Modern Day Robin Hood

A Story by Vyctm

I have only worked on it for short bursts of time over a month. I hope yall like where its heading. This is up to the point where he decides to become the Robin Hood.

The small town was locked in silence. Dust billowed through the alleyways and abandoned buildings dissipating in the air. Silence. The calm before the storm. Trae crawled up to a crumpled wall and looked through the abandoned town of Haughton, Louisiana. He looked through the scope of his rifle, a Carbine 356. New model. It didn’t matter with him. He could make any shot with any gun. He rolled out of the cover of the wall and ran into a small decrepit building. He lay against the wall holding the gun as if it were a child.

He peeked behind the corner. Three bangs echoed through the air. Trae yanked back his head just as three bullets ripped though the wall where he had just been. He analyzed the sound of the gunshots in his head. AK-49, rapid fire but very low accuracy. This was going to be easy. He thought through scenarios in his head. Finally one stuck. He braced for action.

When put to the test a plan can only go two ways. It can either succeed or fail. There is no middle road. He had last minute doubts of the idea messing up but he could not let that distract him. He ripped off his jacket and threw it with all of his strength. It flew the air seemingly in slow motion. He could see every bullet rip through the fabric as it soared into the empty town. He counted to three than spun and raised his gun.

He saw the men at the top of the hill shooting at the jacket unaware of his plan. He shot off three bullets. He quickly spun around again to be safe. No shots came. His trusty gun had served him well again. He slouched against the wall and lowered to a sit. He let the adrenaline work its way out of his veins. Too bad he had done so a little too soon.

“Freeze. Do not make a single move.”

Trae looked up at the man standing above him with a double barrel shotgun pointed at his face. Trae knew fighting would end with him getting hurt. Might as well surrender. He stood slowly and let his gun drop to the ground. He raised his hands in surrender hoping the guy did not intend to shoot anyway.

The man swung the butt of his gun at Trae’s temple. He collapsed in a heap unconscious of the world around him. He let it all fade away.

* * * * *

A cold splash woke him from his slumber. He opened his eyes startled by the sudden coldness rushing over him.

“Wake up. We have some talking to do.”

Trae reluctantly opened his eyes startled by the pain that bloomed from his temple. He tenderly reached up and touched it. The skin was sensitive to the touch, but not broken. He looked about the room he was in. It was small and built of grey stone. Fairly uninteresting aside from the one sided mirror that was in all of the interview rooms he had been in.

The man standing in front of him was thin and tall. His brown mustache was the only highlight on his drab face. The top of his head was balding with a small ring of hair around his scalp. He could tell this guy was new to his job. He was not in trouble. Trae decided to pull the confused bystander trick.

“I got news from a couple of soldiers in the town of Haughton that you were seen shooting my troops out there.”

The small twist had taken Trae off guard. He had expected the man to be an interrogator. Not a politician. Apparently the shock on his face was seen.

“You did not expect me, a humble politician, to come and talk to the man who insists on killing my knights. That, kind sir, is a no no. You are in my country and you follow my rules.”

Trae returned to his passive face and was ready to try and get some good out of this crap of an interrogation. “They were trespassing on my land. Do you expect me to sit by and let them tread on my had worked dirt.”

“That’s funny. Last I checked that land was that of the state, whatever of the state is left. America may have collapsed but that is no reason for us to revert to our previous ways.”

Things could not get much worse at this point. The man knew he lies and expects everything said to be one. He knows that Trae was the one to kill his soldiers. He knows how to legally make his life a living hell.

“Things can’t get much worse for you. No escape, no one to back your story, no one even knows who you are. Who would notice a vagrant like you disappearing from the earth?”

Trae started to was on the edge of hysteria. He managed to look calm but his mind was screaming for him to run. The politician in front of him snapped his fingers. Two men unnoticed before stepped from a crack in the wall with needles in hand. Trae tried to struggle against his cuffs to no avail. He felt the cold metal slide into his neck and the poison burn through his veins. He tried to stay conscious but it was a fight he could not win. His vision blurred. He saw the politician stand in front of him and say something. His words were drowned in the humming in Trae’s head. He felt the ground hit his head and went out.

* * * * *

He woke to a harsh pain at his head. He opened his eyes and saw men wearing aprons covered in blood. Their heads were shaved and an evil smirk was on their faces. These men knew what they were doing. One reached forward and grabbed Trae by the front of his shirt. The man yanked him to his feet and pushed him into a container of ice water.

The frozen water burned against his skin. He fought to come up from the searing pain on his face and the water rushing into his mouth but the hand held him in. His lungs started to burn. He used all of his strength to get out to no avail. Finally the hold released. Trae shot up and sucked in as deep a breath as he could stomach. It tasted so sweet. The other man smiled and paced around Trae.

“Now that you awake, we have a lot planned for today. What shall we do first? Drip therapy, a little rewrite on your fingers, ooh, my personal favorite. The rat hole. I think that’s what we'll do.”

Trae thanked God that it was neither of the first two. He had heard of people who had gone through the torture. Some came out insane while others did not have the liberty to come out at all. The big man turned and went to a table covered with objects for torture. The other one pushed Trae to the dirty stone ground. He put his foot on Trae’s back to keep him from getting up.

The other man walked over with a bucket and a rat by the tail. The rat was swinging its small legs trying to escape the grasp of the large man. The man put the rat on the stomach of Trae and covered it with a bucket. Trae could feel the small paws of the rat running around trying to find an escape.

The two big men above smiled. If this was all they had in mind they had better rethink their jobs. One big man walked over to the table.

“This is not that bad not is it. Just a little bit uncomfortable having a little rodent on your stomach. Well that’s about to change. Rats don’t like heat. When they get around it they generally try to get away. But what if that heat is inescapable. Will they sit there and die or will they try to find a way? Why don’t we find out?”

The man turned around with a small pile of hot coals in his hands. He walked over to Trae and placed them on the bucket. At first nothing special happened. The rat continued its paces around the bucket. Than the bucket started to heat up. Trae could feel the air inside of it getting warmer. The rat started to move faster. It tried to push the walls out of the way but they remained. It kept on running until the bucket was so hot it hurt. The rats started to run its claws across Trae’s flesh.

Every time the claw rushed across his skin, Trae cried out in pain. The rat was digging its way into his stomach. It wanted to get out of the heat. It kept digging and digging dedicated on finding its way through. Trae cried at the slow process. His screams drowned out the laughs of his torturers and the frantic squeaks of the mouse. He tried to grab the bucket to throw it off but the big men stepped on them. He felt his fingers crack and cried even louder.

All of his thoughts were consumed by the endless pain. He was not sure when but the bucket was removed and the rat put inside its small abode. Trae felt his stomach and gagged. He could feel warm blood drizzling down his sides. His flesh in the stomach area was gone. He could feel the muscles and organs under his finger. Just a little bit longer and the damages the rat had caused would have been fatal.

The men gathered their stuff and laughed as they left the room with all of it. Trae remained on the floor crying out in pain. He cringed with every new wave that came with his sobs. He wanted to sink away in to oblivion but the pain kept him awake. He tried to do anything to get the pain out of mind, but nothing worked.

He heard the door to the torture chamber open but he did not care. The pain consumed all else. He felt someone running their hands over the exposed muscle. He cringed letting a scream escape. Someone said something. The voice of a woman. “What did they do to you.”

He felt the painful work of the woman of his stomach. He managed to get enough strength to open his eyes and look at the damage as it was worked on. The sight of the blood poring out of torn veins made him nauseous.

“Don’t even try to get up.”

Trae tried again. Hi attempt was quelled by a nauseating wave of pain.

“I warned out.”

Something cold slid into his neck. He felt the burning of medicine entering the blood stream and than he passed out.

* * * * *

Trae shot awake. He reached down to his stomach and felt the scarred tissue. It had been three years since he had been locked in that torture chamber and he still had those horrible dreams. So much pain. It all felt so real.

He sat up in his cot and looked around his small cell. Still in jail. I guess I cant assume that I’ll wake uo in a place I had never seen before. He laughed at the thought though it had happened before. When the torturing took place. He stood up and walked up to the rusted iron bars. The sun was shining through the window bars creating a dim light in the sad room. The small toilet and the cot created the only interst points in the room and they were not of much interest.