"Dempshey!"
Tank Dempsey let out a startled yelp as an unknown creature leapt out from the shadows, nearly sending him back down the steps of Kino der Toten, the 'theatre of the dead' in which they were currently fighting for their lives daily against hoards of the undead. This explains why Tank was so on edge.
"Gah! Fuck, Doc. What the hell did you do that for?" Tank had turned red. The Doctor let out an insane laugh. "Oh, vhat's ze matter Dempshey? Did ze Doctor shcare you?" Richtofen asked patronisingly before erupting into another fit of giggles.
"I thought you were a Freakbag! I could've shot ya, you crazy bastard!" Dempsey snarled though gritted teeth, his heart still thumping from the scare the Doctor had given him. Usually, stunts like that didn't bother him, but they had just finished off a particularly large group of undead, that plus the insane nazi doctor's behaviour had been even more erratic than usual.
"Ja, ja, vhatever Dempshey. I don't zhink your reflexes are vhat zhey used to be, hmm?" The doctor walked past him, fixing Dempsy with a knowing smirk.
Dempsey stared, incredulous. "Wh-wha..?"
"Auf Wiedersehn, Dempshey." Richtofen called over his shoulder, before disappearing off towards the projector room.
Annoyed, Dempsey set out to find the others.
Dempsey found Nikolai and Takeo on the stage, sitting around a small fire that they had lit against the Doctor's wishes.
"Is so cold." Nikolai grumbled, hugging his bottle of Vodka, "Just like third wife!" He chuckled.
Takeo, who was sitting cross legged on a large piece of rubble polishing his trusty katana, frowned. "You have no honour, Russian pig. Why do you not go and do something useful?"
"Nikolai is tired."
"You are always tired, it is because you are always drinking that dishonourable drink." Takeo eyed the 'dishonourable' bottle with contempt.
"Having fun?" Tank broke in, smiling. He walked over from where he had been watching the two argue and took a seat on some torn nazi banners near the fire, amused.
"Da, Nikolai has Vodka, Nikolai is having fun." Nikolai took another swig of the bottle. Takeo made a noise in his throat but refused to say anything more on the matter.
"Wanna play some cards?" Tank produced a battered deck of cards from somewhere in his jacket.
"Da. But I am not betting Vodka !"Nikolai looked lovingly at his bottle.
"Tak?" Dempsey started to shuffle the deck. Takeo nodded, sheathing his now spotless katana.
Meanwhile, in the projector room, the Doctor was hunched over his desk which was littered with hundreds of loose papers, yellow with age and covered in hastily written, but none the less neat German notes. The projector room had become the doctor's home within Kino, somewhere private and his for when he needed to be alone. It was nothing like the office he had had in Der Riese, and was cramped and cold, but it was his sanctuary, away from the imbeciles that were his team mates. Especially Dempsey. The Doctor let out a giggle at the last thought. Dempsey was such an idiot. Richtofen rummaged around the papers on his desk, looking for the continuation of the one he had been reading. He thought of how Dempsey was the perfect test subject, no, more than that, physically he was the perfect human. Even down to his perfectly Aryan blond hair and blue eyes. The Doctor wanted nothing more than for the whole Untoten situation to be dealt with so he could once again have Dempey strapped to his table. Edward shuddered in delight at the thought.
"Ah, zhere you are." He had found the research he had been looking for. He read it quickly, then set it down. He put his head in his hands and leant on his desk.
"Vhy does the answer elude me? Ze subjects are all such failures... Zhere must be a vay of controlling zhem vhich does not involve ze MPD..." The doctor sighed. "Gott verdammt kleines Mädchen! Zis is all Samantha's fault! Scheiße..."
Richtofen slammed his fist onto the desk in frustration.
Takeo leaned across the crate that they were using as a makeshift table and dragged his winnings towards himself. This was the third time in a row that Takeo had won, leaving the other two substantially short of Vodka, ammo and cigarettes.
Dempsey gawped at Takeo:"What the fu-"
"This game is most honourable!" The faintest traces of a smile tugged at the corners of Takeo's lips.
"He cheats!" Nikolai shouted drunkenly, swaying a little.
"Shut up Russian. You are simply hopeless a this game."
"Well, I'm dry." Tank broke in before another argument could break out between the two rivals. "I think I better go find a place to catch some z's." Tank reached into his trouser pocket, then his other, then his jacket pockets."Man Tak, you really cleaned me out tonight."
Takeo bowed his head as he took the statement as a compliment. Nikolai burped loudly.
"You couldn't lend me a cigarette, could ya pal?" Tank asked.
"For the honourable American who accepts defeat with dignity." Takeo handed Dempsey a whole packet because he did not smoke. He would keep the rest for bartering purposes, however as his other three teammates did.
"Thanks man." Tank accepted his gift and lit one up. "I'll see you bright and early for some morning meatsack killin'," He mumbled with the cigarette in his teeth as he stored his lighter and the packet. He turned on his heel to try to find a reasonably sheltered and comfortable place to sleep in the cinema. As he headed off in the direction of the projector room he could already hear the muffled sounds of Nikolai and Takeo bickering. 'Just like an old married couple' he thought and smiled.
It's not the girl's fault, Edward, and you know it.
The Doctor tensed.
You are a failure, look at yourself.
"Nein..." The Doctor whimpered, putting his hands over his ears. "Bitte, lassen Sie mich allein!" The voice in his head was cruel and sounded harsh and full of contempt.
You're a monster Edward, you deserve everything you get.
"Bitte..." He was starting to get a headache. A second voice joined in with the first, this one was female and sounded vaguely familiar to him; it wasn't one that he had heard in his head before, he was certain.
You're disgusting. You're going to rot in hell for everything you have done.
"Sofia?" Edward's voice was little more than a whisper now. All traces of the terrifying, intimidating doctor who struck fear into the hearts of the Wehrmacht and possibly even the Führer himself had completely vanished at this moment. He was at the mercy of his own mind, he chuckled at the irony. The voices screamed at him and his headache intensified. He cried out shrilly.
Why don't you just kill Dempsey if you hate him so much? You're weak. Maybe you don't have it in you. Kill yourself Edward, please. They hate you. Everyone hates you. Everyone you've ever met has hated you.
Richtofen fell to the floor clutching his head and moaning. He squeezed his eyes shut and the tears flowed down his cheeks. He pulled himself upright and shuffled into the corner. "Helfen Sie mir bitte, ich kann es nicht mehr ertragen." He pleaded to no one.
Tank was searching for a good sleeping place when he heard a shrill scream. He immediately pulled out his pistol; the first line of defence when danger sprang out of nowhere, and cocked it. He paused. The scream he heard sounded human, well, not undead, and there were no more sounds afterwards. Perhaps it was not the maggots after all. He decided to investigate and jogged towards the source of the scream.
He found himself at the door to the projector room. 'Weird,' He thought, 'Isn't this where the doctor usually does his... freaky experiments and shit?' He gently pushed the ajar door open with the barrel of his M1911.
The sight that greeted him disturbed him. The doc was hunched in the corner, clutching his head and rocking back and forth like a mental patient. "Helfen Sie mir bitte, ich kann es nicht mehr ertragen." Richtofen mumbled. Tank could not understand him, and was thoroughly unnerved by the sight, hell was he... crying?
Tank took a hesitant step forward.
"Leave me alone!" The doctor shouted switching to English for some unknown reason. Dempsey frowned. How had he even seen him? Tank was about to tell him to 'go fuck himself then' when the doctor moaned and said:
"Shut up, please. Please go avay ..." He was shaking.
The Voices. Tank understood then that the doctor's shouting and rambling was not directed at him. He had heard Richtofen mention 'The voices' when fighting zombies, but he didn't think he was serious. Tank knew he had a screw loose somewhere, but he thought that the 'voices' thing was the Doc playing up to the fact that the guys were always saying that he was nuts.
'Wow, you really are a psycho...' Tank thought, feeling a stab of pity for the shaking wreck he saw before him. Tank holstered his pistol.
"Uh Doc?" Dempsey asked cautiously whilst placing a tentative hand on the doc's shaking shoulder. The doctor's head snapped up and the look on his face made Dempsey wish that he hadn't holstered his pistol. Richtofen's acid green eyes were practically glowing and were bloodshot from crying. His expression made Dempsey feel another stab of pity for the man he usually look at with pure hatred. Richtofen looked utterly lost; his eyes were wild and he looked like a frightened child. The Doctor lunged forward onto his knees and grabbed the front of Tank's jacket with trembling black-gloved hands.
"Wer bist du?" Richtofen asked staring blindly in front of him. 'He really is ill.' Thought Dempsey as he looked at the doctor. Dempsey noticed something else too as he looked down at the doc; without his usual scowl which made him look years older than he was, or his expression of sadistic glee the doc looked young, and even handsome. Tank didn't have feelings for the doc in that sense, and had never quite been able to imaging the doc ever having a relationship with a woman, hell at times he thought it was easier to see the doc batting for the other team, but now looking into his distraught and lost face, the doc looked human, vulnerable. Tank could see him with a girl, or wearing the very expression he was looking at now if he was rejected. Tank had never found it hard to get the girls, but even he had had his share of rejection.
"Doc..." Tank murmured. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he pulled him in and hugged him. It was so out of character for him to hug the man he hated, but after looking into those eyes and seeing the pain in them, he reasoned that the thing the doc needed most right now was comfort from another human being, something it is evident that the doc had not had much of in his life. "What happened?" Dempsey asked as he rested his chin on the doc's graying hair.
Richtofen slowly came around from his daze and found himself in the embrace of a certain idiot American. He could tell that it was him by the dog tags that were pressing into his cheek. That and that it was like being pressed up against a brick wall. He had blacked out at some point whilst trying to expel the voices from his head. The voices! He listened intently, he could hear the thump-thump of the American's heart (he was, after all, squashed right next to it) and the low hum of various machinery. No voices. He let out a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding. Gone, for now anyway. They were always there, even if he couldn't hear them, he could feel just under the surface like the someone's name you have forgotten. Now for the more pressing matter (Edward rolled his eyes at the pun) of Tank Dempsey bear-hugging him like a child with a teddy bear. Richtofen inwardly shuddered at the mental image of Samantha and silently cursed himself for the comparison. "Ahem." Richtofen forced a chough. Nothing. "Ah, Dempshey?" Richtofen's voice came out muffled.
"Mmmm?" Replied Tank dreamily. This unnerved Edward, perhaps the American was enjoying this a little too much.
"Verdammt Dempshey get off me you schweienehund !" Richtofen shouted as he tried to push the ape-like American off of him. He was even more unnerved at his inability to move the American. He knew Dempsey was strong but this was ridiculous, he wouldn't budge!
"Wha- oh Richtofen!" Dempsey seemed to have forgotten where he was and immediately released the nazi. "I, uh, ehehe..."
"Vhat ze hell vere you doing?" The doctor demanded, standing up and making some space between the two.
"You..." Tank checked himself. He didn't want to bring up the fact that he had walked in on the doc clearly having some sort of mental breakdown and upset him anymore than he clearly was right now. "You looked like you needed a hug."
The Doctor seemed taken aback by this, but quickly regained his stony expression.
"Nobody touches ze doctor... Unless he asks." Richtofen stated, the corner of his mouth quirking slightly at Tank's horrified expression.
'Ewewewewewew.' Tank's face said it all.
"Yeah well doc, I uh, I think Nikolai wanted to see me so, uh..." He was turning a lovely shade of pink. The doc clearly thought he was gay. It was written all over that bastard's smirking face. He couldn't even defend himself and mention his daydream about hugging a beautiful blond girl (which the doc had rudely interrupted). Unless of course he would like his face decorated with MP40 rounds.
"Dempshey, you are blushing..." The doc looked infuriatingly amused. Tank was ready to smack him.
"I gotta go..." Tank murmured, embarrassed. He backed out of the room, never taking his eyes of the grinning German.
The Doctor's insane laughter could be heard throughout Kino der Toten.
GERMAN:
Gott verdammt kleines Mädchen - God damn little girl
Scheiße - Shit
bitte lassen Sie mich allein - please leave me alone
helfen Sie mir bitte, ich kann es nicht mehr ertragen. - please help me, I cannot take it anymore.
Wer bist du? - Who are you?