Shoot or Be Shot

Our boat was racing across the waters, following the safest path we were advised of. Of course, ‘safest’ in this world is a far cry from harmless, so we had bogies following us in a matter of minutes.

“Right on cue!” I announced, raising my rifle and swapping seats with Yuri. “Drive! I’ll take care of these guys.”

The warlord bandits chasing us had high speed boats, just a pinch slower than ours, but their skill of navigating these waters closed the gap. Like pirates, they laughed and threw their fists up in the air, clutching tightly to guns of all varieties with the sole intention of showing their desire to steal whatever valuables we carried. Anything from our boat to our lives were up for grabs as far as they were concerned.

These were humans, not bots. A bullet through their heads was going to take a life. One more soul would be lost to this shity world, and by my hands. I would be forever stained with that blood.

But what was more important? My life, filled with far more beautiful souls, or these worthless lowlifes that made worms look like kings? I didn’t care about them beyond some superficial commonality we shared as humans. I cared about keeping Yuri and me alive so we could feed our siblings.

“Shoot… or be shot…” I mumbled, taking aim at my targets.

Why were they so happy as I looked down my sights? What sort of a game did those bandits think we were playing that they were smiling like that? This was real life, and those guys were about to get a taste of that through my bullet.

I pulled the trigger and fired the first shot, my aim tampered with by the harsh waves of water bumping our boat.

Although not true, my aim did strike the shoulder of a bandit.

As if inviting a wave of retaliation, all three boats of men squeezed off dozens or rounds, peppering our boat with new holes all over.

“Keep your head down!” I shouted to Yuri.

“Right!” he replied, steering as best he could.

Missing again wasn’t going to fly. I was a better shot than that!

“Don’t think about it…” I grit my teeth. “Don’t think about them being human…”

The bandits were making it a lot easier to shove them below human status as they not only continued to fire, but expressed their desire for unspeakable acts against us. Bunch of scum and creeps.

“Now we’ve got you!” a bandit shouted, setting me in his sights.

Those were his last words before he had a fresh new hole in his head.

What did I just do!?

No, there wasn’t any helping it. These are the rules of the world now. Shoot or be shot. There were too many people in my life and I had to defend them all.

The next guy who stood to shoot made himself my next victim. It kept going until an AJ-47 had me in his sights. The rapid fire machine gun laid waste to my cover, causing me to roll to the bottom of our boat.

With my evasive maneuver, I was looking out the back of the ship's stern. The machine gunman was turning to aim, but I shot at just the same time as he did.

My bullet struck his heart. His bullet grazed my arm.

“Damn it!” I shouted

I lived while he died. The tradeoff hurt like hell, but it was an acceptable win in my book.

“Yuri, you alright!?”

“Yeah!” he shouted as one of the three boats crashed into us from the side. “But we might need to do something about them!”

The three boats were coming at us from the back and sides, trying to rough us up by slamming us around. Seeing as they lost all their gunners, this must have been their next best option.

Instead of getting bashed repeatedly, I reached into my bag and dug out a hand grenade.

Pulling the pin, I tossed it into the adjacent boat to our right and watched it blow to bits.

Yuri took the opening and turned us that way, twisting our boat around in a circle so that the other two were right behind us.

“How do you intend to take them out?” Yuri asked.

Everything was spinning and my focus was waning. If I wasn’t so weak, I’d have taken that bullet grazing and been able to finish off those two boats with ease. But unfortunately, I’d been born with a mortal body.

Quickly, I pulled out a first aid kit from my bag and began treating my shoulder. It was rough, but with a little persistence and focus I managed to close up the wound.

“You gotta’ deal with those guys, Yuri…” I told him, unable to move my arm dramatically.

“Oh, great…” he grunted, taking evasive maneuvers.

We were just a pinch faster than the boats that gave chase, but we weren’t going to be able to keep this up forever. Instead of just leading them around until we ran out of gas, Yuri spotted a field of floating debris in the water.

I knew what he was thinking, and I liked it. Whether he had the skill or not to maneuver around those shredded pontoon boats, I had no idea. But I supported his effort 100%.

He zig zagged through the debris, doing an excellent job of leading us through the bits of wreckage. A smile cracked on my lips as I realized he had a pretty natural talent for dare devilish stunts. If I wasn’t ready to throw up in pain, I might have been cheering like this was a carnival ride.

To the great distress and stupidity of our pursuers, they both collided together as they attempted to go down the narrow path of safety.

“Idiot! What the hell?” shouted one driver to the other as huge holes opened up in their halls.

“I was going after them, so shut up, jerk off!”

While those lovers were having a lake side spat, Yuri exited the debris field and continued heading for our destination.

“Great stuff, man.” I bumped his shoulder with my good arm. “You’re one hell of a driver.

“I suppose…” his eyes went wide as he saw blood all over my jacket. “Were you hit?”

“Not directly, and it's not the first time either.” I grit my teeth as I remembered having to dig some shrapnel out of my leg a few years back. This was nothing compared to that. “Give me a few and I’ll be good as new.”