Chương 16: NEON PAINT

"But why?" T'balt couldn't understand. They were being attacked by people this soon into the apocalypse. T'balt wondered if the man had just mistaken his attacker for a man and not a beast.

"Look out!" Ellie yelled, tackling T'balt to the ground as a stone was catapulted into the wall next to them. Dodging rubble and incoming fire, the two rushed behind a parked car for cover.

"Why would anyone attack a church, of all places?" Ellie said, peering through the window to get a good look at their attackers.

"T'balt look." On the other side of the parking lot, one of the believers was tossed helplessly on the ground. Two men were stalking him. Well, it was hard to call them men. They were covered in large spray-painted bomber jackets with a walking cadence filled with slime and ill intent. The faces covered by smiling rabbit masks. On their backs were giant, luminescent letters spelling "NrV."

"That's another 10 points for me," one of them said, eyeing their fallen target.

"Hell are you talking about? Those are my points. I saw him first."

"But I was the one that hit him."

"Bullshit. You're a crummy shot."

"You wanna say that to my face?" The two were at each other's throats, looking like they were ready to tee off despite the raid happening around them. The man on the ground interrupted them.

"You all are fools to attack this place. A place of god. We are protected… by the Redeemer. There is nothing you can do to harm us." The two rabbits then realized they were on the same team.

"Redeemer? They really are like some freaky end of the world cult."

"Like I give a damn. What kind of loot you packing, old man?" The two rabbits raised their hands as the black smoke began to swell and their bodies began to spark.

"T'balt," Ellie whispered.

"We have to do something. They're going to kill him." But as she said it, he was already springing to action. T'balt grabbed the arm of one of the men, then kicked back at the other with the speed of a bullet, thanks to his speed loot.

"Who the hell are you?" T'balt said with a deep tremble in his voice. The rabbit only reared at the intensity in his eye. His immediate instinct was to launch an attack, but he clearly hadn't seen someone move as fast as T'balt before. And with a punch to his chest, the second bandit was on the ground, struggling for air, before taking off running away from the church. The believer nodded as if he had never been worried in the first place.

"Are you okay? Let me heal you." Ellie had her hands over a bloody gash in his arm and went to work on it.

"I'm fine. I knew I would be saved. The Redeemer is watching over us." Both of them tried not to show worry on their faces, but as they looked around the parking lot that had morphed into a battlefield, there wasn't a single sign of their Redeemer. But the people called for him.

"Our Redeemer will save us."

"Don't fear. You are protected."

"You will all be sorry for attacking the Redeemer's church." At the same time, there were dozens of other men in strange masks and spray-painted jackets slaughtering the believers. They attacked indiscriminately and without mercy. With every kill, they would hold up a number of fingers and call out their point total. It was chaos, like a planned gang hit. The church was losing people by the minute. No one was prepared, and only a select few of them had loot to defend themselves.

There was a man fighting to protect his family, and one of the masked men slaughtered him as easily as cutting a cake. His children screamed as the man took the loot that popped from their father's neck.

"Where is he?" said T'balt.

"We can't wait for him," Ellie said.

"We have to do something now." She was right. This was another Zero Day all over again, with fire, stone, and hell raining on them. The bandits were starting to enter the church, breaking down walls and flooding the doorways. T'balt swallowed his fear and started charging towards the nearest enemy. If Monan wasn't going to show, then someone would have to protect these people. Process of elimination said that someone was him.

He used his speed to fling himself from one enemy to the next, giving them no time to react. The black smoky blur would dampen their vision, and then they would see black in a matter of moments. But the fight felt good. He couldn't deny it. Even though he was using it on people and not beasts. They still had to be stopped, no matter what. Or more people would die. He'd taken out at least twenty before someone had the wherewithal to see him coming.

It was a built man in an over-the-head bear mask and a thin leather jacket. He had caught T'balt's punch with some intense reflex. All he could do was back away and reassess the situation. Next to him was a smaller man, also in a mask. His was accompanied by a dark hood, with the letters scattered on his shirt.

"Nrv." They both observed T'balt steadily, one with crossed arms, the other with hands tucked comfortably in his hoodie.

"We got a fighter here," the taller one said.

"How much would you say he's worth?" The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The little one scoffed.

"Take his speed loot, and I'll give you 40."

"40's a steal." Without further warning, the Bear mask launched himself at T'balt, looking to take his head off with an overhand punch. T'balt launched himself away, landing on a pickup truck. The Bear reared back and appeared to throw something, a spark. The spark floated to the window of the car, and acting on instinct, T'balt flung it to the air. The truck combusted, and flames swallowed the ground. Some sort of explosion loot. But T'balt was stuck in the air, unable to turn himself.

So when the Bear went to grab him, he could do nothing but be caught and thrown to the ground. The impact knocked the air from his lungs. The Bear stomped on T'balt's chest to add insult to injury. The boot was heavy on his rib cage, like it could burst into his heart. The man snatched the bear mask from his own head, showing off a mean mug, face piercings, and a head of spikey dyed green hair.

"Damn, I can hardly see in this thing. We need to talk about this whole mask thing, boss," he called back to the little one.

"Nothing to talk about. The masks are cool," he said in an almost shrill voice.

"At least, let me pick my own." The man looked down on his fallen prey, still struggling beneath his boot.

"T'balt!" Ellie sprinted towards them as if she could take the man's heart out all on her own.

"Ellie no." T'balt tried to say. But the man simply scoffed, pointing his finger at her. But the momentary distraction allowed T'balt to slip from his foot and use his speed to push Ellie out of the way of the coming explosion. The flames ripped at his shirt as he shielded her on the ground.

"Well, ain't that romantic?" the Bear said.

"And how much for the broad?"

"10. Like everyone else," the smaller one said. Ellie ignored them and moved T'balt so she could heal the bruising and burns on him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He looked up at his attackers.

"Are you two in charge here?" The tall one spoke up first.

"Who wants to know?" That was all the answer he needed.

"The people here are innocent. Many of them are women and children. Call off this attack. People don't need to get hurt. Whatever you want, I'm sure we can talk it through." The smaller one's mask was more robotic, showing zero sign of emotion.

"Why would I want to do that? All these people are worth so many points. I won't get any by talking."

"Points? What are you talking about?"

"Don't you see it? The world has turned into a video game. And like all games, most points win." Though he couldn't see his eyes, there was a sick tinge to his voice. Like that's all human life was to him, just points in a video game.

"Are you delusional?"

"Says the one in a cult."

"Cult?"

"There's no sense in trying to talk to these lunatics, T'balt," Ellie said.

"It doesn't seem like it took long for people to start losing their minds."

"Is there no other way?"

"Sure." The small one pointed at him.

"Give me everything you have."

"What?"

"Food. Loot. And the church. And we'll let everyone here walk away. Otherwise…" He dragged his thumb across his throat.

"Not a chance," Ellie answered for him.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it?" The man in the bear mask had approached to an uncomfortably close distance. Then just like that, a light flashed in Ellie's eye. She pulled her arm back and stood like she was holding a great bow, only for one to then materialize in her hands. It was glowing white, and the aura made her shine like an angel.

"When did you..." T'balt never knew she had any loot other than the healing loot he gave her.

"I'm not one to let others fight my battles for me," she said.

"Now. I'll give you all one chance to get out of here." The Bear looked back at the other, who simply said, "I like the bow. 80 points." The Bear smiled. Ellie sensed the bloodlust washing over him. She immediately loosed her bow, sending an arrow of concentrated light towards his heart. He wasn't expecting the speed. He tried to move but ended up getting knocked in the shoulder. The impact tossed him at least 20 yards back, Much to the surprise of the other, who were no longer sitting still.

The sound of lightning cracked against them, and the short one raced to the attack. T'balt jumped in the way and was able to swipe his hand away before the lightning burst from it, streaking across the sky. T'balt moved to subdue him, but the kid also seemed to be packing some speed loot. Every time T'balt moved, he seemed to keep right up with him. Their hands moved like pistons as they both tried to get one over on the other.

But T'balt stayed at a disadvantage because he didn't have the power of lightning on his side. So whenever he blocked an attack with the bare of his palm, the shock froze for a second. His small stature also allowed him to be harder to catch than a fly. He was able to slip under and above T'balt, almost teasing him with better utilization of the speed loot. The masked bandit then floored him with a kick to the chest. That's when Ellie jumped in, trying to surprise him with a shot from her bow.

He dodged, appearing behind her casually with his hands in his pockets.

"What were you trying to hit over there?" She pivoted her body, but he again appeared behind her, chopping down with his lightning-covered hand. T'balt was able to catch it, but the electricity tingled through his spine as he struggled to hold the hand at bay, despite it being so small.

"You guys are fun," he said.

"When I kill you, how bout I make it 100 points each?" That's when T'balt saw a loose spark appear just under his stomach. Both of them jumped as far back as possible. The air lit up in deadly light. The Bear had recovered from his wound and had rejoined the fight.

"Vikram!" the short one called, annoyed at having almost been exploded by his own teammate.

"What!? The bitch shot me. I knew you'd get out of the way."

"Do you want me to kill you?" The gravity seemed to shift around them. Even the Bear, who was twice the size of the boy, seemed to shiver.

"Are you going to ruin my fun?"

"No. Nrv," He said, pronouncing it nerve.

"But… looks like the boys got what we came for. Why not finish this another day? It's starting to rain." Sprinkles of rain started to drip from the clouds. The leader, Nrv, looked down at his hands as he forced the sparks of electricity to die down. Likely, his lightning powers were in some way hampered by the rain. But he seemed disappointed, throwing his hands in his pockets and stomping hard on the wet ground.

"Fine. But promise me we'll play again sometime." He was speaking right at T'balt, who didn't have a word to say back. He just wanted them to leave. He looked back to see bandits fleeing the church with boxes of food and armfuls of their supplies. But T'balt only had one thing on his mind. Where was Monan? With one last flick of his nose, the Bear and Nrv left them without much of a trace, disappearing into the woods around the church. T'balt and Ellie were left there to process what had just happened.

But no words came to mind. Everything was just dead.