Reckless - Memoirs from the End of the World

Superman [Part 2]

"You done?!" Rob shouted, "Namur, have a peek, see what's going on."

All I could see was guns pointed at us; they were most definitely scared.

"They're scared boss, the guns are empty I think, I heard a few clicks."

"Yeah I heard that too, alright let's do this."

We rose up and headed towards them; I was right about the bullets, they were out cold. Taking out the leader had left them pretty much dead. But now they started lunging at us with knives.

"I love a good knife fight!" Rob shouted welding his machete,

"Yeah says the guy with the only blade!" Blake shouted, Rob laughed.

My only chance was to disarm one of these runners.

One of them, shouting and screaming, came for me, his knife waving at me, calling for my blood. He managed a few cuts before I knocked him down and broke his arm. I had to, he wasn't letting go of the knife. I didn't hesitate as I picked him up off the floor and sunk that knife deep into his chest. It made a pop which freaked me out a little bit the moment was over as he hit the ground again. Number two just straight up jumped on me; he was small and there was no impact; he just lay there in my hands like a child. Another body to the ground and it made me feel real unstoppable. I wanted more of it.

Even when they began to surrender I didn't stop, I didn't know how to. It was over after Blake told me to stop.

"We need one alive you idiot!" He shouted at me, snapping me back.

"Yeah," I said walking away.

All in all, we came away with guns, bullets, blankets and more. Rob said we hit the jackpot, told us we couldn't have retreated for the sake of the two dogs that had died; said it would have been a wasted effort.

The people at Dogville trusted us real good after that.

After a few more Dogville got a decent reputation and most others just wanted peace and trade. Sure we had a few attacks but Rob had hardened us over the years and we were ready for anything. That was quite a while ago.

Overtime a few of the nearby towns pledged alliance to Dogville and joined up with is making it even bigger. It wasn't long before we were experienced enough to really hold our own and no one would ever dare strike us unless it was a much bigger enemy. Mostly people would come to find sanctuary.

Things got boring after it all started taking care of itself; no more raids or relation meetings, no more fighting. Again Rob seized the opportunity and created the national Dogville Punch-up Tournament.

At the start it was amazing, people gearing up to fight, training, betting. There was a real buzz about it and I didn't even enter at the beginning.

The time would come for Rob to remind me of my duties and become his fighter. Maybe secretly I wanted to anyway.

Fight after I fight I won, my blood soaked knuckles became famous and they began to call me the superman.

I ploughed through everyone, I mean everyone until only those who were desperate enough to think they could win and take all my loot. At times it got really depressing, fathers losing all hope and hoping at that one shot to defeat me, make a name for themselves and finally get comfortable. I could never see it happening.

A few times some strong men came, a group of them. It was the only time I refreshed my motivation to fight, started training harder and working on my fighting mistakes. It felt nice, these guys were top dogs apparently. They were mercenaries and soldiers, only a handful of them. I knew it the moment I saw them; I would have to fight them. What I wasn't aware of was the fact that Rob had called for them.

He needed the entertainment back up; he needed more tourists, more participants and he needed to show people that I wasn't superman, that I would be defeated.

Even Blake hid that from me.

At the day of the tournament those guys hit through everyone hard and fast, a lot of guys died that day. There were only two of them left in the end and Rob said it was going to be a two on one. That's the exact moment I realised what was happening. I looked at him and he couldn't even look me in the eyes.

That was when I knew I wanted to kill him.

The two fighters went at me good, they had planned it all. They tried to wear me down both taking turns and then ending with double finishers. I hadn't been knocked down that many times for a while. But I hit back just as good, maybe even better because all I needed was one of them to go down and then the one left was easy pickings and that's exactly what I did.

One of them came for a punch and I took it on purpose and pretended it landed harder than it actually did and faked a knocked down. The other one approached me and began to mount hoping to land a flurry of blows to my temple. I grabbed that motherfuckers neck and brought it down to my forehead, his nose exploded with blood and I broke the bastards neck in one twist. Now the devil had entered me and all I wanted was blood. 'Where's the rest of you?!' I shouted, calling the rest of their crew out. They all came to ring, but they were scared; I knew it.

I told them to come at me, so they did. A knocked those fuckers on their heads one by one like a game of tenpin bowling. Blood splattering everywhere until I was covered in it. As they lay on the floor all broken I pissed all over them and sent them on the way.

They had quite a bit of loot, Rob also announced an increase in fighter's tax so he could have quite a bit of it. I never cared much for the winnings but It was still all mine, I didn't see him get knocked out, lose teeth or get inured in anyway to earn it all. What pissed me off more was that it mainly all to do with me. The fights, the tax, new rules. It didn't really effect the others. So they looked on and carried on cheering for Superman.

Things got real slow after that and that's when you found me, beating on that poor fellow and not caring about it.

After that I did what normally did after a fight, ate and visited Penelope. I like to think she kept whatever was sane about me, alive.

People would congratulate me and others would just steer clear of me until I got home.

TBC...