Vincent took one look at the keys in his hand, glanced out the crack in the blinds, seeing the tour car, and knew this was gonna be a great ride.
Vincent drew his sights on the graboid's opening mouth, noting a diving assblaster, a few shriekers not far behind, and knew… without a doubt… that today was gonna be a long day.
Vincent made a couple mental notes in this moment of clarity.
The town was barely a football field away.
Even though one man was already eaten, there were 8 others to be munched on, just like him.
One was right near him to help.
He had enough bullets to fulfill the deaths of some things here, and get to cover for the next step.
Vincent ran over left of the graboid. Tattoos ran right.
Vincent shot two shriekers getting close, and Tattoos pegged the last three.
Vincent made a lucky shot to the neck of the assblaster, allowing it to fall on the graboid that was now between the two.
The graboid was distracted long enough by the corpse that the two made it to the edge of town.
Three others were making it to the civilian house on the north side. Tattoos went for the Chang's Market on his right.
Vincent knew to hide in the first thing available would be a mistake.
He allowed the remaining three bikers to distract the couple of graboids and whatever other non-friendlies.
He got to the short house, getting in the door and locking immediately stepping from the door, and making an inventory count.
Two handguns: 6 clips, 2 in already, used 5 shots, making 75 bullets total.
Ten throwing knives.
Four C4 blocks.
Walkies, wires and snips.
And of course, 3 MREs. Might have to make a meal out here in battle.
It was meager considering the graboids, but the C4 blocks evened things out, and the other people, assuming most of them survived the entry, unlike the first biker.
Vincent shuddered at the thought of going out like that. No fight, no roar of gunfire, just a helpless moment, and then… darkness.
She held his hand, his pained grip alluding to meds not kicking in quite for the sustained injury.
He shook his head, giving his mind a physical thing to do to shake out the mental one.
Now Vincent kicked into survival mode.
He tiptoed around the tiny 3-room house near the trailer.
He found a pair of binoculars and some .22 bullets. Vincent pocketed all 20, knowing this was going to be a siege with the graboids. Finding nothing else of use, he took note of his objectives.
Stage 1 was to stay off ground. Not quite achieved, but manageable.
Stage 2 was to hide body heat from the sides. Mostly achieved in the house.
Stage 3 was to keep airborne sights under the same conditions. Again, mostly achieved.
Objective, to get to location Beta and activate control sequence procedures in the main control room.
Sub-objective, to wipe out any hyper-evolving Precambrian life-forms, and possible persons.
Vincent leaned against the south-facing window, getting his binoculars ready.
He checked the sky and immediate vicinity.
Nothing seemed close enough now.
The assumption was that only graboids were in the area.
Wasn't the only one left sterile though? This would mean something happened with either a discovery of more, or somehow El Blanco was converted to make more of these cunning, dangerous things.
Vincent looked at the windows of Chang's Market.
Where was Tattoos?
Sudden movement. An edge of a face in the window. Tattoos was there, being silent, as he was.
He saw Tattoos doing what he did for the house, grabbing a few things, and…
Was that a Twinkie? Did he seriously just have a…
Vincent smiled letting go of the thought and was about to duck back to think how he was going to proceed when he saw something.
There was movement on the east side of the market, next to the water tower.
A shrieker was milling near the front, lolling its tongue out, generally searching for the team members.
Then it got the bright idea to use its heat sensory organs.
"Damn!" Vincent breathed, crouching in front of the door, both guns at the ready.
REEEeeEEEE!
The beast had spotted food.
Vincent tensed.
Thump thump thump went some feet.
Vincent was ready. He even eyed the back window for a quick exit.
Crash!
His door never moved.
Vincent got back into viewing position.
The shrieker was going after Tattoos!
There was a flurry of movement through the windows, as Tattoos used a knife, jumping over a table, getting in position to knife the organs on the head.
Rumble Rumble rumble
A dust trail puffed to the market, followed by another.
Graboids!
Vincent watched in awe, as Tattoos was assaulted by every creature in the vicinity.
Boards broke from the floor of the market, breaking windows, making holes in the walls.
Oh yeah, I should get ready to finish the job.
Vincent quietly got over to the metal shack that served as a garage on the east side of town, across from the water tower, and kiddy corner to the market.
The crashing resumed, but died down a bit.
Vincent spotted some keys.
He picked them up.
Oh yeah, the tour guide. My ride now. Where exactly is the ride?
Vincent took one look at the keys in his hand, glanced out the crack in the blinds, seeing the tour car, and knew this was gonna be a great ride.