Thread: The Ruin of Mankind

The adrenaline and fear coursing through Cali's veins kept her moving at a brisk pace as she dashed from one house to another, pausing only briefly to peer around each corner before progressing onward. She knew it was likely that those two assholes hunting her had watched her walk into Bloodridge, and if they had any brains at all, they'd split up so that one of them could cut her off at the entrance where she'd stashed her bike, so she needed to hustle and get there first. It was dangerous, and Cali didn't like being forced to act so recklessly, but being trapped in that ghost town while outnumbered and outgunned wasn't exactly an appealing prospect, so risks had to be taken. Speaking of risks, she was still admonishing herself in her head for being so stupid. There was one thing that the brute with the sword had certainly gotten right, which was that she should have immediately put a slug into the collared man's chest and high-tailed it the fuck out of there immediately. Whatever was going on in Bloodridge, that should have been more than enough of a red flag for Cali to figure out that it was bad. She should have backed out right away and reassessed the situation before doing anything else, and maybe that way she wouldn't have gotten blindsided. Fuck it, you'll have plenty of time to scream at yourself in the mirror later, focus on getting out of here! She wiped some sweat away from her brow before it could drip down into her eyes just as she reached the very last house, after which it would only be a short run to the remains of the town's main gate. When Cali rested her back against one of the house's uncollapsed walls to collect her thoughts and catch her breath for a moment before heading into the final stretch of her escape, that was when she saw the huge ditch dug into the backyard. She brought the back of her hand up to cover her mouth as a horrified gasp escaped her shapely lips at the sight of the countless dead bodies piled in and around the mass grave. The bounty hunter had seen more than her fair share of fucked up shit in the wastelands, but this definitely ranked way up there. A sensation of pure dread lanced up her spine at the thought that the two goons chasing her were responsible for this, or part of the group that was, since it clearly couldn't be the work of only two men. Shock and fear left Cali momentarily paralyzed, and the timing turned out to be especially awful for her, since it was at that exact moment that the brute from earlier bullrushed her right through the wall. Yelping suddenly in surprise, it was too late for her to evade the man's grasp by the time that her brain registered what was happening. The best that Cali could do was twist herself around so that she at least landed on her back rather than her stomach, giving her at least some chance to defend herself. Every bone in her slender body was rattled as the beast of a man slammed her into the ground, and then the wind was just about fully knocked out of her when he landed on top of her with all of his weight. Instinctively, Cali tried to aim the shotgun that she'd miraculously managed to hold on to at Red's torso, but he was able to wrap one hand around the shortened barrel and point it away from himself before she could get a good shot. Cali sure as hell wasn't overpowering the man anytime soon, and she had other pressing concerns in the form of a massive fist barreling towards her face. Rolling her head to the side, she just barely managed to avoid being knocked out cold, but the vicious punch still caught her squarely in the left shoulder. She gave out a loud cry as a wave of dull pain spread though her muscles and a sense of panic swept over and through her entire being. Still, Cali was able to remember one of her last lines of defense that she'd designed specifically for dire situations such as this one. Bending her middle finger on her gloved left hand as far as it could go, she pulled the piece of clear fishing line attached to it taut, causing the spring loaded blade concealed under the sleeve of her jacket to shoot out. Cali had fabricated the mechanism herself. It still needed some improvements, since it jammed about one out of six or seven times, but thankfully it decided to function properly on this occasion. Doubting her ability to dodge her attacker's fist a second time, Cali forced herself to fight through the agony wracking her arm, groaning hard as she slashed and stabbed up at him wildly with the energy of desperation, going more for volume than precision. With the way that it was nearly impossible to breathe under his weight, she didn't have very much time left to get the son of a bitch off of her before she ran out of steam.