Eli was slumped down in the corner of the room by the time I got there. Another baggie of meth had been laid out on the pillow on the floor that I first sat on. I picked it up and nearly salivated again as I sat myself down and pulled out my pipe. I put a few rocks into the bowl, and heat it with the lighter. The smoke felt like ecstasy as the aching and irritation finally faded.
"You know…" Eli slurred as he shifted in his position. "You're a cool..cool guy, Lyle."
"You too, Elijah." I tipped my pipe to him as if it were a glass of wine at a wedding.
I put it back in place in my mouth and take another long drag of the smoke.
"FUCK that's good."
I slammed my fist into the ground over and over again as surges of energy flooded my body. I needed to release this energy somehow or I would die. I slammed my fist into the wall of the shed and headed out.
Why are you doing this? Shouldn't you be trying to strengthen your body so you don't die?
All day, the ego would speak to me like this. Finally, after a couple of hours wandering around the town, I stopped in front of the stone wall that encircled the town and ran head-first into it.
"Stop. Telling. Me. What. To. Do." I emphasized each word with another slamming my head into the wall. "Let. Me. Fucking. Enjoy. Myself." Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam.
Blood trickled down my forehead, and I stumbled back toward the shed. Shoving past people, and cursing at them as I passed. Why were they stopping me as well? Why was everyone against me having a good time? What was with that look in their eyes, as I stumbled to the slums, I caught the eye of a group of women, who looked at me with disgust.
"What? What the fuck do you want you fucking bitches? Fuck you." I growled as I stumbled past them.
"Hey, fuck off man." A man tried to confront me, and I spit on him as I stumbled away.
He grabbed me by the shoulder and slammed his fist into my face. I went down and then jumped on him like a rabid animal, and we rolled around in the mud for a while. Soon, several other people managed to pull us apart: blood poured from my bruised nose, and out of the many scratches that I laid on him.
"What the fuck are you even doing here, tweaker?" The man said as he wiped his bruised face.
"Whatever the FUCK I want."
I stumbled into the slums, and back into the shack. The high was wearing off, and my body was shutting down. Once I stumbled into the shed, I passed out. For the next few days, this was my life: got high off of the supply that Eli provided, wandered around town yelling at people to leave me alone, and passed out somewhere: either the inn or in the shed depending on where I was closest.
My infamy in town increased from 1, to close to 100. People glared at me while I walked by, and I glared back. What the fuck did they know? Fucking bastards. Fucking judgmental bastards. People drink all of the time, how was my vice any different?
I don't know what day it was, or how long I had been stumbling through the town when I began to shamble my way back to the shed. The latest high was wearing off, and every noise felt as if it were scraping across my brain. That's when I came across a group of children. They ran passed me laughing. Laughing. Like someone put a marble in a tin can. Laughing. It made my head hurt. Were they laughing at me? They were laughing at me. They were laughing at me.
"Fuck you." I snarled as they came past, "Get the fuck out of here before I fucking kill you little pieces of shit."
They screamed as I reached out for them, but I stumbled and missed, and draped myself over the lip of the bridge that I had been on. The water cast back my reflection, and for the first time since this bender, I saw myself. Sores formed on my face, and my eyes were bloodshot. I looked like hell and felt like it. But what could I do? If I didn't have it, I felt miserable.
I stumbled into the shed, and Eli was there today: slumped with his chin resting on his chest, and his belt undone around his arm. I laid down on the little mat that we bought. Hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the sun was gone when the curtain was flung open.
"Hey, who the fuck are you?" Eli demanded. I could barely keep my eyes open.
"Are you the piece of shit giving my subordinate drugs?" Liam's voice said from the curtain.
"And, if I am?"
The sound of flesh pounding against flesh, and a body hitting the ground stirred me awake. Liam, Bernard, Jack Clara, and Aurora rushed in. Eli lay prostrated on the floor: a large red welt forming on his cheek. Jack looked at me pitifully. The rest looked at me with disgust.
"What the fuck did you do to Eli?" I pushed myself up, but Liam punched me next.
My head rocketed backward, and the world swirled.
"I'm sending you out of New Eden, Kyle." Liam said, "Until you're no longer like this."
My pipe had come out of my pocket. I reach forward to pick it up. With a look of disgust, Liam slammed his foot down on it and shattered it to pieces.
"What the fuck!"
"Stand up, Kyle."
"Fuck you!"
He grabbed me by the collar and yanked me to the feet and landed a solid slap across my face. I connected what I thought was a solid punch across his face, but he didn't even turn his head. Another solid slap and the world spun again.
"Kyle, I accepted you with open arms into the Secondary Assault Platoon, and this is how you repay me?"
He slapped me again.
"I gave you the heart of a Rat King, and this is how you repay me?"
Another slap.
"As a member of our organization, you are disgracing us."
He slapped me again.
"From this point until the end of your contract, you are hereby exiled from New Eden."
He raised his hand and I tried to raise my arms in defense, but he tore past them and landed another solid slap.
"Why?"
"It's either this, or you will be put to death." He let go of my collar and I fell to the ground and shrunk in the corner, he drew a sword from. "From this day forward, you are hereby ordered to join the Eastern Front to clear the way for the coming Expeditions. You are not allowed to enter New Eden." He tossed me my bag. It looked as if it had been packed. "You are not allowed to leave your PID anywhere but on your person, or ten feet from your person." He tossed the PID that I had left at the inn into the dust by my bag.
I grabbed my PID, and the words: EXILED appeared on the screen.
He tossed me my rifle, sword, and pistol.
"When you get the notification to join us on an expedition, you are required to join us."
Clara handed him two bags: my ammo bags.
"And once you are deposited out of White Company land, you are not allowed back in unless authorized by me, or until your contract period ends; whichever comes first."
"What? So I have to live in the wild? What would I do to live?"
"You will be given 1000 bullets for each of your guns, to be provided to you after you're deposited. You will be given the basics of things you need to survive including a camping kit, a fishing kit, a trapping kit, a sewing kit, and enough food to last you a week. All of this will be taken from your contracted amount. You will be given nothing else. We will send someone to your location every other week to ensure that you're following our orders, and to take anything you might have hunted and sell it. You will be given only half of the proceeds."
"That's not fair!"
"Not fair? No, you're right. What would be fair is if you were sent out with nothing, but we're not that cruel." He spat again, "What kind of scum threatens children?"
He tossed a new pair of clothes: the same kind of clothes I was given when I first got here.
"Change into these, and we will escort you toward the Eastern Front, and drop you off twenty miles beyond."
They stepped out, and I cursed my luck as I slipped on the familiar clothes, and strapped on my boots. Clara, meanwhile, healed Eli so that he didn't die before stepping out.
"Hurry up," Bernard grumbled as he picked up a few of the bags on the ground.
Liam stepped in after him and motioned to Jack. Jack picked up my rifle, pistol, and sword, and Aurora took my bag as Liam grabbed hold of my shoulder. Like this, they dragged me out of the city of New Eden. People watched and a few smiled as they saw me with my head hung down as they led me to the gate. They stopped me there, took a polaroid of my face, and put me on a board with the words EXILED written on top, and scrawled the words, 'until contract ends.'
They dragged me across the path, as we walked in silence, and in that silence tossed all my things in the back of a jeep already pointing away from New Eden, and had me sit down. Liam sat in the driver's seat and pulled away.