"Jesus Christ, look at this." Seth hands a newspaper he had in his hands to Nixon sitting beside him. Nixon's eyes widen, screwing up his nose in disgust.
"What happened?" Citlali asks, sitting on a tree stump whilst polishing her rifle.
"Some guy and his family were massacred, wife and child raped then tortured while the husband was apparently skinned alive. There was a witness but for some reason, he can't speak." Seth pauses, 'They don't know what traumas and PTSD is yet so I have to keep quiet about that.' Seth thinks to himself, his expression becoming progressively sourer and sourer. "I..." Seth stops himself, shaking his head, 'They'll just think I'm crazy if I go on.'
Nixon tears the newspaper to shreds before putting his hands to his face, "I'm not reading that anymore... I don't want to be mad today." Nixon sneers, standing up and leaving, "I'm going for a walk."
Citlali's expression becomes sorrowful, "How could someone do such a thing?"
"The details are worse than what I had described," Seth went on, "For not, let's focus on getting out of Montana."
Tsuki clicks his tongue, "Are we going to take this 'Hunter' lady with us?" He points to her with his thumb, arms crossed across his chest.
Seth scratches his head, visibly irritated. Hunter sighs, "Just kill me damnit." She says, eyes sunken in due to a lack of sleep.
"FUCK!" Seth screams, rubbing his face aggressively. "FUCK! FUCK!" Seth takes a deep breath before exhaling, opening his eyes showing a cold unfeeling expression. "No... I don't want that." Seth takes another deep breath before exhaling once again, standing up and walking over to Hunter. "I'll be the bad guy..."
***
"We're back, we hav-" Marshall stops himself before approaching Seth's group. "What's going on?"
Tsuki looks to Marshall, "Seth let Hunter go, it's not that big of a deal but..." Tsuki sighs, "What's your deal man? We can't just do something like that plus... your hypocrisy is irritating me."
Marshall chuckles, "Oh~... so it's not that big of a deal huh?"
"Nope," Citlali shrugs, playing with her rifle as if it was a toy, cocking the chamber back to watch the bullets inside fly into the air before placing it back in after catching it. "Tsuki's just saying that letting her go was a bit irresponsible, but I don't care much."
"Why are you following us again?" Tsuki asks, looking her in the eyes.
"Why are you following them?" She asks back, eyebrow arched while pointing at Nixon and Seth.
Tsuki presses his lips together with an expression saying that he'd been caught.
Seth stands up before leaving into the forest, "Where are you going?" Marshall asks, hands in his pockets.
Seth turns around for a moment, motioning to the forest before continuing inside. He moves further into the forest before encountering Hunter once again, standing behind a tree, back pressed against it. Seth sighs before moving a few steps closer, "Why are you still here? Do you want to kill me?"
"Why did you spare me...? You had no reason to do that and... I won't deny I want to kill you. I want to avenge my comrades, I want to-"
"Hunter."
Silence befell the two, "What?"
"Follow me, I won't hurt you, just follow me." Seth begins walking away, "If you follow me, you may get what you want."
She clicks her tongue, following behind cautiously by keeping her distance, slowly making their way through bushes and trees, the sound of twigs cracking under their boots making their ears twitch in anxiety and anticipation. It was quiet, a forest this quiet could even allow one to hear someone swallow their spit from a mile away. The shuffling of clothes and the rubbery pull of a boot bending - this is all the sounds amounted to, focusing more and more until a specific thing could only be heard until finally reaching their destination. A small open field within a thicket of trees. Seth pulls out two revolvers on his belt, carrying the both of them in one hand before tossing it to his free one, spinning the both of them with one finger on each hand before stopping, pointing one of the revolver's barrels over to the other side of the field. "Stand over there." He says, almost as if it was a demand. "You can stand there... or leave, the choice is yours."
She knew of his intent, and she did in fact hesitate. Hunter makes her way to where Seth pointed, Seth beginning to walk towards her, offering one of the revolvers he has on hand. She grabs it from his hand and he backs up carefully, putting the remaining revolver that he has back into its holster. "So you want a duel...?" She asks, staring down at her hands, revolver in one.
"A duel would be best, it helps me with my resolve." Seth's hands shook when saying those words, his bottom lip quivering as if holding back tears. Seth takes a deep breath before exhaling, swallowing through a dry throat, focusing on his expanding lungs as he takes air into his body, focusing on the blood flowing through his arms, legs, neck - tickling his body slightly as his heart rate increases more and more. His eyes have not closed once during this time.
"Resolve..." Hunter fires at Seth, hitting him in the shoulder. Seth quickly fires into her once in the chest, just below her breasts. She cocks back the hammer and attempts to fire once again but Seth was faster, hitting her in her forearm so she can't use her gun anymore. She drops her revolver and falls to the floor on her hands and knees, blood leaking from her lips and her wounds stain her shirt, blood seeping through her arm and chest. Hunter sits herself up, attempting to breathe properly, feeling the wound on her chest as to chest where it hit. Perfectly between the Apex of her heart and the Anterior Interventricular Artery. She falls to the ground, grasping at her bleeding chest with both of her arms, air barely coming out from her mouth, coming out in almost a whistle.
Seth's hands shake viciously, dropping the gun in his hand as he attempts to not run over to her, barely able to keep back his tears. After a few seconds of contemplation, Seth runs over to her, rolling her over and attempting his best to put pressure onto her wounds, begging her not to go, begging her not to die but it was too late, all she saw with a vague visage of what he once was sitting between her and a light glowing from behind him. She reaches out for that visage, wiping blood onto his face before finally going limp.
"FUCK!" Seth screams, digging into the cheeks of his face, causing them to bleed profusely, cutting two lines into himself. Blood, tears, sweat.