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By now, you're probably wondering how the old nun was going to react to me shooting the priest of her church straight through the face, even though she asked me to. The answer to that question is...as expected I would say. She was understandably upset, but she understood that he was a threat to the rest of people under her care, and sometimes you have to make choices you don't want to make. Been there, done that, wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. After I had taken care of the Priest, Mother Angelica asked me to clean the zombies out of the cemetery behind the church so they could bury the priest and a couple of other survivors that had died recently. So that's what Jacob and I did while the others helped out inside with straightening things up. We were rounding up the kills when he asked.

"Skyline, how long have you been Hunting bounties?", he asked.

"I dunno", I said shrugging, "about 5 years? Maybe 6?"

He sighed, "does it get easier? Seeing shit like this?"

I shrugged, "maybe not for you, everyone's different when it comes to this. It's never really bothered me because of how I was treated when I was a kid and never mind the fact I've almost met death about 10 times over the course of my life. Way I see it, we all gotta go home to God sometime. Some just go sooner than others."

"Ain't that the truth", Jacob said as he laid the last zombie down. Will and another guy had come out from inside the church with shovels and a bunch of white fabric. When they say the pile of bodies, they shook their heads.

"How much worse can this shit get before it ends?", Will asked.

"That's not a question you should be asking", I said, "chances are it will get answered with worse, much worse. Trust me."

"I'll take your word for it", Will said, "by the way, Mother Angelica wants to talk to you again."

I nodded and Jacob and I returned to the church, where a service was now in progress, with a few of the survivors, non believers by my guess, were discussing the current supply situation. It amazed me how even in situations like this, people would still question God's existence, where I was over here 100% sure I'd be dead by now if he wasn't on my side.

"You know", I said in a quiet voice to avoid disturbing the service, "even if you don't believe, Mass might help you take your mind of the hell that's festering outside."

"Oh trust me brother", One of the three guys said, "tried that, didn't work, just made me feel even more screwed, because if there is a God, why hasn't he stopped all this? Why has he allowed so many people to die?"

"Couldn't tell you myself", I said, "the Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes, which might mean horrifically bad things have to happen to pave the way for something infinitely better to come along. According to Mother Angelica, she knew I was coming."

"That old woman says a lot of things", the man said, "doesn't necessarily make them true."

"That may be", I said, "but just in case, remember that we're fighting for our lives right now and I need everyone's head put towards the same goal, and I'm sure Mother Angelica would tell you the same thing."

He nodded, "she has, we're all in this together, trust me, I understand that."

"Good", I said, "now what, if anything, can you tell me about the cities water pumping station?"

"All I know is the water got shut off a while ago", the man said, "I was out looking for some tools to bolster the church against...well what ever the hell those things were and when I got back the water was off. I got chased away from where they were by gangsters, and since you look like you've seen your fair share of fights, think you could retrieve them for me?"

"Depends if I can even get to them", I said, "where's the place at?"

"In a shed close by the pumping station", the man said, "maybe a half a mile east."

I nodded and walked to the back of the church, where I found Mother Angelica praying before a statue of the Virgin Marry.

"Mother Angelica?", I asked.

"Yes my child?", the old woman asked.

"I've dealt with the undead in the cemetery, Will and someone else are taking care of the burials."

"Thank you", she said, "you have helped us much by removing them. Now, you need medicine? Food? Supplies? I'm sorry but the city has already been looted, you won't find much unless you know where to look, however, before I tell you, I need one more thing done."

I nodded in agreement.

"The water was shut off not long ago", she said, "I sent Will's Father Ryan and his brother Tim to restore it, however, they have not returned and this worries me. They last contacted me when they arrived at the water station", she handed me a rolled up map as well as a picture of two guys, twins from the looks of them, "please, bring them home, or at least turn the water back on."

"I'll do everything I can Mother", I said.

'Thank you...", she paused.

"Skyline", I said,

She looked at me funny, "Skyline Imese? The Bounty Hunter?"

I nodded, "yeah, that's me."

"How have you ended up here my child?", she asked.

"It's a long story Mother", I said.

"Very well, I won't keep you any further, but I must speak with you later", she said.

"Of course", I said.

I walked from the back of the church and out into the court yard. I flashed the map to my friends and then went back down to the barricaded area that Steven and the others had set up, finding they basically had an entire artillery nest established. They'd moved two cars to block off the path ways that skirted around the tank and set up camouflage netting to use as shade as well as four chairs around a table that I guessed they'd scavenged from the surrounding area. Steven was even asleep in the back of one of the cars they were using as a blockade and had a small fan plugged into the cigarette lighter.

"Guys set this up quick", Jacob noted.

"Yep", Denny said, "when you work for Ryu, you pay attention in basic and we've got the scars to prove it. Man was savage as fuck with that horse whip."

"Must have really made up for it if you've stayed with him this long", Alcatraz said.

The third man, Ross, who managed the Tank's radar, nodded, "Ryu's always been a good man and wanted what's best for the people he ruled over, he just had really fucked up ways of going about it."

"I know", I said, "he told me. Is the tank ready to support us in the field yet? We have a map to the water station in hand."

"Yeah", Ross said, "if you've got a copy of Tyler's weird ass programming in your chip everything should be good to go, just radio us when you need support because the tank can't fire autonomously, it needs a manual loader and someone to pull the trigger."

I nodded, "will do. James, you stay here and help them hold down the fort. The rest of you are with me, the sooner we get the water back on the better."

"Rog", James said, "stay safe guys."

"Seriously", Ross said, "the streets are crawling with those undead fuckers, never mind the gang bangers."

"Yeah", I sighed, "and if they have communication everyone's gonna know we got a tank and every eye in the city will be looking for us."

"They better come up with a weapon that can kill an Abrams then", Ross said, "those don't exist."

"See you in a few hours I guess", I said as we climbed over the tank and headed into the slums. The state of the city became immediately apparent with spiked barrels, bloody skeleton's, trash and overturned cars, dead cops and gangsters and broken glass from Molotov cocktails were everywhere. There was no shortage of zombies gathered in the street's either. At the end of the street we'd taken to the church was T shaped intersection, one way led down a dead end street while the other went down a small hill and took a left turn about 1000' feet away. Between us and that turn, which according to the map, was part of the route we had to follow to get to the water pumping station, was about 240 zombies.

"Fuck", Alcatraz moaned as they started shambling towards us, "we gotta cut through all these ghouls?"

"Let's get to work then", I said charging my FAL. I placed the reticle on the head of the closest ghoul and began pulling the trigger as fast as I could, and so did the others. We were dropping several at a time, but it still took us a good five minutes to clean up the original 240, plus a few more that had shown up due to all the gunfire, despite our weapons being suppressed. I could tell already it was going to be a long day.

We moved through the street's single file, being as quiet as we possibly could and taking all the back alley's to avoid another contact with a zombie horde, but in reality we probably ended up killing another 100 zombies as we attempted to close the distance to the water plant. When we finally arrived, I knew off bat that we were gonna be in for yet another gunfight because not only was the entire place was guarded with gangster's.

"This doesn't look good", I said taking cover behind a scrapped truck.

"Hey!", one of the gang members shouted at me from across the street, "you and your friends get the fuck gone!"

"We're looking for two guys that came through here earlier today", I answered back, "we want them and the water turned back on."

"No fucking way!", the gangster shouted, "you asshole's at the church can fend for yourselves!"

I sighed, "look, we're just looking for these two guys." I tied the picture Mother Angelica had given to me to a nearby rock and tossed it at them, there was a brief pause before the man threw the rock back at me.

"Those blokes have to be punished for killing a few of our guys", the man snickered, "you have what's left of them once we're done."

"Take 'em down", I said popping out from behind the truck and letting a slug fly at the head of the gate guard, which prompted a barrage of fire from 9mm pistols and a few guys to run at us with melee weapons, only to be blown away by Alcatraz's Remington.

"Push up", I said slipping out from behind the truck and making a mad dash to the concrete wall, "don't give them room to breathe."

The gangster's were disorganized, but they weren't short on firepower, nor were they bad shots. We couldn't slip out to shoot at them without eating bullet's ourselves.

"I can't get a shot without taking one myself", I said as I attempted to peak around the corner, only to have a bullet graze across my visor, further cracking it.

"I got an idea", Alcatraz said. He pulled a stubby cylinder with four metal legs attached to it and set it on the ground. An antenna popped out of the top and it beeped two or three times before running into the fray. I heard someone inside the wall shout, "GET IT OFF!" before what sounded like the equivalent of a .44 Magnum SCW went off. Seconds later the device came crawling over the wall and set itself down at Alcatraz's feet.

"Good boy", Alcatraz said picking it up.

"What the hell is that?", I asked.

"Seeker drone", Alcatraz said, "modified from a seeker grenade. Uses a shotgun shell to kill instead of a explosive charge."

"Handy", I said peering around the corner, finding the gangster's were still I cover. I gave the order to move up and we filed along each side of a stack of connex boxes, half of us on the right and the other on the left. When the gangster's popped out to try and take more shots at us, they were meant with bullets to the heads.

"Gotta reload watch my ass", Alcatraz said as he loaded another set of shells into his Remington and then another slug into his drone friend.

"Ryu", I said getting on the radio as we stacked up on the entrance to the water plant, "we're at the plant's front door now, be advised, the place is crawling with gangbangers."

"Understood", Ryu said, "watch the aim of your weapons or you may damage equipment and systems critical to the operation of the plant. Contact me again when the plant is clear so I may send troops to hold it."

"Rog", I said, "Skyline out. Alcatraz, can you pull yourself up to that window and do a head count for us?"

"Got ya", Alcatraz said. He reached up and grabbed one of a few window sills right above his head, pulling himself up rather easily. He was up there for maybe five seconds before he came down.

"About 20 guys inside", He said, "most of them are gathered around the front door waiting for us."

I nodded and let the FAL fall to my side as a frag out of my vest and pulled the pin, cooking the grenade for a mere second before I cracked open the door and threw it inside.

"Grenade!", one of the gangster's shouted.

I could hear a scramble of expensive sneakers on the metal floor of the plant as the fuckers tried to escape the frag, though when it went off, to what sounded like no avail, on account of one of the loudest screams I'd overheard.

"Go", I said.

"Alcatraz kicked the door off the hinges and killed one of the gangster's still standing with it. Inside the grenade had caused quite a shitshow. About 10 guys were laying on the floor, some of them alive, but most of them dead. Two of the remaining nine people who were still alive were missing legs and were in too much pain to do anything, the other seven wanted blood.

"Die you bitches!", one of the gangsters with his pants down around his knees said holding a Mac ten out at me. I raised my hand, drawing the red semi circles around the remaining nine gangbangers and clenching my fist when prompted. The men began to twitch and convulse, dropping their weapons. They fell to their knees and then to their backs one by one.

"Almost forgot I could do that", I said.

"I was thinking you already had", Magellan said, "according my scans of the facility, the pump control room is out back."

"Let's move then", I said.

We moved through the main room of the water station, which consisted almost entirely of filtration and pumping systems, along with a crew locker room. From the exit in the locker room, there was a set of concrete steps that lead down to a dock like area on the ocean. There were lots of pipes and a few building's built on the docks, plus a large open area with a suit of inactive M240 power armor and a man with no shirt covered in tattoo's standing next to it.

"You think you can just barge into my home and kill my men, and not expect to pay for it?", he shouted at us.

"I've got a clear shot Skyline", Alcatraz said with his 20mm aimed right at the gangster's head.

"Not yet, I wanna see how this plays out."

"Surrender to execution now and we'll make it fast and painless", the man shouted as more gangsters poured out of two of the three buildings. The one in the middle stayed inactive, leading me to believe it was the control room, and possibly where our guys were being held.

"There", I said motioning to the middle building, a large, concrete one, "that's gotta be the control room."

"We'll have to fight through them all", Chy said telepathically to me.

"Kick us off Alcatraz", I said, "nail the leader, then the power suit."

Alcatraz sent the large 20mm slug through the head of the man who lead the gang, taking out the two guys behind him before ripping the board it hit and the two next to it off the dock. The second round which went through the power suit sent thousands of little zinging, white hot fragments flying through the air that didn't treat what they hit very well.

"Kill them!", one of the gangster's shouted.

"Weapons free!", I ordered as I executed another sonic attack, dropping five of them with the charge I'd built up. We pressed through another large gunfight before ending up at the door of the middle building.

"Prepare for entry", I said motioning to the door.

"Hey!", someone shouted from the inside, "whose alive out there!?"

"My name's Skyline Imese", I said, "I'm looking for two men named Ryan and Tim, Mother Angelica sent me."

"Thank god", the man said, "I was worried them damn gangsters would find a way in here. I'll unlock the door for you."

The door's locked unlatched and the rusty door creaked open, revealing two men, almost completely identical, the only difference was that one carried a Bal-27 and the other was armed with a M1 Garand.

"You guys must be Ryan and Tim", I said holding my hand out.

The man nodded as he shook my hand, "yeah, I'm Ryan, you've no doubt met my son Will."

"I have", I said, "Mother Angelica was worried about you."

"I'm more worried about them", Ryan said, "the pressure in the plant is too low for us to restart it, so my guess is we've got about five open Hydrants scattered around town somewhere. Normally we could go hunt them down ourselves, problem is, there's damaged equipment here that we have to get repaired, and since we're no good at gunfights, we need someone else to hunt them down and shut them off."

"One thing after another", I said, "do you have radios?"

"I do yeah", Ryan said,

"Turn it to channel 3 and leave it there", I said stepping outside, "Ryu, water plant is secure, be advised, two workers at the plant tell me the water can't be restarted until we kill some spurting fire hydrants."

"I understand", Ryu said, "do whatever you deem necessary, I will send the troops on your order."

"Send them now", I said, "I've got a feeling we'll need them as I suspect we'll be seeing more gangster's than zombies in this town."