Mercy

[This is a short I wrote as a character exercise for a role-playing game my friend will be running soon. For those of you that know Hunter: The Reckoning, Mercy also happens to be the Virtue Path that the character will be following as she follows the Defender Creed.]

Mercy spent an hour tracking the things through the storm drains. Luckily the noise from the rainwater made it easy, but it was playing hell on the cheap blue hair dye she used to help her keep cover from the feds. She used to spend her time chasing suspects like herself, now she was hunting down volunteers from the soup kitchen because they might be the walking undead. She was sure they had been the ones behind the local disappearances and was on their trail because someone had to fight for the homeless; they had enough coming down on them without being nabbed by creatures of evil.

She rounded the corner while lost in thought and almost blew it. A service door opened and light filled the adjoining tunnel. She put her back to the wall and listened. Two voices argued that disposing of the bones was getting difficult but then the conversation began to take a more mundane tone. Mercy heard a truck approaching overhead, closed her eyes and waited for the right timing.

As the truck passed she rounded the corner and plugged the two men who were carrying a large burlap sack filled with something too awkward to be potatoes. As they splashed to the ground she holstered her pistols, moved quickly to them, and pulled out her knife. When she cut open the bag the aforementioned bones spilled onto the floor and into the rainwater. Mercy pursed her lips and left the monsters and their spoils to be eaten by the rats or washed out to the ocean.

When she backtracked their passage through the service door she found their jackets neatly piled and another three sacks of what she presumed to be remains. A quick check produced their wallets, and aside from the standard fair she came up short. Another dead end that left her with enough evidence to keep going but nowhere to go. Resigned for the time being, she found their entrance (her exit) and climbed the ladder. The iron rungs were slippery from the rain and possibly some kind of algae.

When she popped out onto street level she was greeted by a heavy boot that hit her in the temple and smashed her head against the sidewalk. She was so addled that her hands slipped and her head injury was compounded by the fall. To little surprise, she was out cold.

---

Saying Mercy had a headache would have been an understatement; not that she could do anything about it while she was tied to a chair. She blinked hard to try to collect herself but never got the chance. Immediately her head space was invaded by flashlights that brought her headache back in full force. Someone said something but it wasn't in English and then the light beam moved around the room stopping on various faces. There must have been a dozen people in the room with her but, unlike herself, they were chained to the walls. What they did share in common is they had no place to call home. Being on the run meant she was never in the same bed twice, and sometimes she had no bed at all.

The flashlight clicked off and heavy footfalls made their way out of the room. A click and a creak later, she knew where the door was and that there was at least one other man on the other side. She waited a while in the darkness. The sounds of the homeless around her, shifting, coughing, or simply moaning in pain, made her uncomfortable but it gave her something to focus on as she struggled with her bonds. She guessed it was nylon rope, and was unsure that she could free herself. Then the door opened.

Heavy Boots came back in and unchained the closest person to the door. A middle-aged man dressed in several layers of rags that were topped with a shredded pea-coat. When the man tried to make a break for it Heavy Boots backhanded him so hard he fell to the floor. Before he could recover Heavy Boots had grabbed his collar and began to drag him out the door.

Mercy screamed for him to be left alone. Heavy Boots only laughed and smiled, saying something to someone on the other side of the door that resulted in laughter. He punched the poor man and sent blood spraying into the air. Mercy struggled against her bonds and cursed at Heavy Boots, the rope burned against her wrist and she could feel blood dripping down her fingers. He threw the homeless man through the doorway and spit in her direction.
Something inside Mercy snapped and, a moment after, so did the rope that was holding her. Heavy Boots was unable to believe what he was seeing and his eyes were still wide when the chair hit him in the face. On the other side of the doorway she saw a thin man and a fat man. Each of them was rising to his feet and picking up cleavers from the table in front of them.

She let the chair slip from her fingers but held onto the rope that previously held her. Before it threaded through her fingers completely she tightened her grip and yanked, sending the chair flying through the air and into Fat Man's chest, dropping him to the floor.

Thin Man grabbed onto the rope to try to prevent her from regaining control of her makeshift morning star but she was stronger than he was and the rope burned his hand. The chair recoiled and hit him in the back of the head.

Mercy heard Heavy Boots coming up behind her and ducked as he went to tackle her. She timed her stand and flipped him over herself and onto Fat Man and Thin Man. Only the did she recognize them: they were the cooks of soup kitchen. The realization of what was happening made her sick. She saw her things in a pile by the rear entrance and grabbed them before ripping the keys from Heavy Boots' unconscious hands. Of the three of them only Thin Man was moving, but Fat Man and Heavy Boots were too much for him to move so he lay there helpless as she freed the captives. When they were all clear she made her way back to her car and took Heavy Boots' keys with her.

---

Mercy had parked her car down the street. Technically it wasn't hers, but she had tried to save the owner from zombies and he bled to death. She figured the car was proper payment for the attempt. Patiently she waited, eating M&Ms and drying her boots. By the time the three men got up it had been forty minutes and Heavy Boots was outside smoking a cigarette while she assumed he called for backup. It was either that or he needed to complain to his mother about the ass whooping he just caught from a woman half his size. Twenty minutes later his mother arrived.

Mercy didn't swing but mommy was hot. Mercy knew her, and she knew Mercy. Katinka Mason was a vampire that owned several small businesses in Seattle. Katinka shook her head as she exited her town car, obviously upset that she was called out in the middle of the night. Her chauffeur held her umbrella for her as she crossed the distance into the shelter. Three other men followed her in.

Mercy had always wanted to kill Katinka out but she was always with whatever other more physically capable vampire that she was in bed at the time as payment for bodyguard service. The vampire bitch was collecting the blood and shoveling the homeless corpses at the hungry. She kept them alive long enough so that when she needed more blood, they'd still be around to harvest. It was the way leftover beef was fed to milk cows.

Mercy loved M&M's, but it was time to go to work, Katinka wouldn't be out alone again any time soon. She opened Dead Guy's trunk, strapped on her standard gear, and grabbed her 12-gauge street sweeper. She slung the behemoth onto her shoulder and made her way to the shelter, whistling the whole time. A couple coming from a bar saw her and crossed the street to stay out of the way.

She didn't bother checking the door, it's not like they could have locked it, she had their keys. Instead she turned the knob and unlatched the foot, pushing the door forward a hair. Then she took a deep breath, kicked in the door, and reduced Chauffeur 's head to a nub. Everyone else ducked into the kitchen and the service counter took the brunt of the firefight from both sides. Mercy took a hit to the thigh but was lucky enough to live. She fought back the rage that grew inside her. If she lost control, she could be in more danger than she gave.

Her shotgun's magazine empty, Mercy rolled into the kitchen with her .45's; pots, pans, and men fell to the floor. Soon, everyone's firearms were spent and Mercy was dodging pots to close the gap with her kukris. Her limbs flew around her, their limbs flew off them, and at some point Katinka tried to take Mercy from behind and got an eye full of blade. Blinded she staggered back against a wall.

Heavy Boots seemed to have learned his lesson the first time and bolted out the back. Katinka kept screaming Mercy's name and Mercy sneered. There would be none tonight. She bolted after Heavy Boots out the back door and turned out on to the street.

The bastard was waiting for her and unloaded his Saturday night special in her direction. She took a slug to the shoulder, another in the forearm, and collapsed to one knee. Whatever she was keeping at bay at the back of her mind would be contained no longer.

Mercy went berserk.

The pain disappeared and so did her self control. An animal closed the distance and for the second time tonight Heavy Boots could only stand in wide-eyed terror. The difference was this time he wouldn't live. First, she passed him and opened his belly. He remained standing, staggering. Her knife found his Achilles and he fell to the floor, innards spilling. She kicked him in the temple and someone approached her from behind.

The new assailant caught her blade in the chest four times as she stabbed and withdrew each blade twice. His companion got it once in the throat. When she reached for her neck, she released a dog leash and the attached dog lunged at Mercy. The small dog caught a boot and went yelping into the air, landing on the pavement yards away.

Quickly Mercy turned to find Katinka had found her way to the street, grown a new pair of eyes and a gnarly set of claws at her fingertips. The two of them charged at one another, feral beasts in the streetlight. They exchanged blows, slashes, and curses. Police sirens caused them both to pause but instead of breaking they only doubled their efforts to murder one another. Finally Katinka slipped on Heavy Boot's guts and fell, Mercy exploited the mistake and took her head. Katinka's head rolled into the gutter and stopped on a storm drain.

Only then did Mercy regain control of herself. She looked around at the carnage. While she was satisfied that she had killed Katinka and her ghoulish servants, she recoiled to find that her surprise attackers weren't attackers at all, but a couple that had gone for a walk. Their dog limped back to their bodies and whined at them.

Mercy fled, but no matter how far she ran and how much she ached, she could never escape the monster.