As Austin got back to his feet, he turned towards Zach and said *A warning would've been nice."
"Yeah, well, Newbie, 'duck; I've got a gun' isn't exactly a surprise shot supporter, is it?" Zach asked, smirking mischievously. "It's a shame. The toxins that Annihilators inject and bite into their victims turns them into these cannibal's that'll eat anyone and everything living, while still keeping enough brains to be controlled by the Bane Brothers and causing us all the more issues then we already got 𑁋 It's freaking creepy."
"Wait, what?" Austin hadn't known that Scavengers used to be people. "That's means that we been killing these people and𑁋."
"Relax, Newbie, when the toxins take over they are no longer human… Or at least themselves anymore. Killing them is a mercy.," Zach shook his head dismissively.
Still Austin felt a punch of guilt to the gut. He been killing people. People. Whether or not they were themselves or even considered human wasn't at all easing. But, before he could verbalize his doubts, the booming of multiple gunshots caught both their attentions.
"It came from the Flat Shack," Austin said, locking eyes with Zach, who nodded and they both rushed towards the sound.
"Let's go." Zach ordered.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once there, Austin and Zach quietly took out the Scavenger's guard at the entrance somehow without alerting the others inside. As they slowly opened the trapdoor to the Flat Shack, Austin immediately felt what was wrong somehow.
Lining the walls on both floors were his friends - A massive majority of the Meadowers were lining the walls of the two floors of the Shack, with at least 3 guards a floor, even more guard the ones in the middle Those of the Meadowers in the center of the bottom floor were more heavily guarded then those against the walls - These were the ones who had lion and scorpion insignias on their uniforms, Austin saw some with a raven insignia but mostly these were those who possessed the lion and scorpion insignias on them; they being more injured then the others, which suggested that they fought back but didn't win. They alone had 4 guards - And all the guards had taken the weapons from the cargo boxes of weapons in the Shack: from automatic weapons to bows and crossbows to daggers and whatever else weapons were down here in the crates.
Though they hadn't noticed Austin or Zach, he spotted Cleo and Zether amongst the gun-pointed. They were trying to heal whoever they could without getting shot, but Austin found it surprising they were even allowed to heal others, considering their hostage situation. Must be because this isn't just a hostage situation, Austin thought to himself in realization. 'Its a distraction to prevent anyone from going to help someone else… but who could….?' A dreaded idea came to mind and Austin forced himself to see to his task at hand.
Knowing they'd have to be quick but silent to stand a chance, Austin silently nodded to Zach, who nodded in acknowledgement by his side, as Austin held up three fingers, silently counting down.
The Scavengers still hadn't noticed Austin or Zach, but a few Meadowers spotted them, namely Zether and Cleo, who acted their best to not draw them attention as they snuck behind the two nearest guards and took them down - Austin stabbing the armed Scavenger in the gut with his hand over his mouth and Zach hitting the guy across the head.
Sadly, Zach's guy fell on the ground with a THUNK sound, which alerted the others to their presence. The word "Intruder" was voiced and the next thing Austin knew was that the guards attacked and it was then that his friend decided the time to fight back was right now.