The park grew quieter the deeper they moved into it, swallowed by trees and overgrown brush growing between the cracks of broken concrete. It's strange how you can always tell someone has abandoned something or no longer lives somewhere. Because now this feeling is present in all of New York, the neglect of buildings and nature reclaiming land quickly follows this pattern.
Raven held an AK-47 ready in her hands, set on semi-auto. She fired a silent bullet into the forehead of a nearby zombie that staggered out from behind a rusted playground. The suppressed sound from the omni silencer did not even register, as the zombie collapsed back into the weeds.
"Stay close to me, Alara," Raven said, her tone serious, as her eyes scanned the brush around them. Alara stayed quiet and composed, stepping closer to Raven without a word.
Then she sensed an alert in her mind from one of her drones. Danger. The sound of a bullet flying through the air was heard a second later, but there was no scream or impact. Only the sound of a loud bang hitting the dirt nearby. Raven turned instantly. Alara stood still, blinking in confusion, untouched. The glasses worked the sniper was trying to headshot Alara. The kinetic magnetic shielding from her glasses activated in time, deflecting the sniper round from striking Alara's head.
Raven didn't wait. Her drone flew above the trees, and found the hiding sniper, it fired twice. Pew. Pew. Her head exploded like a melon, red mist flying in all directions. The drone turned sharply. Three more shots firing in succession. Pew pew pew. Three bodies fell to the ground dead, covered in yellow, they look like a different group of raiders.
"A new group of raiders?" Raven asked, moving towards them. Their yellow leather coats gave them away. She approached the sniper's corpse first, kicking aside a spent shell casing, she crouched to dig through the snipers' jacket pockets. Alara stayed back, watching Raven with worry.
Raven pulled out a crumpled up, dirty square of paper. A homemade business card. She read it out loud.
"Yellow Fish Raider Group," she said flatly, then scoffed. "Of course these. Cowards."
She stood and looked back at Alara, her voice low and cold. "A sniper the lowest kind of scum. Especially in an apocalypse."
Her eyes returned to the corpses, her mind moving through the memories of her past life. The Yellow Fish Raider Gang. The name brought up a bunch of bad memories. These people are infamous not just for their sneak attack tactics but for being despised by other raider gangs for doing it. Sneak attacks, sniping people first, then stealing their gear without ever having a fair fight. They even boast about it, sometimes leaving calling cards behind like it was some kind of business transaction.
Her fingers tightened around her Ak-47. They shot at Alara.
Raven eyes narrowed in anger as this group just signed their own death warrants.
"You guy's always shoot the unarmed person first. That's your code? You're the worst kind of filth."
She stood upright and let her eyes wander the treeline. One sniper means more could be nearby.
"I need kinetic shielding too," Raven realized. "Not just for Alara but for me as well."
Alara tilted her head slightly as Raven turned to her. Her expression softened for just a second.
"Come on. We're going back to Sanctuary for now."
Raven recalled her drones. Both flew back and vanished into the system space. The air felt colder and full of tension now. Raven and Alara went back to Sanctuary to prepare for this new threat before Raven continued with her current zoo plan. Yellow Fish Raider Gang just wait until I find you.
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