Those words were like a hammer blow.
The roof. We were on Badwater.
Badwater has an unreachable roof.
No medic behind me, no climbing those stairs.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs, scanning left and right, gun at the ready, looking for a medic.
Not going solo.
Twenty seconds passed, an eternity.
Still no medic.
Finally one came rushing past, behind a scout.
WTF?
Up the stairs they went, the scout bounding ahead, the medic struggling to keep up.
The sounds of gunfire. I studied the scoreboard. Predictable. An enemy sniper died in the ruckus. Big deal.
I revved my gun. I took a chance the enemy would hear it but, screw it, I wanted a friendly medic to notice my big bertha.
One appeared like magic, and by god, he buffed me. He was at 60%.
Shit.
That was a long time. I did a quick calculation in my head. It would be at least 20 seconds before he was ready to mount those steps.
God.
What if he decided to leave?
I shielded him with my body. If there was any rough stuff I wanted him protected. Plus, I didn't want him going anywhere.
I heard noises.
Coming from the stairs.
I revved up Big Bertha. Come to daddy.
I saw RED feet. So BLAM!
When I was done I saw the rest of the body.
A demoman.
Poor thing didn't know what hit him.
It just so happened I needed his metal.
And my medic was almost ready.
Did I dare start now?
I did.
I confidently climbed the steps. I scooped up the metal with my right foot. I felt the glow of the medic healing me.
One step at a time.
I looked like I was moving straight forward but my head was tilted at such a degree that I could see everything above me. A massage therapist couldn't take out that kink in my neck in a lifetime, but I needed to see what was going on.
Up the stairs I went.
I could feel the itchy trigger-finger of the medic behind me. Not yet, buddy. Hold it in.
A rustle. Then movement. Above.
I saw a flash of RED.
Another demoman was booby-trapping the steps!
He hadn't seen me yet.
We had micro seconds ... milliseconds. My medic didn't realize what was going on. Would he uber me in time?
I took a step forward. RED stickies all over the place.
I was a goner.
HIT IT!
The untapped electrical noise I know and love occured. I was aglow. The medic had nailed the button.
Without thinking, I ran up the steps. Explosions all around me.
Not dying.
Ha ha.
I stood in the doorway. My big frame blocking all sunlight, Big Bertha blasting away. Time to zero in on a few sentries.
There's one.
It was gone in two seconds. There's another one - I think. A RED sniper was standing in the way. Bye bye, sniper. Snipers only show up on my scoreboard because they get in the way.
It was a dead sentry now.
That makes two.
There's always a third.
Sure enough, one was in the process of being built. Or rebuilt. I saw an engy clanking on it.
I took out the engy. Engies are soft and take bullets very well.
My uber wore off.
Uh oh.
The sentry was still alive, unpacking. About to finish me off.
Click click.
No ammo.
Shit.
I had ammo earlier, what happened?
The sentry, though, had plenty of ammo.
My medic was still healing me, from the safety of the doorway.
I took the bullets like a man.