Ranger Center - Prison Officials Hallway
As you step into the hallway, you notice that this section of the center used to hold the prison officals’ workrooms, indicated by the aged signs which still hang on some of the doors. To the west you see, past an old wooden door, an Administrative Officer setting at a desk covered with paperwork, and to the east, you see the hallway branch off, leading deeper into the Center.
Vico and Amarak are standing around in the hallway, idling chatting.
Footsteps can be heard in the distance, echoing off of the walls of the prison. A voice can be heard, it sounds like a child’s voice, “Jarod, what is this place?” Another voice can be heard saying, “It’s a prison, Kid. An old prison.” The pair quickly come into view, and continue walking towards the group that is now getting larger.
Amarak says: And how do I make more cash, but to kill? Even the rangers paycheck don’t pay for my ammo. This knife is gonna have to see more use if I’m gonna see the green, AND the bullets start rolling in.
Vico looks at the man and kid that enter trough the prison door and nods at them before returning to conversate with Amarak. “Well son, then you need to offer your services to the public, or the paycheck from the rangers wont even pay food nor water, if you get what im saying.”
The scarred man stops and leans against a wall, opening his burnt cargo pants and pulling out a lighter and pack of cigarettes. He offers one to the child, who promptly refuses. The scarred man props his right leg up against the wall, and lights the cigarette, extinguishing the lighter afterwards. The child copies the man and leans against the wall as well, thrusting his hands into his pockets.
Amarak turns to see where the sounds are coming from, but turns back quickly to Vico. “Its still a nice concept, but I’m still at square one, no skills yet that would make it worth hiring me out…how do I improve my skills? By killing, how do I kill? Improve my skills…” Amarak pulls his knife out, twirls it, then resheathes it.
In the distance… The unheard sound of something stretching may barely be audible from this point in the hallway. The source of the sound, however, isn’t locatable. Nor is the three-foot shaft of wood, tipped with metal that is lined up with the stretched cord. A quiet ’thwang’ sound calls out, the result of it being a nocked arrow flying towards a member of the collected group in the Ranger Center’s hallway. Anyone spectating in slow motion, could guess that the shaft of wood’s sharp, barbed arrowhead seems to be flying towards a tallish mercenary, wearing black clothing.
The leaning man takes a long drag off of his cigarette, burning it halfway down with one drag. He calmly blows the smoke out of his mouth, acting like nothing happened. The man nods at Vico, “What’s goin’ on?” The child continues to lean against the wall, totally calm.
Vico barges at Amarak trying to throw him to the floor and quickly drops into the ground, not evading the arrow which strikes him on the left leg.
The scarred man spits out his cigarette, and grabs the child, tossing him to the ground, and putting himself in front of the child, getting down onto the ground, but resting on his right knee. Jarod reaches down to the black holster along his right thigh, and flips it open, grabbing the USP pistol that reside inside with his right hand, quickly switching off the safety and pointing it down the hallway firing off a few rounds in the direction that the arrow originated from.
Amarak lands on the ground with a small “‘uff!” from being pushed about and landing on his back on the hard cement floor. Recovering, Amarak sits up rubbing his hands along his back, “Merc, what the hell was that for…” then he sees that an arrow shaft is sticking out of Vico’s leg. “You okay?”
With all the noise from the falling people, and the gunshots, no-one can hear the nocking of another arrow, or the dull noise it creates when fired. The barbed arrow flies towards it’s target: The torso of the now prone form of Vico.
Vico tries to move, but he cant due that he has an arrow on his left leg, he tries to take it out but before he can move a second arrow hits Vico’s intestine, damaging the Ileon, he goes back to the ground moaning and groaning while yelling “Someone fucking help me, this shit huts a lot!”
The scarred man tries to see where the arrows are being shot from, with no luck, he empties the entire magazine of the USP down the hall, in an attempt to stop whoever is shooting arrows at the group of people. The child puts his hands over his head in an attempt to block out the incredibly loud noise that the pistol makes when fired.
Amarak apparently isn’t the target. Standing up, Amarak pushes his body against the wall, trying to make sure he continues not being the target. Pulling out his M1911A1, and taking the safety off, Amarak crouches down and starts slowly crouch-walking down the hallway to the source of the arrows.
The scarred man tries to see where the arrows are being shot from, with no luck, he empties the entire magazine of the USP down the hall, in an attempt to stop whoever is shooting arrows at the man who now lies on the floor, bleeding. The child puts his hands over his head in an attempt to block out the incredibly loud barking noise that the pistol makes when fired, but raises his head up so as to be able to see Vico. The child just stares at the man who is screaming in pain, but runs over to him, in an attempt to help. The way that the child is crouching, he is directly in the way of another shot, unless the shot were made at Vico’s legs.
Amarak turning over on his stomach, Amarak pushes with both arms to lift himself off the ground and onto his knees so he can crawl. Nimbly scooting over as fast as he can, Amarak pops open his first aid kit, looking over Vico up and down to see what he can do to help the guy out.
Vico is unable to do a single movement with an arrow on his leg and on his intestine he can just move his head which moves slowly toward Amarak and he slowly says ‘Give me some morphine and i will be fine’, he slowly drops his head to see the kid by his side which just keeps looking at him.
The bow is drawn again… Yet another arrow nocked against the wood of the bow. This one seems slightly different. But those in the crowd won’t notice. This arrow seems to have no barbs.. perhaps the mystery archer is running low on arrows, it’d be easy to pull out - if anyone was stupid enough to try it. This one flies towards a different target this time… The scarred man. The arrow rises majestically on it’s deadly path towards the Sindikat member.
Jarod thrusts his left hand into the black thigh holster, grabbing a magazine, and pushing the magazine release button on his USP, dropping the magazine out and quickly slamming another one home, pulling back the slider on the pistol, loading a round into the chamber. He gets into a standing crouch, and runs down the hallway, pistol drawn, pointing down the hallway, he shoots his USP pistol as he runs forth, not knowing what await him.
Amarak flipping through all the contents of his kit as quickly as he can, he finds a pair of morphine needles and grabs one, quickly injecting Vico with the medicine. “These arrows look nasty, not gonna touch those, might hurt you more then help you if I yank ’em, need help up?” Amarak sits in a crouch, offering his shoulder to Vico.
The child checks out Vico, not knowing what to do, he notices Jarod getting up and running. The child pulls out a small .380 Backup pistol that he had stashed in his pants, and chases after Jarod, yelling at him to ‘STOP!’
Vico takes Amarak shoulder and slowly stands up while seeing Jarod and the kid run toward the hallway entrance, he can only wish the good luck.
Jarod hears the child screaming at him, and immediately drops to the deck, crawling around in a way that he can check to make sure that the child is alright. He looks back and yells at the child to go back. The warning from Jarod comes too late, as the arrow that was apparently meant for him, hits the child in the neck, ripping through his spinal cord. The child drops to the floor, bleeding out of his throat.
Amarak heaving with a pull of strength, Amarak manages to stand up enough to hobble under Vicos weight. Slowly pivoting, Amarak starts to lead Vico towards the doctor in the base, knowing HE can fix Vico up. “Come’on Merc, you’re hurt, lets get a move on”
Vico nods at Amarak and while he walks he notices the arrow hitting the children’s neck, he watches the horror and pulls the trigger on his USP aiming down the hallway before trying to move faster.
Jarod looks at the child, and screams in a mixture of terror, rage and anguish at the person shooting the arrows. “NO!” Jarod scrambles up, dropping his USP as he does so, and runs to the child, attempting to see if he can help the young boy. The scarred man drops to his knees, and sees that the child’s head is only being held on by a small piece of skin.
Kid lies on the floor, quickly bleeding to death, his vision blackening. He attempts to say something to Jarod, but finds out that his vocal cords aren’t functioning properly. Everything seems to be moving in a blur, as he sees the outline of a body, hopefully Jarod, his vision goes black, and he stops breathing.
With almost mechanical professionalism, another arrow is swiftly nocked… The archer seems to be rushed, as he fires almost as soon as he can. With a rough-aim, this arrow flies towards the shoulder of Amarak. Whoever the archer is, they certainly didn’t plan on this chain of events.
Amarak carries Vicos weight on that shoulder, and unable to move it out of the way, Amarak emits a loud curse, “DAMNIT!” Though luckly its not a leg hit, Amarak takes his uninjured arm and tugs on Vico, makeing sure hes still with Amarak, and tries to drag the merc around the corner and out of sight.
The scarred man begins to weep, knowing that the child just died. He sits on his knees, and picks up the child, weeping as he does so. Jarod stands up, dead child in his arms, carefully holding the head to make sure that it doesn’t fall to the floor. He begins to slowly walk down the hallway, sobbing as he makes his way down the hallway.
Vico looks at Jarod with sadness on his face, he looks at Amarak and says “Leave me near the wall where the archer can’t see me and take this”, Vico opens his SWAT vest and pulls out the Remington 890 hidden under it and slowly gives it to Amarak.
Amarak holds his left hand up, and keeps his right arm making sure Vico is still being dragged, “Sorry Merc, something hit me, and it hurts like nothing else I know of…its in my right shoulder too…can’t aim a gun worth anything now…still want to be dropped along the wall? You ain’t getting to the doctor like this…”
Jarod slowly moves down the hallway, passing by his pistol that still lie on the floor. He seems entirely focused on getting out of this place, and nothing else. The scarred man moves against the wall, a poor attempt to stay out of the way of any arrows. He stares at the dead child while he makes his way down the hallway.
No arrow is nocked. No aiming done.. In fact, the mysterious archer seems to have slipped back into a specific room in the Ranger Center, avoiding the people in hallway.
Jarod continues to slowly make his way down the hallway. He stops, and turns around looking at his pistol, the building rage easily recognizable in his facial expression. He makes his way back toward the USP that lie on the floor. The man sighs and says to himself, “I can’t just let someone have ‘my’ gun.”
Vico lends against the walls and looks at Amarak for a moment and says “Man, I can’t keep walking this fucking arrow doesnt let me, ill try to take it out” In a crazy attempt to take out the arrow Vico breaks the arrow biggest part that is standing out of Vicos leg, he manages to break the wooden part but the serrated arrow is still inside Vicos leg.
Amarak grabbing Vico under his arms to drag him, Amarak resumes the slow movement, then giveing a sharp call for help, this IS the ranger base, there has to be another ranger that can help somewhere around here. “Well Merc…don’t matter much anyways, we’ve both got dates with the doc, and he hates when you’re late.”
The scarred man picks up his pistol, holding the child in his left arm, and bending down as he picks it up. He thrust the pistol into his holster, and goes back to holding the child in both arms, making his way down the hallway away from the entrance to the ranger center. Jarod looks around as he makes his way, attempting to find the assassin.
The mysterious archer seems to have disappeared. There’s no sign of their presence. Perhaps this assassin hid in a room down the hallway, or even made good their escape?
Jarod stops, giving up on the person that killed this child. The scarred man looks at the child “It’s my fault you died, I should’ve just got us out of here.” He stops and lies the child on the floor and continues to weep, holding the child against his chest.