And so I followed her over to where her car was, and she said to wait in the car for a sec while she grabbed some supplies from her abode.

  Then she was soon back inside of the car with the supplies, and we were now driving off!

  “I’m Zay, by the way!” she said, “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Vex.” I said, “And thanks for the ride. I don’t even know why that one probable member of the Ghasts tied me up and left me on the sidewalk, but other members of the Ghasts would certainly do far worse if they were to find me.”

  “And you were saying that the Ghasts have infiltrated the police in your city too!” Zay said worriedly, “I mean, I thought that they just hated the police! It’s odd that some of them joined them!”

  “Well, fake-joined,” I lied, “it’s kinda like how police sometimes go undercover and pretend to be gang members, except this time it’s the gang going undercover to be police members! I’ve gotta blow this case wide open once I figure out a way, but for now I’ve just gotta make sure that I stay away from the Ghasts and the police in my city because I don’t know which police officers might be undercover members of the Ghasts!”

  “It’s a head-trip, for sure...” Zay said; and then she turned on the radio and a song started playing.

  The song was kinda dark, and the lyrics were:

  ??don’t be aggressive, no, don’t be aggressive;

  the only way to break the cycle is to live and let live,

  but these mfs keep on comin’

  like the psychos or somethin’,

  and there ain’t a way to heal,

  when waps beat, rape, n’ kill,

  they think they tough?, when they f-in’ prey on the weak?

  man, what the f! It should be them who are put to sleep!

  I ain’t above putting a murderer down;

  If you kill innocent folks, I’ll put you under the ground!

  but I’m just talkin’ s, this just a song, okay?

  but I’m still armed af, and if you kill my peeps then you’ll pay!??

  “Geez,” I said in confusion, “how did that song get on the radio, anyway?”

  “It’s not the radio,” Zay said with a smirk, “and I’m a vigilante killer, just like you are.”

  “Ummmm…” I said, “What?”

  “Yup,” Zay said, “I know what you did, and from what I can tell your current perspective on what happened is probably that it was justified that you killed Officer Toll but that killing that chief of police was bad, am I right?”

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  “Dammit…” I said with a sigh, “So did the Ghasts intentionally drop me off near you so that you could try to recruit me or something?”

  “Nope, not the Ghasts.” Zay said, “Someone from my Viginantes group managed to bust you out of there. After all, the Vigilantes will kill anyone who murders innocent people, whether the murderer is a member of the Ghasts, a police officer, or anybody who kills innocent people.”

  “And so don’t I deserve to be killed because I killed that chief of police?” I asked skeptically; and Zay said, “Yes, but we don’t ALWAYS kill people who deserve to be killed, and we do believe in the possibility of redemption.”

  “Or, in other words,” I said while rolling my eyes, “the Vigilantes need recruits, and you’re not as picky as you should be about who joins your little gang. And at the end of the day you’re probably pretty much as bad as the Ghasts and the bad police officers are, am I right?”

  “Somebody has to do something, Vex!” Zay said, “And the Vigilantes is not nearly as bad as the Ghasts or the current incarnation of your city’s police department. And if we discover that a member of the Vigilantes kills someone who didn’t kill an innocent person then we either kill that member or we kick them out of the Vigilantes.”

  “And so if I were to join your group and then do what I just did yesterday then y’all would either kill me or kick me out of the group?” I said, “Which begs the question of why you should allow me to join in the first place, since it would be silly to expect me to follow the rules since I just did something that’s against the rules.”

  “We think that you’ve learned your lesson.” Zay said, “And so are you down to join us or not? I mean, don’t you wanna fight against murderers who are members of the current incarnation of your police department and murderers who are members of the Ghasts? And there are more folks besides just them who are worth fighting back against too…”

  “No I don’t.” I said with a sigh, “I honestly just want to get as far away from my city as I can and start a new life that doesn’t involve any killing. Am I allowed to do that, or are you going to try to force me to join the Vigilantes?”

  “I don’t plan on forcing you to do anything.” Zay said, “But I don’t know if you realize exactly how bad things are in these violent times.” and then she reached into a pocket of hers and pulled out an electronic device that had a screen on it, and she said, “Watch the video that’s on this, and we’ll see if it changes your mind…”

  I watched the video, and there was lots of live footage of people committing murder in the video.

  After I’d seen about 10 minutes of the video, I was suddenly shocked by the new video footage that was now on the screen!

  It was of the chief of police who I’d killed!

  There was a man who was talking smack to her but who was also keeping his hands in the air and standing still. She looked like she was about to walk over and handcuff him, but then she murdered him!

  “Holy f…” I said in disbelief, “I think I recognize that guy… The chief had said that he’d pulled out a gun and had shot at her but missed, but now I see that she’s pulling out another gun of hers that’s unregistered and is shooting it at the wall near where she had been and is placing the gun in his hand! She just murdered that guy because she didn’t like that he’d been talking smack to her!“

  “Yes, she did, didn’t she.” Zay said, “Which shouldn’t really surprise you that much. I mean, she was willing to cover up the murder that Officer Toll committed, which obviously meant that she was pro-murder, and so now you know that the fact that she herself had committed murder probably helped lead her to be sympathetic towards Officer Toll when he committed murder.”

  “This still doesn’t mean that I was justified in killing her though,” I said, “because I didn’t know that she had committed murder, I only knew that she had covered up a murder.”

  “Of course,” Zay said, “and I’ll probably kill you myself if I ever catch you killing someone who to your knowledge isn’t a murderer again; but, ffs, can’t you see why it’s good for a group like the Vigilantes to exist right now?”

  “I don’t know…” I said uncomfortably, “I mean, you’re still playing God, and I prefer that nobody ever dies…”

  “Up to you what you wanna think,” Zay said, “and I’m still going to drive you far away from your city and drop you off somewhere if that’s what you want; but you’re still welcome to change your mind and decide to join us, and I have a sneaking suspicion that you will decide to join the Vigilantes before this little runaway road trip is over…”