'Rittle girl! Rake up!' a loud voice and a slap across my face bought me hurtling back to reality. I opened my eyes to see Takeo sitting over me, an urgent look on his face.
'Where are we?' I rubbed the back of my head, and took in my surroundings. To my left was a tall red machine that was somehow playing music, it bore a picture of a white cross and the machine was apparently called a Juggernog. I'd never seen one before, I stared on at it in fascination.
'Drink this, now, it will enable you to fight with honor.' Takeo extended a bottle of red liquid towards me, the same logo from the machine on the front of it. Not caring what it was, I knocked it back expecting a dirty flavour to assault my tastebuds, I nearly choked when I was greeted by a sweet taste of strawberries and cough medicine, and a little something else I couldn't quite put my finger on.
As soon as I'd finished the sickly sweet liquid, waves of energy surged through my body and I stood up, the pain in my head no longer bothering me as I felt my muscles become energized and my dizziness fade away right in front of my eyes. I had no idea what this Juggernog thing was, but why we didn't have it back home was going to be something of an issue by the time I got back.
If I got back.
'Now, come with me. But we must run!' Takeo grabbed my hand and broke into a sprint, I followed suit as the force he put into it nearly knocked me for six. Up what seemed like endless flights of stairs we ran, until we reached a room filled with machines and to my right was a big lever that was pulled down, with static electric sounds emitting from it. On the other side of a room was a large wooden box with question marks on it, supported by some bricks.
'What's in there?' I couldn't help my curiosity as I blurted out my question, I felt my cheeks burn as soon as I'd said it – I wasn't the nosy type.
'Just ralk up to the box and open it.' Takeo stood behind me with his arms folded, a small machine gun in one hand as he watched down the stairs for any intruders that might have caught us off guard. Walking up to the box, I reached my hand out slowly and pulled open the lid. A small jingle started to play, I stared on gormlessly in shock as all weapons under the sun flashed before me before landing on a small red toy-looking thing.
'Ah! The ray gun, such an honourable weapon!' exclaimed Takeo, as I took the small gun and he motioned for me to run down the stairs. We ran out of a room that was just above the room with the Juggernog, and as soon as I turned the corner I came face-to-face with the walking undead. Although there was only two of them, I felt my hands begin to clam up and I felt my whole body shake in terror. In those split seconds we held each other's gaze, I stared into the lifeless yellow eyes of the zombie and right into its hungry, yet tormented soul. With some difficulty I pulled up the ray gun, shakily pointing it at the zombie, and pulled the trigger.
I gasped in shock as a spurt of green light splashed out of the gun, briefly engulfing the zombie before it fell to the ground. No longer had I pulled the trigger, the second zombie broke into a sprint, its arms reaching out trying to claw for me. I stumbled back as the zombie lunged at my neck, I felt the flesh rip slightly and I cried out in pain. I pulled the trigger of my ray gun once more and killed the zombie, I reached up tentatively to touch my neck and to my surprise there was no inkling of any kind of injury.
I fell to the ground, confused. Maybe that was what Takeo meant about this Juggernog thing. I'd felt the flesh rip, the pain had seared through me like a white hot poker, yet there was nothing. This place was so strange, yet I felt like I'd only uncovered the very surface.
As a figure moved around the corner next to where I was sitting, I stood up in a flash and held out my gun once more.
'Ey girl, put that gun down. You look so angry, you remind me of first wife!' A deep laugh echoed from him, I stared on at him scowling. He was a big man; he wore some sort of military uniform I hadn't seen before with a headscarf covering his hair. His facial features were hardened, but through which a pair of stunning blue eyes shined down onto me. His accent was Russian, and he had somewhat of a growl. It was quite sexy.
'I am Nikolai, is nice to meet you. I have heard from the American and the Nazi about you, apparently you are quite good at fainting.' He chuckled to himself, my cheeks burned in total embarrassment as I stood up and brushed the dust from the ground off my legs. I said nothing as I stared on at him, and walked away.
'Come. We are stationed at the location of lander by explosion drink. Is not as good as vodka, but I have plenty of that. And no need to worry, is nearly night time. Those dirty hell-spawn can not locate us when is dark.'
I followed him up through the passage and up the stairs until we were at the place where Takeo and I took the lander, and sure enough there sitting on it was Takeo, Tank and Richtofen.
'So Taks tells me your first spin on the box got you a ray gun? That's freakin' sweet man. First time I ever went I pulled out a sniper. Dragunov, I think. Piece of shit didn't get me one damn zombie, Richtofen got pretty mad cause I kept holding him up.' Tank giggled, poking the Doctor in the ribs as he did so. Richtofen gritted his teeth and glared on at the American, then looked to me and motioned for me to sit next to him. Not wanting to sit next to the strange man, I plopped down between Takeo and Nikolai to let Dempsey and Richtofen have their little feud.
'What was yours?' I asked Richtofen, feeling a little more confident now I was between two men who were considerably bigger than myself.
'Zhe Wunderwaffe, of course.' Edward gave me a half-smile, a deviant look in his eyes as he turned his gaze away from me to nowhere in particular.
'Mein golden rod, my most beautiful creation... how ironic zhat it vould someday save my life on many occasions...' he mused, and I turned to Takeo and Nikolai.
'You guys haven't seen a bag around, have you? It's kinda big, and purple. I was carrying it when I got here. Have you seen it about?' I needed a fix, and the only place I could get one right now was from my stash. I'd definitely stumbled upon this place at the right time, I had a friend with a large amount of vodka, and enough narcotics to start up a business.
'It is next to zhe PHD Flopper, but zhere vere some needles in zhere zhat I have confiscated for research purposes. Everyzhing else is intact, but I vould bevare about zhose sweets zhat have zhe pictures on..' Said Edward in a very matter-of-factly tone.
'You... took... my needles?' I muttered, looking away from him.
'Ja.' He stared at me, nonplussed.
'YOU TOOK MY FUCKING NEEDLES? I need them! You don't go in a girl's bag without asking her first! I need those fucking needles dammit!' I stood up, grabbing my head in anger, stomping my feet as I felt tears well up behind my eyes and start to fall.
'I will fucking get you for this Edward!' I stormed towards the lander, pushing the 'go' button on the controls and watched in satisfaction as I expelled the four men away from me, back to the mainframe. I ran over to my bag and spilled out the contents, and found that Edward was true to his word. I screamed out in white-hot anger, kicking and lashing out at just about everything in my path including a zombie barrier, when a horde of undead came sprinting towards the broken entrance, clawing at me and moaning.
This was going to be fun.
