Captain Judge led his team for many months and never before has he experienced a loss of a soldier in his team. Driven by this experience he grew colder, his face became stone without an expression on it, only focusing on the completion of the mission without any more lives lost in his team. He substituted the slow and careful approach to a more quick and methodical route to the base with the supplies they've collected up to this point. They encountered no zombies on their way back, it seemed as if it was lady luck who was paying them back after that huge hoard ambushed them taking one of their own. Nobody uttered a word when they arrived back to base which was also devoid of any zombies, a complete turn of events compared to what they saw on the day they left the base. They looked like soldiers coming home from war upon walking inside. No more tears were left to cry, Sandra and Ghost's eyes were puffy and bloodshot which confused everyone inside. Crow immediately left the group to sit and read at her usual table avoiding everyone's eyes. Captain Judge took the supplies to give a report to the old man with nobody daring to look his way.
"Hey where's that drunken fool Dion? He still owes me money, don't tell me the fool done got himself killed Hahahaha!" A random gambler shouted out.
Sandra winced at the statement causing Knuckles to lead her and Lili to their table with Ghost following after them giving a glare to the man who shouted. The knight was a little more hot headed as his temper got the best of him in the moment leading to him charging at the man. He caught everyone off guard by picking him up and slamming him against the wall like a rhino. After knocking all of the air out of him The knight began to swing at him before anyone could react to the commotion. He got in a good five swings with the man trying to block them and recover. The swings were timed and planned to purely cause as much damage as humanely possible without allowing the man release from the pain.
"You damn idiots! Get this animal off of me already!" The man screamed with his arms covering his face in an attempt at blocking the blows raining down on him.
"Die die die die die die die." The knight would whisper to himself after every swing down at the man who had insulted his friend.
The first support finally came to try and separate the two after being woken up by the man's screaming orders. Eyes wide in shock, Knuckles and Ghost ran to try and help subdue their friend before he seriously injured that man. And just like that the flood gates opened with many more joining to separate the two. The knight didn't stop despite not being able to move his arms without struggling, he was acting like a rabid animal, lashing out at anyone and everyone. The man however was outright hiding behind the others trying to put as much distance between himself and The knight.
"Get that animal away from me! It should be put down. It's worse than a fucking zombie." The man said holding his gut with arrogance, fear, and vexation filling his voice and words.
"Take back what you said or I'll rip your tounge out and shove it down you're mother fucking throat!" The knight said while admiring the damage he had done to the man.
"Woah! Hey dude chill out what's got you all angry and such? I know Jim can be kind of a dick at times, but there's no reason for murder now." A familiar face said from the side trying to calm The knight down.
"Shut up Leroy Jenkins! This has nothing to do with you, this is between me and the man whose throat I'm going to rip out and shove up his ass!" The knight yelled out barely glancing at the man he dubbed Leroy Jenkins.
"What? But my names Phil?" The man whispered confused as he was pushed out of sight.
Suddenly the old man took notice of the commotion and decided to take action.
"Quiet! Now someone tell me what's going on here." The old man said as everyone paused to look at him except for The knight who took that opportunity to dash forward passed the group and get one last headbutt in on the man he beat up, completely knocking him out.
"Hey! When I say stop, you stop!" The old man said reacting to the headbutt.
"You never said to stop though? You only said quiet." The knight responded cheeky, but still angered by the whole ordeal.
"You know you've just given me more work, now I'm going to have to come up with a punishment for you and your actions." The old man said sighing.
"Oh don't worry, I'll solve it for you, I'm gone." The knight said irrationally.
"Wait wha.." The old man sputtered out before getting interrupted.
"Well then, clearly I'm coming with you." Lili said suddenly from beside The knight.
"Sure, let's go I guess." The knight said offering no resistance.
The two partners quickly left before any objections could arise from the old man or their friends. They started traveling downtown away from the previous zombie hoard that they last saw uptown. They moved further east to walk alongside the river while discovering that it was surprisingly peaceful. Little to no zombies bothered them as they took a stroll across from Randal's Island.
"With all the danger that's been around us lately, I've forgotten how peaceful and beautiful this city can actually be when there aren't any flesh eating monsters trying to kill you or convert you." Lili said looking out at the river.
"Heh! Hehehehehahahahahah! Phew convert. Heh! Makes em sound like those people that would come knocking on your door asking you if you knew about whichever diety they believed in. They would try converting you with the most aggressive tactics, kind of like zombies." The knight said finally showing some emotion that wasn't anger or self loathing.
"Oh yeah what's your favorite tactic to dealing with the undead bastards? Mine of course is just straight up smashing their skulls in. Although I do tend to practice some professional wrestling moves as well, like ooh ooooh oooh there was this one time i gave an rko to a zombie." He asked before reminiscing on all the zombies he's killed recently.
"Uhhh I prefer running or hiding." She said simply her cheeks lightly blushed from embarrassment at not being a fighter, but her eyes looked at The knight as if he was insane not that he noticed any of it.
"Huh? Running or hiding? But uhhhh didn't you, wait no you didn't, but I thought that you, how exactly did you get caught by those cannibals then?" The knight rapidly said ending thoughts and sentences without an exact coherent finish.
"Uhmiwasrunningfromzombiesandgotcaughtbythem." She said mumbling to herself after looking down at the water below.
"What?" He asked.
"Uhm I said uhh I uhh I uhm was running from well, from some zombies and was caught by the cannibals after they killed the zombies chasing me. I tried running away again, but then they just tied me up." She said a little bit more clearly.
"Ohhhhh. Well no matter I guess, you're my friend now and no stinking cannibal or zombie is gonna ruin that." He said giving her a big smile that she couldn't see.
"Thanks!" She said quietly.
"Mhm." He murmered.
"Uhhh sooo, where do we go from here?" She asked after a minute of silence while looking out at the calming river.
"We could always take a trip to my old apartment, it should still have some supplies that I left behind and it would be a much needed place that we could use to rest for the night or a couple of nights." He said thinking of his radio that provided much needed support early on during the apocalypse.
"Okay, let's go where is it though?" She asked.
"It's very closeby don't worry, it's just down in Chinatown in the Lower East Side." He responded before walking off without her.
She was too stunned to speak, she knew that Chinatown was a good hour or two away by walking and even longer since they would have to be slow and careful to not attract zombies. With only two of them in the group now it would become a lot more dangerous if they encountered zombies on their journey. The knight however wasn't worried and took her silence as confirmation to the start of their journey as he continued to walk ahead of her. The knight grew silent as they walked with his thoughts delving into darker topics once again the more that time passed. The two traveled silently down 1st avenue towards Chinatown, Lili forcing The knight to at least try and be sneaky. The two arrived safely to 68th Street where they saw a park that they could use as a resting spot.
"Wait, who are you two?" A dirty old man said peeking his head out from around a corner.
"Wait first who are you?" Lili asked hiding behind The knight.
"HI! I'm paul!" The knight said waving at the old man.
"Is your name really paul?" Lili whispered to him.
"Nah I just think it's a cool name." The knight said shrugging his shoulders.
"Don't ignore me, answer my question who the hell are you two?" The dirty man asked a little louder now as he was beginning to get aggravated.
"Calm down we're just passing by, we didn't know that anybody was here." Lili stated reassuringly.
"Oh well why didn't you just start with that?" The old man said with a smile forming on his face as he walked out into the open.
He threw his arms out to his side as he welcomed them to his humble abode. The smile only grew as he got a better look at Lili. He gave a slight glare at The knight before neutralizing his expression before the two could notice.
"Of course you two can stay the night here, you must be rather tired after all of the walking you did to get here. Stay right there I have some water in the back here, allow me to get you two a glass." He said creepily while disappearing back into the bathroom.
Lili shivered in disgust with her mistrust growing by the minute. The knight noticed none of this as he took a seat on a swing to wait for the dirty old man and the water. The sun was starting to set as they waited on the water.
"Hey uh can we go? The longer I stay here the more I feel like there's something weird that's about to happen." Lili said lightly pleading with The knight.
"Uh sure I guess, as long as your willing to risk traveling at night with more potential of a zombie encounter." The knight replied throwing in a light joke.
The two got ready to leave, packing up all their things and discussing the best route to take. When they were about to leave the park the old man they waited on for some time finally came out of the bathroom with the water. Seeing the two about to leave, he panicked launching the water into the air to catch up to them.
"Wait! Wait wait wait wait, don't leave just yet. What about your water? I went through all this work to be accommodating, stay here for just one night please." The old man pleaded with them diving to his knees while holding The knight's hand back to prevent them from leaving.
"Hey uhh let go of my hand please. Nah like deadass let go of me!" The knight said while attempting to get his hand free from the old man's iron grasp.
The knight roughly pulled his hand free causing the old man to fall face first to the ground. Lili just backed away in disgust hiding behind The knight for cover. The old man cried as he thought of how he would once again be alone when The knight and Lili left him. The pitiful sight of the old man crying tugged at Lili's heartstrings as despite her thinking of the old man as creepy nobody wants to see or be the cause of a crying old man. The knight simply had little to no care in the world and ignored the sight in front of him.
"I guess we could stay just for one night." Lili said slowly hesitating on each word like she doesn't really believe in the words she uttered.
"If you're absolutely sure then okay I guess we'll stay." The knight said.
Their response to the old man crying quickly helped him recover as he stood up hugging The knight and Lili before going back to the bathroom to get the two water since he spilled the previous two cups. While he was gone The knight and Lili just looked at each other awkwardly as neither of them truly wanted to stay there. When the old man returned with the cups of water The knight simply tossed the liquid over his shoulder without the old man noticing as Lili took small sips which she regretted upon seeing The knight just toss the liquid. The old man returned to his bathroom and didn't come out for some time. A short while after he left Lili began to grow tired and The knight pretended to sleep as his insomnia prevented him from resting.
"Hey Lili you asleep yet?" The knight whispered to no response other than the light and soft breathing of Lili sleeping nearby.
The knight went back to pretending to sleep when the old man finally came out of his bathroom with rope. The next time The knight turned around to see if Lili was sleeping she was gone. In a panic The knight got up immediately and ran around the park screaming out for Lili. His thoughts began to grow dark once again as he imagined all of the worst possibilities. Once he finished searching all around the outside of the park his eyes landed on the open bathroom door. In a trance he started walking toward the door, the closer he came to the door the more he heard giggling and a maniacal laughter coming from inside. Silently he turned the corner walking inside of the bathroom and saw the old man standing there.
"Fihihihihihi I finally have you my dear!" The old man said his voice rising and dropping in octaves, his eyes were manic with an obsessed look in them.
In front of the old man was Lili tied up, but still sleeping as a primal rage grew within The knight. His previous rage wasn't yet spent and was still bubbling underneath the surface, but this view, this action taken by the old man has reignited that flame and brought it up. The heat rose like a volcano that was ready and about to erupt burning everything down in the process. The knight walked slowly towards the old man without being noticed by him at all.
"I'm going to kill you." The knight whispered out to the old man without any emotion in his voice.
The sudden noise startled the old man as he had thought that The knight was asleep and wouldn't be able to wake up due to the stuff he added to the water. The old man took the first move, charging at The knight he threw a wide over reaching punch hoping to catch him off guard and finish him with a single punch. The knight slapped the punch away and turned his body to dodge it as the old man passed by him falling to the floor. Before he could fully fall though The knight grabbed hold of the back of the man's pants and pulled him up. While the old man was in the middle of the air The knight grabbed hold of him wrapping his arms around the man's waist and slamming him head first into the ground in a bridge. The quick german suplex by The knight didn't end there as he held on and got up which forced the man up with him. The knight delivered another quick german suplex without releasing the old man, on the final one instead of a quick one The knight put all of his strength to lift the man up turn him upside down and drive his head into the ground hard.
"Ughhh wha- I uhhhhhh urgh." Lili uttered starting to wake up.
When Lili finally gained full consciousness her first view was The knight on top of the old man delivering slow powerful punches that weren't being defended against. Blood began to pool around the bottom of the old man's head as bone pieces could be found with splatters of blood across the room. Despite The knight's fist meeting brain matter in every punch he continued on in a trance of cold brutal anger.
"You're not allowed to take away my friends, you're not allowed to harm them. Anyone who harms my friends will be liquidated, their blood spilled as their bones and organs mix." The knight stated softly.
The knight continued punching the dead body as he spoke. Soon enough he suddenly stopped punching as he remembered that Lili was still tied up right next to him as she watched his melt down against the dead body that could no longer do any harm to him, Lili or anybody else in the world.
"Uhhh hey, I guess this is your second time being kidnapped huh?" The knight said while untying Lili from her restraints.
"No it's my third time." Lili said whispering.
"Wait third? What was the first time then?" The knight asked bewildered by the revelation.
"Don't." Lili said turning her head away from looking at The knight.
The two silently walked around the bloody and beaten dead body of the old man and left the bloodied bathroom in the park. Lili was shaken up by the very close sight of a recently dead body as the smell penetrated her nose. She was used to the smell of age old dead bodies, but not one so freshly killed. The two began to walk out of the park as Lili slowly got better from being light headed. They walked into the darkness with only the moon to light their way.
"Are we still going to go to your former apartment in Chinatown?" Lili asked to break the weird silence between them.
"Yep we still need those supplies, well now more than ever especially after that creepy old man tried to kidnap you. I think we both need a well deserved rest." The knight replied to Lili with a yawn.
"Yea I suppose I am pretty tired, that drug didn't really give me any rest." Lili said joking around as she rubbed her eyes in exhaustion.
The two friends walked to a nearby cafe and were surprised to find out that it was relatively intact with no zombies inside. It was the perfect quick rest spot for the night before they went off again on their adventure. The sun soon rose waking them both up with a blinding light of heat. They both quickly got ready and once again set off on their own adventure to Chinatown.