Fortress of Death
Chapter 01 - Out of the pit, into the thunder
Comment: This story originated from the idea to do a songfic challenge - put your player on shuffle, listen to 10 songs and then write fics for each song (another one of my stories, Exile Vilify, would also have been part of it). But then there were several songs in a row that all would have fitted to different scenes (or maybe even chapters) from the same story. So I gave up on the songfic challenge (at least for now) and started writing this instead.
I don't even like zombies... Yet I'm always drawn back to them, first in my fics with the Guardians and now they have also taken over TF2.
The title of that chapter originated from the saying "Out of the frying pan, into the fire" and from their journey from Gravel Pit to the Thunder Mountains at the beginning.
Also, a warning for possible slash later on in the storyline. Main pairing will probably be Sniper/Scout, for the rest I'm not sure yet if I will do other pairings too or stay with broshipping.
And I am still bad at writing accents so I am sorry if they don't sound strong enough.
Song from the original challenge for this chapter: "Leaving Earth" from the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack
"How much longer till we are finally there? I'm going crazy if I have to sit still for just five more minutes", Scout muttered. "Why the heck did we even have to leave? The gravel pit already became something like a second home to me and now we suddenly have to move just because the REDs were stupid enough to build a base in the middle of the mountains? Since they officially fled the pit we just could have called it a victory and let them rot up there for the rest of eternity but no, we have to follow them and destroy their base. This sucks. Officially. And on ice."
Sniper let out a deep nasally sigh. It had been going on like this since the start of their journey more than three hours ago and it would still continue for the rest of it. The only reason why Scout was sitting in the front of the van instead of together with his team mates in the back was because he was easily getting sick in the back. And after all it was better to deal with a bit of chitty chatter than having to clean vomit from the seats, right? Well, currently Sniper wished for a van-load full of vomit instead.
"You haven't been sitting still for even a second since we left so why would you suddenly do it for five minutes?" he said.
"Oh come on man, you know what I mean."
"No, I don't. If you hate to stay in here so much then go to the back or climb out of the window and play on the roof."
"I would if you weren't driving like an idiot."
Sniper shot him a glare.
"Oh excuse me for trying to get us safely over a bumpy road up a bunch of bloody mountains. I would gladly let you take the wheel - if I didn't want to keep my van for longer than one more minute."
"Hey, eyes on the street. You are already driving like a madman without ... WATCH OUT!"
Sniper's eyes darted back on the street and he hit the brakes but it was too late. The RED Spy who had become visible right in front of the van crashed into the hood, was slammed against the windshield and then hurled to the other side of the road where he remained lying motionless. The van stopped a bit further away.
"Holy shit..." Scout whispered. His widened eyes were locked on the bloody streaks that covered the windshield.
"Stay inside, I'll go and have a look", Sniper said before he pushed open the door and jumped out of his van.
The door behind Scout now was opened as well.
"What's the matter? Why have we stopped? Do we have a road kill? And if so, can we eat it?" Soldier asked and eyed up the blood on the window.
"Spy ... A freaking Spy", Scout silently said. "He hit our car. Sniper is out to examine him."
With a mild smile Spy patted the boy's shoulder.
"Mon cher, why so upset? You have seen many body parts flying around on the battlefield, not just from a Spy and suddenly you become afraid of a bit of blood?"
"No ... not like this. This was different. There is something ... horribly wrong out there."
"Let me see it. I'm zhe doctor on zhis team after all."
With that Medic squeezed pass the others and climbed out of the van as well.
Sniper knelt beside the Spy's corpse, close enough to examine the wounds but still with enough distance as if he was afraid the dead could suddenly reach out a hand and grab him but also because of the stench. It wasn't coming from the dead body - that would have been way too fresh for such a smell - but rather from some of his wounds - as if those parts of his body were dead for months. But how? The REDs had moved here maybe two days ago and as far as he could remember they all were in better shape the last time he had seen them. And then those wounds - those were definitely not only caused by being hit by a car. At those few spots were his suit was torn open little pieces of flesh were missing or his skin showed bite marks. Sniper couldn't recall any carnivorous animals living in this area but if so how large must that pack have been that nine mercs couldn't have dealt with it? Sniper was sure that the whole team must have been attacked and then Spy was either separated from the rest of the group or escaped as the only survivor. He couldn't quite imagine that this guy had just wandered off on his own just to be attacked by a pack of whatever.
He turned around when he heard footsteps behind him.
"There's something rotten and I don't just mean the stench of that corpse", he said to Medic when the doctor knelt down to have a closer look too. "Have ya seen all those injuries? And where's the bloody respawn? He should have been gone by now."
"Zhose are human bite marks", Medic said. "Could also be a big monkey but I rather go for human."
"Did you see the sense this makes? Yeah, me neither."
With an unnatural rasping moan the Spy suddenly came back to life and tried to grab Sniper's wrist. The two mercs backed away. In a reflex they wanted to grab their weapons only to be reminded that they had left them in the van. The Spy stared at them with dead eyes and tried to crawl after them. A shot rang out and he sunk back to the ground again, now with a new wound gracing his head. The two spun around. Scout stood behind them, eyes widened and breathing heavily, the scattergun still pointed at the Spy.
"I-I couldn't take it any longer, staying back inside not knowing what was going on so I followed you outside as well", he stuttered. The words left his mouth so fast that his voice cracked. "This stench is terrible. Is he gone for good now?"
Sniper couldn't remember if he had ever been so relieved to see the boy but before he could thank him more of those wheezing rasping noises were heard coming closer.
"Back, everyone. Sounds like the things that had been hunting the dead Spy have arrived and I'm not sure if I want to know what they are."
For minutes Sniper hadn't said a single word, his eyes were locked on the street. And Scout did the same for a change. Behind them the voices of the others were heard. Medic had already told them what had happened.
"Thanks for killing that bloody wanker, mate", Sniper said and risked a quick glance at Scout.
"Heh, no problem. Guess you would be completely screwed without me anyways."
At least from the sound of his voice he was his old cocky self again but the look in his eyes had told otherwise. The boy was scared and who could blame him. Killing people or seeing them die while knowing they would return back to life in a few seconds - probably pretty pissed because they were killed again or because the respawn made them sick or gave them a headache but at least alive - was one thing. But someone dying in a car crash only to come back as some kind of undead creature and then being shot and killed for good - that was something completely different. Sniper pondered if he should say something to comfort him but probably it was the best to just stay silent for the moment.
The van dropped into another large bump on the road and a loud crack was heard. For a quick moment it was spinning out of control but then Sniper managed to stop it before it could hit anything or even worse skip over the edge and drop into the depth - as far as he remembered they were up pretty high already.
"No ... no, nonononono, fuck!" Sniper cursed and gave the broken tire a kick.
This time they all had left the vehicle and stood around looking pretty helpless. The Thunder Mountain base wasn't that far away anymore but after what had happened on the street it might not have been the greatest idea if they all went there without a way to retreat fast. It didn't help much either when a normally calm guy lost his temper while the normally energetic one silently leaned against the door with his arms tightly crossed in front of his chest.
"I could repair that", Engineer said. "The problem is how do we find materials to fix a car in that wilderness?"
"I'm sure there's a lot of scrap in the base", Scout said. "If you can tell me what I shall look for I can get in there fast and fetch it before they even notice I had been there. In case there's really someone there." The way he looked gave the lie to the light-hearted sound of his voice.
"Non, in this case it might be safer to send someone who can never be noticed, not during it and also not afterwards", Spy said. "That way I can also examine the area and see if it is even safe to stay or if we should get away fast."
"You sure? These things came after the RED Spy even though he was invisible until he bumped into us", Sniper said.
A crooked smile slipped over Spy's face. "Don't worry, this is the team with the professional." A short pause, then, "If anything else fails I at least won't run into a car."
A horrible stench greeted him when Spy climbed down the narrow path into the camp. He covered mouth and nose with his arm but that barely helped. Some of the creatures looked up from whatever carcass they were feeding on when he crossed a platform above their heads but thankfully they returned their attention to the carcass a few seconds later. Could they smell him or otherwise sense his presence? He hoped not and that they only had turned their heads because of the creaking wood.
When he closed one of the doors to the RED base behind him he could allow himself to breathe freely again. No stench in the building didn't just mean airtight sealed doors and windows but also that those things hadn't found a way inside - yet. Just in case he remained cloaked when he moved on.
The rooms and corridors were bathed in the dim flickering lights of the indicator boards above the doors to supply rooms and the exits indicating that there was at least some emergency power system running. The easily reachable respawn room on the upper floor was completely looted. Probably the REDs had taken everything they could and then fled the base. But what had happened to them afterwards? Was their Spy the first and only one to die so far? At least he couldn't remember anyone familiar among the few mangled creatures he had seen down there.
From the big window in that room he had a good view over the whole area and what he saw made him breathe in sharply. How many had he passed by before? Eight? Ten? Well, that was nothing compared to the crowd out there. It was as if everyone from the next village had decided to pay the Thunder Mountain base a visit. Probably they really had - after their deaths. Spy stumbled back a few steps. His eyes were frozen on the scenery but he forced himself to look away. He had to get those damn supplies and then the team needed to leave the mountains immediately.
One of the other doors downstairs with the sign "keep out" was locked but that alone wasn't enough to keep a Spy out. A few seconds later and he had access to even more storages and the control room. In the latter he stopped to take a look at the big screen that normally showed a map. The other computers were out of power but the large screen on the wall had switched to a view of the Alarm-O-Tron. Four words were lit up: "emergency", "mangled", "owns base" and "look out". So the Administrator could still warn them. But where was she now? Or the rest of the staff? Hopefully far away. Quickly he left the room to continue his search.
"We just take over that base and sit it out", Soldier said. "I never feared any enemies and I'm not going to start doing so now."
"Well, normally killed enemies stay dead", Scout said. "Or they respawn. But they surely don't walk around and try to attack you again. I don't wanna stay here for a single second longer."
"I also don't fear an enemy who shows the impudence to walk around after his death. Not as long as this rocket launcher can blow away their damn heads. And any other body part. I want to see how good they can walk when their bodies are scattered all over the battlefield."
"Count me in, lad, an' we can make zombies go ka-boom together", Demoman said and laughed.
"And what if you run out of munition?" Medic asked. "Respawn doesn't work anymore, probably zhe whole base is shut down, zhe next base is far away. What if you can't shoot anymore and zhe base is run over again?"
"I'm with Medic", Heavy said. "Dead men are no problem now but will certainly be later on. We have to get away from here."
"That's what I would have said too", Engineer said and patted the side of the van. "But with that baby we ain't gonna get far. At best we can get it out of the mountains and then hop from resting place to resting place."
"Then that is what we are going to do", Scout quickly agreed. "Nothing can keep me back here any longer and even if all of you are staying. In that case I'm moving on foot just as long as I can get away."
"Oh come on", Soldier tried it again, "How bad can it be? We also have a freaking Pyro on our side who could burn down everything on these damn mountains if he wanted to."
"RED has a Pyro too", Sniper reminded him. "And if you had seen that Spy on the run colliding with my van you would have been able to guess how useful their Pyro must have been. They must have given up or why else was he on the run?"
Pyro abstained from choosing anyone's side. He was distracted by a lizard scampering over the rocks.
"And even if we run out of ammo, we can still continue fighting with our bare hands as long as we just get back right in time so the Medic can heal us", Soldier said.
Medic just shook his head. "My pack has to be refilled and zhe gun has to be charged too once in a while. Give me a laboratory and enough electricity and we can do it but not in a situation like zhis."
"I too agree with a retreat", Spy's voice came from up above. He became visible and dropped a small box filled with scrap material he had found then he climbed down the last few steps. The unmasked parts of his face appeared to be paler than usual but he managed to keep his pokerface while he spoke. "The base is completely overrun. Not a single sign of the REDs or the staff, also barely any supplies but therefore a good hundred of those crawlers. If we stay here we are like sitting ducks."
Demo and Soldier only exchanged a scowl.
"If you are still not convinced enough, read this", Spy continued and tossed them a two days old newspaper he had found in the control room. Soldier caught it and quickly skimmed through it while Demo looked over his shoulder.
"Something about an experiment ... A virus", he mumbled, "First infections occurred near Roswell but then spread north ... Wait, I thought things like those only happen in Savannah while Roswell is that thing with the aliens. Anyways... It says that anyone can be infected by close enough contact with other infected but that the virus won't show any effect until death. A cure is currently worked on. Survivors were brought to the safe quarantine camp in Colorado."
"All of us have already been infected by simply touching the same van our unfortunate RED Spy happened to bump into", Spy said when Soldier passed the paper to anyone who wanted to have a more detailed read. "Now all we can do is getting out of this country while trying to stay alive."
"By hopping from pit stop to pit stop, hoping one of the rescue teams is still collecting survivors once in a while and praying our vehicle won't break under our bums", Sniper said.
Engineer's work had been a quick fix, just enough to get them out of the mountains. The bigger and better repairs would be made as soon as they found a safer resting place. After they had followed the Hale River for a while and dusk had already been falling they finally reached such a place in the form of an abandoned farm surrounded by fields of high and dried out grass.
"Guess it's just a nightshift for me then", Engineer commented while he watched the others scatter all over the place looking if it really was as safe as it appeared to be or where the best resting places were.
"Nah, not just you", Sniper replied. "I'm keeping watch for the first part of the night. Can't really expect from you to have an eye on the surrounding as well."
Aside of the frequent metallic noises while Engineer worked on the van the night was calm. Once in a while crickets were chirping. Sniper sat on a porch, his back leaned against the wall, and watched the gentle movement of the grass. He rubbed his burning eyes. According to his watch it was past 2 am now. Maybe it was time for someone else to take over the watch duty. Or maybe...
A sudden sound jolted him out of his half-sleep and he quickly sat up. Was it just the wind rustling through the dry grass or a wild animal? The clanging sounds stopped too - either Engineer had just finished his work or he was listening as well. Sniper narrowed his eyes, even held his breath. And then he heard those noises that sent chills down his spine, silently at first but they quickly came closer. Wheezing, rasping moans in the darkness.
