shrieked as she nearly dove out of the way of the falling corpse.

"Alex, what the fuck are you doing!?" Jessica yelled.

Alex peeked his head down At Jessica.

"Sorry" he said, turning his attention back at the small camp. It overlooked the other side of the hill as well, Alex saw a few more bodies spread out in that direction from the road, he was looking for any indication as to where the three men could have gone. He scanned for a few moments, before a bright gleam of light from the horizon blinded one of his eyes.

"Fuck" Alex muttered, as he scrunched his eyes and turned his head away.

Alex rubbed his eye for a moment before turning to look at the source of the light. He saw merely a small black dot on the horizon, he couldn't make out what it was. So, Alex brought the scope of the rifle up, and looked towards the black dot. Despite its distance, it was clear as day that it was some sort of settlement, there was smoke coming from it, and nearly all the structures were built by hand.

That's the only lead Alex needed, Alex put the ammo box in his bag and jumped back down to the road, landing next to the bloke he tossed off. Jessica had her arms crossed and was starring at Alex with narrow eyes, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

"What?" Alex asked.

Jessica held her glare.

"Its not like he hit you." Alex quipped.

"You wanna give me a heads up before you do shit like that?" Jessica barked.

"You really want me to make it more obvious there's a dead man flying at you?" Alex replied.

Jessica rolled her eyes. Alex unslung the rifle he had found, and for but a mere half second, Jessica's expression changed to one of surprise, before he snapped herself out of it. However, not quick enough to go unnoticed by Alex.

"Found this with a guy up there, and some other shiny new equipment too, miles ahead of what the rest of these fuckheads had, any ideas?" Alex asked, furrowing his brow at Jessica.

Jessica took the rifle and popped the scope up and took aim, fanning across the horizon for a few moments.

"Definitely wasn't here long that's for sure, then again Australia's pretty big, we may not be the only visitors." Jessica said, handing the rifle back to Alex.

Alex simply nodded his head, before pointing the settlements direction.

"There's a few more bodies that way, and what looked to be a small town about 10km out, lets move" Alex said, walking past Jessica.

Jessica looked back at all the carnage for a few moments, before swiftly catching up to Alex and following close behind.

1 hour later

The pair were approaching the outskirts of the settlement, it was a bit bigger than Alex expected, it resembled more of a wild west type town, there was a road running through the town but no vehicles, however, the population was far from scarce.

Alex stopped and began looking around for a moment, before turning his attention to a massive rock on the outside of the town, tall enough to overlook the town.

"I want you up there, I'm gonna go in and talk to some of the locals, keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Alex ordered.

"On it" Jessica said.

Jessica began to make her way to the rock, however she abruptly stopped and turned around to face Alex. He took notice, looking at Jessica with crossed arms.

"Look, Alex. I didn't mean to-"

"Forget about it, don't bring it up again" He interrupted in a cold, monotone voice.

Jessica simply gulped and nodded, before turning tail and making her way to the vantage point. Alex turned his attention back towards the town. He exhaled before walking towards the settlement.

It was clear that Alex was out of place, even in a town of full of dirty, and quite possibly crazy people, he still stood out compared to everyone else. However, people looked at him like he was an anomaly as opposed to a monster, looking at Alex with curiosity.

"That's a nice rifle you got there, nice enough to paint a target on your head." An unknown voice said.

Alex looked to his right, to see a man sitting a stool smoking a cigarette, he was wearing dirty clothes with an old rifle leaning against the wall next to him, with his baseball cap hanging off the barrel. He was blind in one eye, with one of them being sealed shut with a large scar running over it, he had noticeable scars all over his arms, as well as missing his left pinky.

Alex began to walk towards the stranger.

"Yeah? You interested?" Alex asked.

The stranger chuckled. "While I appreciate your kind offer, she's been with me god knows how many years now." He said, tapping the rifle with the tops of his fingers.

Alex grinned "So do you just sit by the edge of town passing your wisdom down to everyone who passes through?"

"Nope, just guard this old bastard's office, he's the only decent doctor you'll find around here. But you, you look like you came here with a purpose." The stranger said in a cryptic tone, as he leaned forward and ashed his cigarette.

"Yeah, three friends of mine." Alex said.

"You..might have to be more specific than that, a lot of people come through here."

"Right, They were most likely carrying similar shiny weapons like this one" Alex said.

The stranger chuckled, "Figured…Yep I saw them, they went into the bar for a few minutes, then left in a hurry." He said.

"Anything else?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, more than a few armed men passed through not long after, most of them carried on, but some stayed behind, watch your back." The stranger said, pointing at Alex's rifle.

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks" Alex said as he swift began make his way to the bar.

"Good luck mate!" The stranger yelled, with Alex giving him a small wave in return.

"Alex I'm in position." Jessica said over her radio.

"Copy, keep an eye out for anything suspicious outside the bar, that's where I'm headed. We may have some unwanted attention come our way." Alex ordered.

"Copy, keeping my eyes peeled, out" Jessica replied.

Of course, as Alex walked toward the bar, he noticed people start to stare at him. However, they were more like curious stares, like they were looking forward to something.

As Alex approached the bar the patrons outside didn't hesitate to let him know he was an outsider, and shot him funny looks. Alex simply rolled his eyes and pushed his way into the bar.

The moment Alex entered the bar, it went quiet, and everybody stopped what they were doing to look at Alex. They stared him up and down for a few seconds, before immediately dismissing him and getting back to their drinks.

"Don't mind them mate, they do that with every visitor" The bartender yelled, signalling Alex over.

Alex obliged, and made his way over to the bar. The bartender was wearing dirty dress clothes, with an old red vest to top it off. Alex couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"Is professionalism still that important around here?" Alex joked.

"That, and it tells people I'm not the person you're looking to shoot." The bartender replied.

"So what are you having? I've got some of the best stuff in the wasteland, in good supply too." The bartender said as he enthusiastically pointed towards the bottles on the wall behind him.

"Well, as appealing as this place is; I didn't come here to drink. I'm looking for friends of mine, three of them. Stranger I ran into told me he saw them come here. And judging from the way you're looing at the rifle on my back, you know exactly who I'm talking about." Alex said.

The bartender slouched down slightly and sighed. "I know, mate."

Alex crossed his arms and stepped closer to the bar.

"Look, I'd be happy to tell you if you gave me something in return. Nothing's free here mate, even information. I rely on this stuff to get by, I hope you understand." The bartender said with a worried look on his face.

Alex squinted his eyes at the man for a few seconds; before sighing and unslinging his rifle, and placing it on the bar along with its ammo.

The bartender's face went from one of worry to one of surprise. He stared at the modern rifle as it laid on his bar. He looked up at Alex with excitement.

"What do you want to know?" He asked.

"Where were they headed, and why?" Alex replied.

"They asked me if I had a map, which I did so I lent it to them. I was right here as they decided where to go. They headed for an abandoned air station about thirteen kilometers from here. Then they gave me my map back and high tailed it outta here, to what reason I don't know." The bartender replied.

Jessica's voice suddenly popped up over Alex's radio. "Alex, were in for trouble."

The door to the bar suddenly flew open, and all the commotion and laughter came to a halt. Alex didn't turn around, merely listened as he faced the bartender.

"Listen mate, its best you high tail it out too." The bartender whispered as he attempted to hide the rifle.

"Ah Ah Ah, put it down mate." An unknown voice exclaimed.

Alex listened as the footsteps made their way from the entrance to the bar, stopping right next to Alex. Alex however, didn't bat an eye.

"What's a lowlife twat like you doing with a gun like this?" the stranger said.

Alex watched as the bartender was pushed away from the bar, and a man grab the rifle. However, before the bandit could even walk away. Alex grabbed the rifle and pulled it out of his hands, flinging the bandit a few feet forward as well.

"I gave this as a gift to him, you can fuck off." Alex said.

Alex got a better look at him, shirtless with dirty pants, empty ammo belt running across is chest, dirty goggles and an old machete slung to his leg.

The bandit chuckled and leaned in towards Alex. "Maybe you don't know who I am grey-skin. I'll ri-"

Alex quickly stood up, shouldering the bandit in the process. The bandit fell onto his ass, which caused a few of the people in the crowd to chuckle. The bandit looked around before gritting his teeth, he stood up and unsheathed his machete.

"Mate, I don't know who the fuck you think you are." The bandit said with a chuckle. Before taking a big swing at Alex.

In an instant, Alex caught the blade of the machete with his bare hand, gripping it tight. The bandit's face went from one of confidence to shock. Alex stared daggers into the bandit's eyes, before grabbing the collar of his shirt, and slowly brought his face inches from his.

"I'm the man who's gonna kill you." Alex whispered. He gripped the machete as hard as we could, snapping the blade in two.

The bandit's face dropped, and before he could react to anything else Alex pushed him away and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying out the door. Alex turned around to face the bartender once more.

"The rifle should be more than enough to cover your door." He said as he began to walk out.

"Th- thank you?" The bartender said, tilting his head to the side. The rest of the patrons looked unto Alex with a look of gratitude. It was clear that these people brought trouble often.

Once Alex stepped onto the porch, he saw more of them, a lot more of them. Had to be two dozen at least. However, only one of them caught the attention of Alex. Standing over the body of the now dead bandit, was a mammoth of a man.

He was at least seven feet tall, built like a gorilla. Covered in scars and bruises, most of them recent. He was wearing a bandana. However, he was shooting daggers at Alex with slitty eyes, and scrunched eyebrows. To top it all off, he was holding a massive handmade bardiche, covered in bloodstains.

"I know, I'd be happy to see me too" Alex said.

The man let out small grunt before pulling his weapon back. Alex prepared himself, narrowing his eyes at the mammoth. Suddenly, he took a big swing at Alex. Alex was able to duck in time, the bardiche plowed through the wooden porch, destroying it.

The man roared and took and attempted overhead swing, which Alex simply side stepped. He followed with a low horizontal swing; Alex jumped over the swing and grabbed his wrist before he could follow up. Alex twisted his wrist and punched him hard in the face, causing him to drop the weapons and sending him flying to the ground.

A few of the bandits attempted to attack Alex once he disarmed the brute, however they were swiftly shot by Jessica. The brute jumped back up and immediately punched Alex, who recoiled back. he followed up with another but Alex grabbed his arm once more, this time twisting the whole arm, and kneeing him in the face. The brute screamed out in pain as he held his now broken orbital.

Alex was about to finish the fight with a kick to the head, but he was suddenly charged by the brute, who grabbed him by the neck and pinned him against the wall. The man was much stronger than Alex had anticipated, having trouble prying the brutes hand off his neck, as he drove punches into Alex's body.

Alex sat there as he thought about his options, In the midst of the beating an urge overcame Alex. His calm demeanour quickly faded. He grew angry, his teeth gritted. He began shaking as the adrenaline began to surge through him. This was a familiar feeling, Alex didn't lose control, but it was almost as if something was telling him what to do.

Alex began to hear the whispers in his head once more.

"Kill him" they said.

Alex screamed, coating himself with armor, stopping the brute's punches in their tracks. He heated up his hand to the point it was glowing red, and placed his hand flat on the brute's face. The man began screaming in agonizing pain as is skin sizzled and steamed.

Alex waited until his face melted enough for his hand to sink in, before letting his hand cool down, solidifying his hand to the mans face. The brute attempted to pry his hand off his face, but to no avail. Alex gritted his teeth once more and screamed, tossing the brute over his shoulder and ripping his hand out of his face by force.

What followed was a quick but brutal beating. Alex brought his fists down on the brute's face until it was mush, he beat him long after the body went limp. Once Alex was finished, he slowly looked up to see the rest of the bandits staring at him in shock and fear. And Judging by Jessica's silence, she was shocked too.

Alex stood still for a moment, and he looked around. By now the bystanders had either fled or went indoors, no doubt they were watching from their windows. He peered over to Jessica, she held her finger firmly on the trigger, ready to fire at the slightest movement. Alex thought this was a good time as any to finish this, and so, he leapt forward.

The second he moved; every bandit began to fire sporadically in his direction. Jessica had already begun picking her targets. Alex sprinted to the first bandit he saw and grabbed his weapon, throwing its owner against a wall in the process. He spun around and took a kneeling position, taking aim at the first targets he saw.

Three unfortunate bandits decided to rush Alex, with two flanking each side. Alex quickly disposed of two of them with swift shots to the head, Jessica quickly finished off the third. Alex then threw the rifle at another bandit, and quickly charged him while disoriented, smashing his head against a nearby structure, before throwing his body towards the others.

The bandits were neither trained, or disciplined enough to fight through losses, seeing their friends die within seconds of each other caused many to start routing in a panic. From there it was a slaughter, Alex chased down and killed each and every one of them, all but the last one. Who Alex approached as he laid on his back begging for mercy.

"P-please, you win! God damn it you win! Plea-"

"Shut the fuck up" Alex barked. Alex grabbed the man by the neck and slowly lifted him up. The man fought and squirmed as he attempted to break Alex's grasp.

"You're chasing the people I'm looking for, and don't try to play dumb, I found a bunch of your friends taking nap on the side of road, they led me here. And surprise surprise, the locals hate you, they told me a lot" Alex said.

By now, Jessica was approaching as well, intrigued as to where Alex was going with this.

"Why are you chasing them?" Alex asked.

"I-I don't know" The bandit muttered.

Alex tightened his grip on the bandit's neck, now he was starting to choke him. In panic, the bandit tried even harder to pry Alex's hand off, obviously to no avail.

"I'm not lying! The boss makes the decisions, I follow. I know nothing about the people were chasing, just that they're important to someone else." He said.

"Who?" Alex asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, all I know is that they would give us weapons and supplies in exchange for our help." He replied.

"I'm guessing you have more friends ahead of us already" Alex said.

The bandit simply gave a nod.

"You've been very helpful." Alex said.

Alex began to put him down, but not before squeezing his neck as hard as he could. The loud crunchy noises of bones breaking followed, and Alex threw his limp body to the side like trash.

"You couldn't even let him go huh?' Jessica asked, slightly narrowing her eyes at Alex.

"Why? So he can go run and tell other people what happened? Trust me, its better this way." Alex replied.

Jessica nodded, though Alex could see she was flooded with worry. Alex knew why, he was worried too, he had no idea why such rage overcame him, when weeks ago he managed himself just fine. Though at the moment, there was no time for worry.

"So shat happens now?" Jessica asked.

"Now, we set up camp and get some rest. It's getting late. I'm sure they had the same idea; we'll continue at the crack of dawn." Alex said, as he began to walk towards some distant hills.

Jessica let out a large sigh of relief, she was tired and hungry, all she wanted to do was rest. She followed behind Alex, her jaw dropped as if she wanted to say something, but quickly stopped herself. Whatever she wanted to say, now was definitely not the time. Instead she opted to walk behind Alex, where she could keep an eye on him, just incase…..

To be Continued.