Sucker Punch: Resurgence
By: A.S. October & L.A. Moonfyre
They say a dream is only a dream, that what happens within it can not hurt you. But what happens when that's not true, and it's your dreams that are the things hurting you.
Chapter 1
Slowly fluttering an all too familiar world filled her vision as her honey brown eyes opened. Already a dark smile grew on her face as she felt the cool steel of fully automatic beneath the pale skin of her hands that gripped the P90s. Suddenly the sounds of echoing bullets filled the empty air around her, and with a thick sound she hit the dirt as the shining lights of the flying projectiles flew over head. It was a thick jungle that surrounded her as finally her vision cleared and she could see everything that was going on. Everything felt familiar to her, yet new, from the cold steel to the thickness of her shoulder plates. This world had been ripped away from her a year ago, once her escape was made from the asylum, where she left Baby to take a fate that was not fair.
The last thought brought Sweet Pea back to the reality of a harsh and cruel world, gasping for breath as she lay in bed. Had it truly been a year since her escape had been made? An escape she didn't even believe was possible, and yet even after telling the leader of the plan it would fail she still gave her life to allow Sweets to escape. Even to Sweets that seemed unreal to this day and she found herself bouncing from place to place, never being able to find somewhere stable. Then again, she had never planned on finding that her parents were dead, flu or something like it, when she left. To this day she felt empty for not being able to relay the message her sister had wanted her to. Of course she had tried, visiting their graves and explaining to them what had happened, but she didn't quite feel that was good enough.
Throwing the sweat soaked blanket off her slightly covered body, she slowly crawled out of the bed of the dingy hotel room. The silk of the soft pink night gown she wore moved against her skin as she walked towards the bathroom. Turning on the cold water, she plunged her hands under the water before splashing it on her face. The dream was too real, too close to what they had experienced at the hospital. Something about it felt different though, felt new. It brought a longing to be back with the others, and a deep pain that still stung at the loss of her sister. She stared deep into her eyes, the eyes that both her and her sister had shared, as the image that surrounded them changed into that of her sister.
"Find her," Rocket's soft voice carried around her ears as the reflection spoke, "Find her and save us."
Blinking, Sweets shook her head, the reflection melting back to that of her own. Too real, she thought to herself. Taking in a deep breath she grabbed a towel and dried her face. Looking one last time at herself she turned the water off, leaving the bathroom and making her way back to the bed. Lightly she sat back down while staring at the clock. The bright red numbers glowed two-thirty in the morning. Sighing heavily she laid back down, hoping to get more sleep before her shift at the sewing shop started in the morning. But sleep came much quicker than she thought it would, and the dream-like-scape pulled her back into the jungle just as her eyes closed.
Suddenly the shots echoed around her as she remained on the dirt covered floor of the jungle. She held her guns closely as she said a soft prayer, and as if God had heard her, a voice that was all too familiar came echoing over the sounds of the guns.
"Sweet Pea," the confident voice of the wise man that led her to freedom sounded, "we have a mission that you will have to face alone."
Her eyes peered up from under the hood of her cloak, and sure enough there he stood behind a tree near her. His dark ready-to-play smile on his face. For some reason this smile brought warmth through her body, it was like a reminder that everything was going to be alright, to trust him. He stretched out an arm to her, and without second guessing she slipped one of the P90s back into her hip holster, freeing her hand to take his. As if with little struggle he pulled her to her feet and behind the large tree. Once she was standing next to him she nodded, allowing him to know she was ready.
"Alright, first off, glad to have you back Sweet Pea. Things have become a mess since you have been gone. Your mission is simple. Something that can easily be handled solo. You must find something important, something so small, but big enough to change the course of your life. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder."
Her hand reached for the other P90 as a smile came across her face. Giving only a brief nod she moved to look around the tree, preparing to head into the gunfire that only moments before she had been ducking from. Taking a deep breath in she began to prepare herself for the mission ahead of her, trying to understand what she could possibly be looking for. Never had the missions previously been so vague in the briefing. Her eyes looked back once more at the wise old man.
His smile grew, "One more thing, two heads are not necessarily better than one."
She raised an eyebrow but didn't question him. Turning away from him, she took off running into the sounds of the echoing gun shots. Her own pistols drawn and firing at anything that was moving. It was hard to tell which way the gun shots came from, and everything seemed like ghosts. Never did she actually see any one who was operating the guns, or grenades, just knowing they were coming from somewhere while she ducked and dived through the thick bushes of the jungle.
Stopping behind a large tree that seemed miles from where she started only moments before, she reloaded her pistols, noting that once these rounds were gone there would be nothing left, and the slick of the metal that ran up and down her back would be her only weapon. Her eyes moved to peek around the tree, and as if the ghosts had finally picked up enough energy to become the actual thickness of humans, she saw a large army of creatures moving towards her in the overgrown dense brush. As they came closer she began to smell it, a sickening mouth filling stench of rotting flesh. Gagging, she held back against the fact that every muscle in her body had the reaction to force the little of what was in her stomach to come back up. Taking two deep breaths in through her mouth and slowly releasing them through her nose, she was able to hold back the vomit and force herself to look back at the army moving towards her.
Her eyes could now make out the sight of the flesh that was falling from their bones. The stench seemed to move closer to her as they did. Their groans began to fill the air even over the sounds of bullets echoing around them. Abruptly she realized that the gun shots that were echoing around her were not enemy fire, but that of people trying to survive. Her eyes flickered around as she noticed now atop the tall trees were men shooting down from above, slowly picking off the undead moving towards her. Gripping her pistols, she knew there was not much time before they realized she was alive and running about on the ground, food they could actually catch.
Gritting her teeth, Sweets ran towards the moving army of undead, her shots landing perfectly in between the empty eyes of the creatures patting towards her. As she pushed her way into the overwhelming crowd of stench soaked things her pistols clicked empty, something she truly expected. In one movement that was so fluid it seemed practiced, she slipped the guns back into the holsters at her hips and pulled the large blade from her back. In swift arm extensions, the heads of the undead began to litter the ground. Their groans the only things she could hear as they began to swarm her, finally realizing she was the only human thing left for them to reach.
The stink that surrounded her was almost unbearable, but she continued to hack her way through the large crowd. Hands reaching out for her, gripping at her as her blade came down in heavy strokes, cutting while thick wet limbs flew around her. The thin leather of her cloak became covered in blood that stunk even worse than the monsters themselves. Each one of them ripped at her skin, scratches covering the arm where her cloak did not cover and every little tiny gash burning, causing a pain that even she had to bite down to bear through.
Abruptly the creatures began to scatter into the woods around her, and she was left standing alone with her chest heaving in the middle of a clearing she hadn't even realized she had come upon. A smile caught on her face as she tried to catch her breath, and even with the smile of victory on her face she realized something was wrong. Not only did she not find anything small that would change her life, but the undead creatures didn't just walk away, they scurried away as if they had been scared. As if on cue, an earth quaking groan rose from behind her. Slowly, with her sword all ready to go another round, she turned around to face a beast of great size. Nothing like her eyes had ever seen before, and as it moved closer to her she realized it was a living, breathing heap of bodies, moving as one massive giant. The stench poured off the heap of rotting flesh, forcing Sweets to stop breathing completely, holding in everything that was in the pit of her stomach.
Without a second thought, Sweets followed her first reaction and turn and ran. That was not enough to save her. Bodies flew from the thing in one long chain, the last one wrapping its arms around her waist and throwing her back towards the gut wrenching smell of the large creature. Struggling against the arms around her waist, she kicked and screamed at the arms, unable to get a clear shot for her sword. Before she knew it, she felt the thud of her flesh against that of a thousand corpses as they began to raise her slowly towards the large mouth of the horde of undead.
Swinging her blade, she could hear the moans of those corpses she hit, their blood spewing from wherever she had hit. But the blood did not last long; the corpse would replace itself with another from within the crowd. Finally, with one large thrust of the rotting hands, she was thrown into the mouth of the rotting corpse. The air around the beast was silent as the echoes of her screams could no longer be heard.
Giving off a large groan, the thing began to force itself to move. After taking only several large steps it struggled for a moment, the bodies within groaning as if in pain. Several bodies shifted and the thing began to take several strides again and stopped completely. The large mouth of the beast opened and gave a grueling howl before blood sprayed from the thing's stomach and body parts from many bodies flew, covering the clearing in the black thick blood of dead things.
As the thuds of falling body parts and other wet things hitting the ground echoed around the dense jungle, around the clearing so did the sound of a much heavier, still breathing body. Her body was covered in the black thickness of death as she lay in the pile of body parts. Her chest burned from lack of air and every muscle in her body screamed at her not to move. As slowly her eyes began to blur in vision and the jungle became fuzz in the background, she saw the black heels of school boots walking through the ooze of black liquid.
Forcing her eyes to focus, she looked up the body that belong to the shoes. She recognized the blue school uniform, and a heavy relief came over her.
"Baby Doll." Her voice whispered before her eyes closed.
Chapter one end