"So... Do you want to live to see another day?" The boy asked.
Such a simple question, and yet such authority packed behind it. Even if he was unwilling, Chad felt as if he needed to answer the question immediately. But the fact was that he didn't know what exactly to say. One small misstep could lead to fatal consequences.
"So... Not answering, are we?" The boy's grip tightened, causing Chad's whole body to cringe in fear. "Well how about a little push?"
Just before anything else could further be done, Chad immediately dropped whatever it was that he was considering, and blurted out what was in his mind. No matter what the 'push' really was, it was more than likely that it would be something none of the four kneeling men would like to go through. As such, Chad could not let it happen.
"Yes I do!" Chad exclaimed, shouting as loud as he could. Although the night was fully quiet just moments ago, the silence was surely no longer now as his voice pierced through the chilly air. "I don't know who you are nor why you've done what you did!- But please... Spare us! Spare us, I beg you!"
This was the lowest that Chad had ever resorted to in his life.
This was the moment that he fully admitted that there were things that were just out of his reach as a human being. Something akin to a natural disaster: unpredictable, unpreventable and something he could only wish to try to avoid. Once you'd been captured by something of the sort, there was really nothing else you could do.
He knew that such a sight would surprise and disappoint all of his men, but he couldn't afford to give a damn . All that mattered to him then, more than anything else, was to make sure that they could go on to continue living. He valued the lives of these people he'd lived with so much more than the perfect image that he had been maintaining throughout the years.
Above all, he only wanted to see the people he held dear live happily even at the expense of his own dignity.
All that he could pray for now was for it to be enough. Even if he had done nothing to gain God's favour in the past, even if the chains of Hell were the ones waiting for him on the other side, please just let this one be enough!
What Chad had failed to realise though was that his men did respond to him in the way that he had expected. They did not look at him in disdain from such a 'pitiful' act. Instead, the amount of gratitude that they felt for the man increased tenfold at the sight. Rather than honing a growing feeling of hatred towards him, all three men came to admire their boss even more.
Even until the very end of their lives, this feeling of admiration did not stop coursing through their veins.
However, this was not the only thing that had been building up inside them as the scene continued to play right in front of their eyes. Without even realising it, all three of them began forming an escape plan inside their head of what to do as soon as the moment would present itself.
Even if the plan would fail terribly and they'd end up dead, they were going to do whatever it took to make sure that their boss could make his escape.
They knew such a plan would be heavily rejected by the man if he were to know, but there was simply no other choice. The boss needed to get Bucko out of the vicinity, out of harm's way, as quickly as possible. The three of them would then handle things from there.
As terrible as they were people, they wanted to at least be able to repay back the kindness the boss had given to them.
Even if they were indeed nothing but murder machines who kill for absolutely no reason, even if there was no way for them to absolve their sins, they wanted to be able to do at least this. They were not good men, but at least they would be loyal to the man who had helped them grow.
There was absolutely no chance in hell that his dead body was going to rot tonight!
And so, the three patiently waited for a chance that they could only hope to come.
While this was happening, Chad and the boy continued on with their little chat. Although the grip around the neck would every once in a while loosen up a bit, Chad knew better that it was nothing more but a tease. The boy wanted to know whether he was foolish enough to fall for such tricks, and sadly for him, Chad wasn't.
"So you're part of the Red Wolves, I see?" The boy asked, an air of interrogative calmness residing within his words.
"Can't say that I'm not..."
"Well, that's awfully nice. Make things so much easier for me to explain."
Explain? Explain what!?
"See here," the boy continued. "I've heard that you lot were a bunch of absolute shitholes of these woods. Nothing but murderers, thieves, rapists and overall just trash of society! Am I correct so far?"
So he was one of those retribution-ist? Chad asked himself. He had known about such people, but he never thought that one would be so damn powerful.
"Yes, I can't say that we aren't..." Chad replied, once again in the same uncertain manner.
Now, if this situation was nothing but a figment of any of the four men's imagination, then things would play out in such a way where the boy would tell how one of his family had been killed by their lot and how much he had waited for this day to arrive.
After all, revenge would always exist so long as love maintained to be.
What was the boy's actual response, however, could not have come any further from what they had expected. So chilling was his response that it sent shivers down everybody's spines, saved but himself.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you though," the boy began. "I'm not here because I had someone in mind. You see, killing might not be fun for me... But killing killers surely is."
As soon as he finished this sentence, the boy began bursting into his own set of laughter.
"I don't know what's more satisfying! I really couldn't decide whether it was seeing the absolute horror in their faces as they were being torn to shreds or just the plain fact that they fell like ants against my me! You think you're all that shit, huh! I don't give a damn about those people you've killed, but it doesn't stop me from laughing at this one thought of mine. Care to know what it's about?"
This wasn't a question. It was an order. Judging by how tightly the boy's grip was around Chad's neck by now, there was not even any space for disagreeing to be afforded.
"Why don't you enlighten us?" Chad said as calmly as he possibly could.
"How would it feel to find yourself be greeted by the faces of those you've killed just as you're about to enter the gates of hell? Wouldn't it be such a pleasant reunion? Kinda like you now, seeing me here; the only difference being that I'd been fortunate enough to have never seen such a pitiful soul like you before in my life!"
If he had not realised it before, Chad did now. The boy was an absolute maniac, no doubt about it. Probably even worse than the people he was actually advocating against.
But just before the boy could continue on further with his rant, the silence of the night was yet again shattered into pieces by the return of a familiar sound.
Undeads. This time, they sounded even more unforgiving than before.
So foul did the boy's mood become after hearing these approaching presences that he quickly became subjected to a fit of rage.
"He's really coming at me hard tonight, huh?" Chad could hear the boy mutter from behind him.
Before long, shadows began to uncover themselves from the dark reaches of the woods, emerging out into the open. Although they surely did not look that much different than the ones from before, all four men could feel it within their bones. There was something different! Question was... What was it?
Clearly such question did not seem to have manifested in the boy's mind on the other hand. Without even saying a word, the tension that Chad could feel from between the fingers around his neck was apparent enough to tell him that the boy was much more on edge than earlier.
However, just before both Chad and the boy could react, a sudden kick came flying towards the boy's face. A rock-solid kick straight to the jaw.
As soon as the deed had been done, Stevie quickly pulled Chad out of the front line as they both began to run.
"What the hell are you doing!" Chad exclaimed, shocked by the sudden turn of events. Even with Bucko taking up both of his hands, he still managed to follow the speedy Stevie without much of a problem however the same couldn't be said about his state of mind.
Both Haimesworth and Dallas were still back there! Not only with that demon of a boy, but also hundreds of Undeads!
"Stevie!" Chad called out from behind, automatically causing the most obedient to stop in his tracks. "Take Bucko with you, and rendezvous back in at the edge of the lake from where we came from!"
"Bu-"
"No, just do it!" Chad insisted, handing the unconscious body of their fellow friend to the unsure hands of Stevie. "I have to go back!"
Without even waiting for a proper response, Chad turned around on the spot and immediately set off to where he had left his two men. Pulling out a small knife from his pocket, he readied himself for what was going to be the most dangerous minute of his life.
Please, just let me be in time! He pleaded in his mind.
He ran, and ran, and ran. It felt like an eternity that run towards the battlefield, but he didn't stop running. He needed to make it back in time! He couldn't let his two men die in such a way.
Please legs, hurry up!
And thankfully, they did just that.
The moment that Chad made it back, he was both surprised and horrified by the sight lying right in front of him. Hundreds of Undeads were crowding around the three men. Although they managed to fend themselves pretty well, especially with the help of the boy's mysterious power, Chad knew that it wouldn't be long before both Haimesworth and Dallas were to be the target of such hostility. Alliance against a common enemy could only last for such a long time...
As such, with a yell that overpowered all of the grunts and groans that flooded the night, Chad entered the fray and unleashed a storm. He slashed left-right, dodged, kicked, punched and slammed any Undead blind enough to come along his way. He continued this fashion all the way until he arrived at the sides of the two men he had come back for.
"What the hell were you two thinking?" He shouted out loud in anger. It wasn't that he was angry at what they were doing, but the fact that they had thought that such a plan would be acceptable to him caused him to feel mightily irked. Nevertheless, there was nothing left to be said as the waves of Undead seemed to have slowly dwindle as time passed by.
As soon as the moment came when the number of Undeads would become manageable enough for the three of them, he had to take the chance...
Turning away from the rotten pieces of flesh coming at him, Chad quickly turned around to face the boy. Although his face was still masked by the darkness of the night, Chad could only imagine what monstrosity it hid behind it. With all of his rage packed into the knife that he was holding, Chad ran as fast as he could towards his target and stabbed through the air as the knife slowly made its way towards the boy's heart.
The feeling of rage that fueled him then was also the same rage that fueled him today as he fired the round towards the boy who had killed his crew.