Disclaimer: Team Fortress 2 is not mine.
Warnings: Drinking, language, suicide mentions, a lot of creative license taken, rated T just to be safe.
XxX
Soldier and Demoman were the first to go. Staying behind to let the others go ahead, giving it all they got in an attempt to slow down their robot counterparts. It was the glorious ending they deserved.
Medic was the next to be taken out. Already hurt from various bots, all it took was one bullet from a Sniper bot. Heavy had gone off after that, the great bear of a man rushing straight into the horde of robots.
Scout kept running, occasionally firing a blind shot behind him, hoping he would hit something. His pistol clicked empty after a few more shots. He could hear his robotic counterparts running behind him, getting closer with every step. He felt a swish of air behind him; one of the Scouts had attempted to swing its metal bat.
Shots rang out around Scout, followed by the sound of metal clanging against the ground. His heart pounding in his chest, Scout turned around and saw the tall figure of Sniper standing high above the chaos.
Scout gave a wave of thanks, but Sniper did not respond as he was still picking off enemies. Realizing that Sniper would be staying where he was, Scout turned back around and ran, determination in his step.
He grabbed his own wooden bat, which was cracked in some places and held together with tape in others, but still a damn fine bat, and gripped it tightly. In the distance, Scout could make out Pyro and Engineer. Spy was nowhere to be found.
Sprinting towards the duo, Scout smashed his bat into any of the bots that got in his way, trying to defend Engineer who was busy trying to keep his sentry up. Pyro was standing near the nearly destroyed dispenser, trying to airblast as many rockets as they could.
Engineer looked up briefly from his sentry to look at Scout. It seemed like he was going to ask the younger man a question but stopped himself, choosing instead to get back to furiously repairing his sentry.
There was suddenly a grunt of pain, though muffled. Both Scout and Engineer looked over to see Pyro, an arrow sticking out of their arm.
"Aw hell!" Engineer yelled. A second later another arrow came whizzing by, this one piercing the metal of the dispenser. One final arrow came by the three and the dispenser was destroyed.
Pyro clutched at their arm, the sudden loss of the healing rays from the dispenser a jarring shock. They dropped their flamethrower, the weapon making a loud noise as it fell to the ground.
With Engineer's focus on his friend, this left an opening for some of the Scout bots to come in most of them only getting a few scattergun shots in before dying; but there was just so many.
The sentry came down a few seconds later, and a few seconds after that more robots came in. Without the defensive edge the sentry provided, Pyro, Engineer, and Scout were essentially sitting ducks.
"Scout! Get in there! We'll hold them off for a little while longer!" Engineer shouted towards the young man.
Scout shook his head. He knew that he was dead if he stayed out here, only having a bat, but he doubted he would survive much longer if he went back into the broken respawn building.
"I-I'm not leaving you guys out here," Scout said, his voice wavering. He really did not want to die, but he wasn't about to just sit around while his friends did.
Pyro had picked up their flamethrower with some difficulty, and Engineer was already trying to rebuild his sentry while under fire.
"Just go," Engineer said through clenched teeth, hitting his sentry as quickly as he could.
"I'm not-" Scout began to say, but was cut off as a hand encircled his wrist and yanked him away from Pyro and Engineer.
The Texan looked up from his sentry and gave a sad smile.
Spy had decloaked as he dragged Scout inside. Before he could shut the door, Spy looked up and returning the smile, mouthed two words. Thank you.
Slamming the door behind him, Spy looked around, searching for anything he could use to fortify the door.
Spy looked up at Scout, checking on the boy. He didn't seem to be hurt too badly, cuts and scrapes here and there, but that was to be expected. Spy was about to say something, but was stopped.
"Why?" Scout asked, looking down at the ground.
"I had no choice," Spy replied, glancing out the window to see the horde of robots getting closer and closer.
"No choice? Thanks to you Engineer and Pyro are as good as dead! I could have stayed and-"
"Stayed and what? You had a bat," Spy said, cutting off the younger man.
"Three against a thousand would have been better than two!" Scout replied furiously, looking up at Spy, tears spilling down his cheeks. "It would have been better than two," Scout said, barely a whisper this time, the tears counting to flow down his cheeks.
Spy frowned at the boy. That's all Scout was really, a boy caught up in a war he shouldn't have been fighting in the first place.
From outside, bullets began to pierce the bulletproof glass. They didn't have much time.
Spy pulled out his engraved revolver from his suit. It was his favorite weapon, smooth and elegant, the perfect weapon for a man like him.
"Take this," Spy said, shoving the weapon into the crying boy's hand, "And run as fast as you can."
Scout looked shocked and took in a stuttering breath.
"No. No, no, no. I. I can't leave you too," Scout said through his tears, clutching the weapon in his hand.
"Scout. Listen to me. I'm not going to promise that I will make it out alive because we both know that's not true.," Spy paused as Scout let out a cry at that statement," "But I promise, that I will fight back as hard and as long as I can. Now go, hurry!"
Scout sniffled a little before meeting Spy's eyes and nodding. He turned around and was about to leave but then he stopped.
He rushed up to Spy, who was pulling out another revolver from his jacket pocket, and threw his arms around him. Scout let out another shuddering sob.
"Thank you," Scout managed to say. Spy paused in loading up his weapon and hugged Scout back.
"Your welcome, Scout. Au Revoir," Spy said sadly, finishing loading the small amount of bullets in his gun.
Scout tried to give a smile, he really did, but he just couldn't find it in himself. Clutching the revolver in his hand, Scout sprinted away, the sounds of gunfire filling his ears.
Running through the abandoned halls, Scout glanced into each room, searching for one that he would have the longest chance of survival in.
At the end of the hallway, there was a medium sized room. Figuring that it was this or nothing, Scout barged into the room and slammed the door behind him. There was a desk and a few chairs lying around, which Scout quickly shoved in front of the door, hoping it would buy him some time.
From outside his little sanctuary, Scout could hear the sounds of the robots. They were closing in and would find him soon.
Scout fumbled with the revolver, opening the barrel to check how many shots were left.
One.
Scout wiped away the tears and snot that had accumulated on his face. One shot. One thousand robots.
Sliding down on the wall opposite of the barred door, the gun suddenly felt really heavy in his hand.
Scout had died plenty of times before, but respawn had always saved him.
There was no respawn this time, however.
In a last ditch effort, Scout slid his bag off of his back and rummaged through it. His fingers ghosted over something cool and smooth.
A bottle of beer.
Scout had smuggled the bottle with him before they left. It wasn't anything too expensive or good, just a regular bottle of beer. He had snuck it in his pack, cushioned between his extra hand wraps and jacket, only to be forgotten about until now.
He began to laugh. Actually, it wasn't so much of a laugh; more of a verbal expression of his exhaustion, fear, and wonder. After so much fighting near dying at the hands of Gray Mann's robots, and this one little glass bottle of beer had somehow managed to not break.
"The one time I manage to get some beer," Scout mused out loud to himself.
From outside the door, Scout could hear the robots closing in. Their large metallic sounding footsteps ringing out through the hallway.
"My first drink and you guys ain't even here to see it,"
The robots were coming closer now, starting to push at the barred door. Scout's hands began to shake slightly, fear and adrenaline coursing through his veins.
He set the gun down next to him and clasped the bottle in his hands. He twisted the cap off, a small hiss filling the room.
Scout's vision began to get cloudy as more tears welled up in his eyes.
"This, this one's for you Solly. And Demo. Medic and Heavy. Sniper, it's for you too," Scout took a deep breath, tears still falling, "Engie, Pyro, here's to you. And Spy. God, I know you hate this shit, but this one's especially for you,"
Scout raised the bottle as he finished his toast.
The banging was louder now. Any minute now, and that door would come down.
Scout took a large swig of the drink and almost spat it out. If times were different, Scout probably would have said something along the lines of 'How the hell do you guys drink this crap,' After he spat the alcohol in the sink. To which most of the other mercs would respond with a laugh.
But times weren't different. And so, Scout swallowed the drink, almost wincing as it went down his throat.
Some of the chairs were pushed back by the force the robots were excerting on the door.
Scout raised his bottle again.
"Screw you Gray. Screw you and your fancy ass robots," Scout said taking another swig of his drink.
The taste was slightly more bearable now, only slightly though. Scout finished off the drink in four more large swigs. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand gripped the bottle in his hand.
The door was was rattling now. It would open soon, revealing all of the robots that were programmed to kill Scout.
"Fuck you!" Scout yelled, jumping to his feet and throwing the bottle at the door. It shattered and glass rained down.
"Jus' fucking kill me," Scout cried as he slid back down to the ground. He felt around for the gun Spy had given him.
His fist closed around the smooth handle of the gun.
The desk and chairs were pushed back.
The gun clicked as it was loaded.
The door burst open.
Gunshots rang out.
And then silence.
XxX
Author Note: Uh, hi. So this was my first attempt at writing anything angsty, as you could probably tell. I started this a few weeks ago and just now got around to finishing it. I'll probably be back to edit and clean this up in a bit.
Please leave a review, I would love to know your thoughts on this, as this type of writing is a bit out of my comfort zone.
Thanks for reading!