Thomas lifted the rock up into the air and behind his head and with a whoosh sound he hit the second guy on the street below him.
The guy had a bandana on so he wasn't able to see his face. One wet thud later and there was only one guy left. The last guy started panicking and shooting randomly while spinning and screaming his guts out.
"Come get some you bastard!"
Thomas had to crouch behind the lip of the rooftop to avoid getting shot. He peeked over and decided on his next move. He took a few steps back and ran towards the edge of the building with the intent to leap off.
"One, two, and three!" Thomas leapt over the edge while keeping his eyes focused on the gunman.
Thomas hit the height of his jump and started to fall. All in a single moment the man turned and spotted Thomas and quickly waved his still firing gun across where Thomas was.
A single bullet dug itself deep into Thomas thigh. He used all of his willpower and fought through the pain as he descended on the gunman pushing him to the ground with his weight.
There was a loud bone breaking crunch and before even five seconds had passed, Thomas grabbed the barrel of his gun and ignored the burning pain in his hand.
He ripped the gun from the guys hands and threw it to the side. "No no no, please I'm begging you don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want!"
Thomas didn't even pause for a second and pulled his sword from its sheathe. The mans pleading fell on deaf ears. Thomas lined up the tip of his sword with the mans Adams apple and with one precise movement a horizontal cut appeared on his throat.
Thomas put away his sword in the scabbard on his back. The mans pleading quickly turned to gargling and choking on his own blood.
Thomas turned and began looting the corpses for anything useful. By now Anne and Max appeared from where they were hiding from the stray bullets.
"Man, I've seen quite a bit these past few months but this takes the cake." Max said with his eyes widened in amazement.
"Thomas, your injured!" Anne ran over and started inspecting the bleeding wound on his leg.
"It was them or us, and I just did what looked like the most direct option." Thomas replied and sat down on the elevated platform of the barricade to let Anne check his wound.
"There's an exit wound. It looks like it went straight through lucky for you." Anne said.
"I have some bandages in my pack if you don't mind patching me up." Thomas said and handed over his pack. After rummaging around she found a small thing of rolled up gauze and started wrapping up his wound.
"That was extremely reckless. You could've been killed." Anne said.
"I've been through much worse trust me, this is nothing." Thomas replied.
Max folded his arms and looked up at the three story building where Thomas had jumped from.
Anne finished wrapping him up and started wiping away the blood that got on her hands. "That should do it. Just hope it doesn't get infected."
"We should get going, all that gunfire is going to attract all the mutated in the city." Thomas grabbed his pack and opened up the gate that was built in the barricade. Surprisingly the gunshot wound in his leg didn't seem to slow him down much.
Max shook his head and began to follow along side Anne. They made haste through the city and after a few more hours they finally made it to their destination.
Once they could see the settlement in the distance Thomas dropped his pack and turned to the other two. He pulled out the paper with the details of their job.
"So the job is to escort some people from this settlement to another one in the east. There should only be three of them. Any questions?"
"Yeah, who are they and why do they need an escort?" Anne asked what everyone was thinking.
"Probably some bigshot kids with wealthy parents or something." Max said.
"Our job is to get them where they need to go. The "why" doesn't matter. Lets just get this over with."
They made it to the gate after a few minutes and entered without trouble. This settlement looked very similar to the one they are from. People set up stalls at either side of the street selling weapons and other useful things. They didn't pay any mind to any of the people calling out trying to sell their wares.
They had guards posted at the entrance and patrolling the settlements here and there. Most of them were just ordinary humans, unmutated.
People that mutate without becoming a mindless animal are very rare and sometimes get special treatment from the more wealthy patrons.
The group made their way deeper into the settlement until they found the tavern where they were supposed to meet the client.
They entered to the sounds of people chattering and drinking. Only one group of people looked up at their arrival.
"That must be them." Thomas thought to himself and approached their table. There was an older looking man with a scruffy brown beard and bald head. He didn't have a super muscular body but he was definitely in good shape.
There were also two other people but they stayed seated while the bearded man stood and gave Thomas a firm handshake.
"I assume your the client for the escort job?" Thomas asked and returned the handshake.
"That's right." The man said as he suddenly increased his grip on Thomas hand.
Thomas was confused at first but then realized this guy was just testing him. Thomas also increased his grip. For any normal person they might make it out with a sprained hand but for Thomas this was child's play.
The man started sweating and creased his brow with the effort.
"Interesting! You can tell a lot about a man with a good shake!" He released his hand and slapped Thomas on the shoulder in a friendly way.
Thomas was never good with these types of people. Very energetic and positive all the time which reminds him of a certain someone (Max).
"The name's Jimmy. It's good to meet you all." Said the man and continued to do the same handshake test on Max who struggled a bit since his upper body wasn't very strong even when compared to a normal human.
When he got to Anne it looked like he intentionally held back and instead was focused on her sharp brown eyes. Whether he had seen anything or not, he opted to keep it to himself.
"So, you three are going to protect us on this long journey aye? Well, that's just wonderful! These fellas here are my companions." He pointed to the guy setting to their left.
"This here is Leo. We've been travelling together for a few months now." Then he pointed to the other guy to their right. "And this here is McKinley. He's been with us for a few days now but he's a good man."
Leo looked like the kind of man that kept to himself. He was a little on the thick side but didnt look like that would slow him down at all.
On the other hand McKinley was very slim with dark patches under his eyes. He wore a hoodie and mostly kept his face hidden.
Thomas nodded a greeting to the men and introduced his own group. "I'm Thomas and this is Anne and Max.
"Nice to meet you all. If its all the same to you we'd like to hit the road as they say. Gotta make it to Snowspell village in the next couple of days or our boss will have our heads." Jimmy said and swung his coat on.
"Sounds good." Thomas replied and the group made there way out of the tavern.
They made it out of the tavern and through the front gate to the open road. Thomas made a mental note to keep his guard up for any dangers while they travel. There mission is to keep jimmy and his companions safe for the duration of the trip.
Thomas had Max and Anne both take the rear while he took the lead and Jimmy's group stayed in the middle while they traveled to make sure they were safe.
After walking for a couple of hours the sun was on its way down as it started to get dark out. They passed building after building as usual but after a while the buildings were replaced with fields of tall grass and trees blocking what little sun was left.
Max had never been out this way and so when he first heard the name of the settlement from jimmy he was wondering why it was called Snowspell. To break the silence he decided to ask.
"Its called that because after the outbreak, the weather in some areas of the world changed drastically for some unknown reason. Snowspell in particular used to be warm all year round but now its a frozen wasteland." Jimmy explained.