Chapter 24: The Beginning of the Purge
Olivia was still frozen in complete shock. When her eyes met Finn’s, she saw nothing but raw wariness in them—and his hand was already resting on the grip of his gun.
In this violent, chaotic world, plenty of people had secrets they didn’t want anyone knowing. Olivia understood that perfectly.
Realizing she had just walked in on something she wasn’t supposed to see, she blurted out, “I’ll keep my mouth shut! I swear I won’t tell a soul!”
Then her expression hardened. She stared Finn dead in the eye. “But first you have to swear you had nothing to do with this explosion!”
Finn shrugged. “Maybe you should start by figuring out what caused the explosion.”
Jimmy’s body had finished regenerating. The moment he stood up, he realized he was stark naked. He looked up and caught Olivia staring straight at him. He slapped both hands over his bare crotch in a panic, a bright red flush spreading across his face.
Olivia, on the other hand, didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. Her bold, unflinching gaze seemed to say: I’ve seen it all before—nothing special.
“Bro, did I just get blown the fuck up and die?” Jimmy hopped behind Finn in one quick jump, trying to hide from Olivia’s shameless stare.
“Yeah.” Finn locked eyes with Olivia, the Skybearer Sword in his hand still dripping blood.
“Thanks for saving me!” Jimmy said gratefully.
“Pay more attention next time. That’s the second time I’ve brought you back,” Finn replied calmly.
“But the first time you were the one who blew me up,” Jimmy poked his head out and shot back.
“…Shut your mouth.”
Olivia stared at Jimmy and Finn, gripping her submachine gun tightly. She looked like she wanted to speak but kept holding back.
The Relic Marrow Bullet Finn had handed her last time had somehow ended up in the Demon Gang’s hands. The gang showing up to disturb Finn’s sleep had clearly been what triggered the explosion.
Once Finn connected the dots, he raised his sword and pointed it straight at her. “Is the Relic Marrow Bullet I gave you still with you?”
Olivia blinked, clearly thrown off by the sudden question. “I gave it to Terry,” she answered. “He said he had a lead and could track down the source of those Radiant Path bullets.”
Terry? Finn remembered—the guy was the Sector Commander of West 7 Sector.
“I suggest you look into Terry’s ties with the Demon Gang.” Finn shot Olivia one last look, then turned and walked out of the flame-filled ruins. A completely naked Jimmy stuck right behind him, following every step like a shadow.
“Where are you going?” Olivia shouted after him.
“Settling a little personal score.” Finn didn’t even glance back as he left. Behind him, the thunderous roar of motorcycle engines split the air as more Refuge Security Force soldiers rushed into the blast site.
…
The next morning. In the Black Mountain operations command room for West 1 Sector, several senior officers stood around a sand table, pointing and gesturing across the map with long sticks.
“This was a vicious incident—sixteen dead, twenty-two injured. We’ve confirmed the epicenter of the blast was the Michael Hotel.”
“Those two outsiders, Finn and Jimmy, are prime suspects! We need to bring them in for interrogation!”
“I already sent teams to look for them, but they’ve vanished. We did find two bodies at the scene carrying a rocket launcher. Witnesses from the next block reported hearing a rocket launch right before the explosion.”
“We’ll deal with this later. Right now the top priority is launching the full operation to wipe out the Demon Gang. Security Force units from the other sectors have already begun their infiltration runs.”
“Olivia, what’s your take?” one senior officer asked Olivia. “With your skills, tracking those two down should be a piece of cake, right?”
Olivia lowered her head, deep in thought. Her mind was a mess. She wasn’t sure whether she should mention that impossible flesh-regeneration scene. Even if she did, who the hell would believe her?
She suspected it might be some kind of healing superpower, but she had never heard of any healing ability that strong. The young man named Finn was becoming more and more of a mystery.
“Once the operation against the Demon Gang is over, I’ll track down this Finn and get to the bottom of what really happened,” Olivia said firmly.
West 7 Sector Commander Terry looked up and declared, “No question about it—Finn and Jimmy are extremely dangerous! If anyone spots them, shoot to kill on sight!”
Olivia shot him a surprised glance, remembering what Finn had told her: “Dig into Terry’s connection with the Demon Gang.”
Suddenly the communicator on the table rang with a sharp ding-ding-ding. A senior officer slapped the receive button, and a hoarse voice crackled through, barely audible over the background of gunfire and explosions:
“The fight kicked off early! The Demon Gang is hitting us right now!”
…
“Aaaaaah!”
A burly thug with muscles like twisted steel ropes let out a furious roar and swung his steel rod straight down at Finn’s head.
Finn slashed diagonally with his sword, cutting clean through both the rod and the man’s arm in one go. He followed up with a second strike that sliced off the top of the thug’s skull—his red-and-green dyed hair flying away with it. Blood sprayed out like a fountain as the man crumpled to the ground, dead.
“So this is a Tier 3 Vanguard? What a pathetic joke,” Finn muttered, shaking his head and flicking the blood off his blade.
A dozen corpses lay scattered around him. This had been one of the Demon Gang’s small outposts, but it was now completely wiped out.
This was already the third Demon Gang hideout Finn had torn apart, but sadly, not a single person had spilled the location of their main headquarters before dying.
Most of the low-level grunts didn’t even know where the real base was. The few mid-level gang officers who did know had been the first to charge out bravely when Finn attacked—and the first to die.
After wiping out the Demon Gang outpost, Jimmy trailed right behind Finn as they searched the place for loot. A dozen assault rifles, one crate of standard ammo, another crate of armor-piercing rounds, seven or eight grenades, and ten rocket launchers—all of it went straight into Finn’s storage space.
Besides that, they found the gang’s hidden stash: two rare gold bars and over a thousand dollars in bills. Metal coins jingled loudly in Finn’s pockets.
Finn was finally starting to feel like a rich man. Before this, he had always traded pure water with people, which never sat right with him.
With bottles of Nuka-Cola dangling from their mouths and assault rifles in hand, Finn and Jimmy strolled through the empty streets. Gunfire echoed from every direction, broken up now and then by the sharp boom of grenades.
Nuka-Cola had a one-of-a-kind taste—familiar cola with an extra kick, like a smooth rush of icy spring water sliding down the throat.
They climbed onto the roof of an abandoned two-story building. Finn looked out and spotted a bunch of Demon Gang members clustered together.
They were scattered around a courtyard, gearing up. A man who looked like a minor leader was giving them a pep talk, as if they were about to head into a brutal fight.
“Jimmy, looks like your superpower ‘Laser Rain’ is finally getting some use,” Finn said with a grin, thinking to himself that he was about to see this weird-ass ability in action.
Jimmy lowered his head, looking embarrassed. “Uh… my power needs music to work, but my phone got wrecked in that nuclear blast earlier.”