Guilt. That’s the only reason I was doing this. The only reason I was in this bell tower waiting for my target. My partner was sitting behind me, trying to keep warm. Our robes were slightly damp from the rain that was pouring down. I had my rifle concentrated on the gallows below, where they planned to hang some law breaker this morning. I didn’t really care. I was waiting for my target. My name is Kaiser. My partner goes by Dice, we were known as “Bloodslingers.” “Bloodslingers” are nicknames for mercenary assassins. We were the best in the business as of last month. The old number one was supposedly killed in a horrific horse accident. Don’t ask. I wouldn’t even be here, but I accidentally shot a bystander on my last objective. A child, my conscious hurt more than a bullet to the liver. It was bothering my nerves and I was shaking. I never shake, and it was almost time.

“It’s almost noon,” my partner whispered to me solemnly. “Hell, he should be stepping out soon.” I answered with a nod of approval. I adjusted my rifle scope to match the distance to the gallows. It wasn’t very far, ‘bout 200 yards. No big shot. Our target was actually two people. The executer and the priest. We don’t usually ask questions about our targets, but these guys were actually friends of ours. We asked about what they had done, and it was bad. Apparently, they got in some deep debt with the wrong crowd. On top of that the priest had raped one of the guys daughter. Friends or not, we had no regrets about this one.

“Hey! There they are!” Dices words snapped me out of my trance. I saw him tuning up his scope also. We both had the same semi-auto rifle with fifteen round clip attached to a biped. We both knew the rules, as soon as we confirmed the targets were down, we pack up quickly and run separate directions. An hour later we call each other and meet up to inform our boss about the success or failure of the mission. Another hour later we collect our money.

“Kaiser?” Dice spoke solemnly to me. “What is it Dice?” I whispered back. “Don’t miss.” He said with a half serious half joking voice. I looked at him right as the lightning danced across the sky and saw he had a wide smile on his face. I turned back to my scope and said, “Do I ever?” He just laughed at this and decided it was time to be serious.

The rain was absolutely pouring at this point. The thunder was loud as hell and the lightning was blinding. Me and Dice were right there waiting, the barrels of our rifles hanging out of the split stained glass window we had busted out. Mine on the left, his on the right. Finally, we noticed our targets making their way across the thick muck. They were being escorted by about five or six armed guards. Their we nine men in total, counting our targets.

“I call the executer.” Whispered Dice, as he popped a round in his chamber. “Dammit...” I murmured as I to popped in a round. “Don’t fire till I fire. You got that Dice?” He shook his head in acceptance. We followed them with our scopes until they finished their usual duties. They tied up the prisoner, put the noose around his neck, and read him a quick prayer. We couldn’t hear him of course, this is just what we guessed. The whole time the executer just stood over by his assigned lever and waited impatiently to pull it. I affixed my scope upon the preachers forehead. I had a clean and clear shot. I gave Dice another twenty seconds before I would fire. The preacher seemed to be a little on edge, he kept switching feet every few seconds. Ten to go. Five. Two. Boom! The round ripped out of my .50 caliber rifle, less than a split second afterward was another boom! We both checked our scopes and realized our targets were down. I got up and started to pack hurriedly all our most needed belongings, pots, pans, blankets, pillows, and food. In my hurried state I didn’t realize that Dice was still laying their with his scope to his eye.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked in a very unloving tone. “There was a third shot,” he said, “plus a third man fell.” I never noticed this before, but when I picked up my rifle and checked my scope, I knew what he was talking about. The man that was to be executed had a bullet hole through his throat. It was big enough, yeap, we were dealing with another sniper.

“I saw another muzzle blast from that building straight across from us.” I looked through my scope at the building he was pointing at. It was about 500 yards so I had to adjust my scope. As soon as things came into focus, I saw the man we were dealing with, and he was aiming right at Dice. I hardly managed to say, “Look out!” before he got the shot off. I dove to the side behind the brick wall as a rain of bullets came flooding in from groundlevel. “Goddammit...” I murmured again. I had forgotten about the left over men on the ground. They must have heard me yell. I looked at Dice, who was still in the same position on the floor.

“Dice! Dice! We gotta move bastard! We gotta move!” He didn’t budge as I yelled at him. I picked up a pan and threw it at his back. It hit him pretty hard, but all that happened was his head drooped down. I looked closer and realized his scope was trashed. Then I looked back at him and saw that his robes were heavily stained with blood. “Dammit!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I frantically ran around grabbing highly necessary equipment. Ammo, my rifle, I yanked Dices rifle out from under him, I had to fight very hard to keep back my tears as I rushed around in a blind rage. Dice had been my partner since we were kids, and now he was gone. I started to run down the back steps, rifles and supplies in hand. I ran down the slick stone steps out of the back of the bell tower. I went down twenty stories, sounded like the troops on the groundlevel hadn’t noticed me slip out, but I didn’t really care. I ran out the back door of the church, and threw my stuff in the back of the truck. I hopped in and started the old beast up. I revved it a few times just to make sure she’d go. Everything was clear, I dropped her into gear and floored it.

“Stupid move...” I muttered to myself, because I knew the tires wouldn’t grab if I just floored it. I had to put it in four wheel drive to get moving. As soon as I got going I drove as fast as the old girl would go. Eighty, then ninety, in the rain, bad move. I finally got out of town and chilled out a little. My mind started to wonder and I started thinking about Dice.

“I shouldn’t have left his body there!” I screamed as I hit the steering wheel repeatedly. I laid into that steering wheel like it was nothing.

“Why dammit?! Why?! Why?! Why?!” I hollered as I broke down. Tears streamed down my face almost as fast as the rain fell from the sky. I tried to concentrate on the road, but things kept coming in and out of vision. When I snapped awake, I hit a wet spot and hydroplaned off the road, and rolled down an embankment. When I hit the bottom, I instantly blacked out...