"Double Tap? What the fuck is Double Tap?" Dempsey asked, the flashing machine stopping on the orange-yellow machine.
"It says is American drink, root beer." Takeo added, pointing to the smaller writing underneath the large letters.
"I'll try this, then." Dempsey said, reaching into his pocket for more money.
"What? I had forty dollars in here? Where'd it go?" He asked himself, patting his other pocket, then his chest pocket.
"Doc, is there another way we can buy stuff, my money is gone?" Dempsey said, reluctantly turning to the German who was whistling a tune next to the door.
"Hold your hand up to ze slot, Dempshey." Was all he said, a grinning creeping onto his face.
"This better not hurt..." Dempsey said, leaning down and placing his hand in front of the coin slot.
"OW!" He recoiled away from the machine, exclaiming and clutching his left hand.
A small blue form, like a whisp of smoke, had come from his hand into the small slot, and a bottle of the supposed Root Beer had fallen out of the machine, landing in the slot for holding.
"Richtofen, what the hell was that?" Demspey said, the sudden pain in his hand gone as he stood back up.
"Ze vachine also takes erm... power, if you vill." The Doctor answered, holding up his gloved hand.
'You zee, ve are bound to vun out of money here, zo Dr. Maxis and I designed a vay to continue buying ze perks. Every time you kill a zombie, its power is transferred into you, and stays zer until you... Shpend it, on a perk or veapon if you will. Zis goes for ze beloved box as vell, but I ushed my power zat time, zo you didn't notice." Dempsey noticed Richtofen spoke the word 'beloved' with a hatred.
"Doc, who is this Samantha anyway?" He asked.
"Beneath the demonic voice, it sounds like a child. Or maybe that is just the vodka..." Nikolai added.
"Samantha vas... Doctor Maxis' daughter. Zat bitch is now controlling zese zombies and zat cursed box!" The Doctor replied, his face turning to a scowl.
"Enough, we can leave this until later. Dempsey, you were going to taste the drink, yes?" Takeo interrupted.
"Oh, yea, thanks Tak. Got sidetracked for a moment." Dempsey remembered the Double Tap waiting for him inside the machine.
He reached down, grabbed the bottle, uncorked it and drank it all in one swig, swallowing it and then coughing.
"That shit is not root beer!" He exclaimed, doubling over and coughing, no liquid coming out from his lips though.
"How do you feel, though?" Nikolai asked. He was in need of a drink to wash down more vodka.
Dempsey's fingers began twitching uncontrollably, reaching for his rifle slung around his back.
"Ah, he is twitching! Like fourth wife after sex!" Nikolai said.
"I feel like I could shoot faster than the fastest man in the world!" He exclaimed, trying to control his fingers.
"And zat is vhy ve call it ze Double Tap." Richtofen said, walking forward to the rest of them.
"We will not be able to defend here with these dishonorable weapons. We must visit this box again, and hope that demon child gives us good weapons." Takeo said, looking at his dual wield M1911s. They had plenty of ammo, but were not very powerful to their zombie adversaries.
"You lead Dempshey." Richtofen said, motioning for the American to go first.
"Fine, Richtofen, you stay safe in the back like Nikolai's third wife." Dempsey said sarcastically.
Nikolai was dumbfounded at Dempsey. "How did you know third wife liked to be in the back of a line?" He asked the marine.
"Call it a lucky guess." The American replied.
As Dempsey took the lead, he heard the sound of rope straining behind him. He turned around to see Nikolai turning the crank of the zip-line with Richtofen and Takeo holding onto it.
"Haha, zee you zere, Dempshey!" Richtofen remarked as they neared the top.
"Fucking Nazi..." Dempsey said under his breath, making his way through the murky water.
Dempsey actually reached the box slightly before the other two, Nikolai slightly behind.
He opened the box, the whispy blue substance coming from his hands again and entering the box. Dempsey thought he heard a small laugh, but pushed the thought away.
"Come on baby, give me something." He spoke to the box.
"What the hell is this thing, Richtofen!" Demspey exclaimed.
A long wooden and metallic weapon was floating there, a large metallic cage covering the end of the barrel with lines of static or electricity moving up and down it. Dempsey saw what looked like three shrunk light-bulbs sticking out of the side of the gun, glowing yellow like a light-bulb should.
"Ze DG-2... Zat is impossible, ze DG vas lost in Der Reise!" Richtofen exclaimed, reaching for the weapon he proclaimed as lost.
"Nu-uh-uh, Doc, my money, my gun!" The marine stopped the Doctor, grabbing the gun from the box and stumbling back in surprise.
"Fuck! This thing is heavy!" He exclaimed, nearly dropping it after he regained his balance.
"Truly vorth it, though." The Doctor commented, opening the box for himself.
"Wait... where'd my Garand go?" He asked, feeling a lack of weight pulling at his shoulder.
"Dempshey, ze box has taken it from you. Besides, you vouldn't have been able to hold ze two anyvay." Richtofen answered, his eyes watching the cycle of weapons.
"Hmm, STG-44. Very vell, I vill take you." He grabbed the weapon as it threatened to sink into the straw at the bottom.
Dempsey's eyes widened as Richtofen's M1911 disintegrated into the whispy blue substance that he called 'power,' and flew into the bottom of the box.
"Oh, let the Russian get a turn would you?" Nikolai literally shoved the German out of the way and smacked the box with his broken vodka bottle, opening it effectively.
"Vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka...' The Russian mumbled as the weapons cycled. Apparently the Russian hadn't paid attention before, and thought anything and everything could come from the ever-changing box of weapons.
"What the fuck is this? Looks as powerful as first wife!" The Russian exclaimed, but Dempsey respected the gun he had insulted.
"That, my drunk, is a .357 Magnum. Respect it, and it will respect you." He said, grabbing the revolver that, while small compared to the STG and DG-2, had a tremendous amount of power at close range.
He handed the weapon to the Russian, who stepped back and let Takeo step forward.
"Let's see if you can beat me, Takeo." The Russian said, a slight challenge in his eyes.
"Challenge accepted, Nikolai." The Japanese man replied, opening the box as the whispy blue power substance coming from his hands and entering the straw at the bottom.
"Ah, the honor of my country! I have the best weapon here!" Takeo grabbed the Type 100 that the box had settle on, and loaded it.
"Wrong Takeo, I hold a truly powerful weapon here!" Nikolai interrupted, firing his magnum into the ceiling.
"Excuse me, my dishgusting allies, but I believe I have ze truly powervul veapon here!" Richtofen held up the STG in a claim of being the best.
"Bitch please, DG-2!" Dempsey yelled, louder than all of them.
After a few seconds of silence Dempsey said to the air, "'Bitch please?' Is that the best you can do, editor? Overused memes like 'bitch please' and 'challenge accepted?' you disgust me, you know that?"
At this moment, none of the others knew they would be referring to Dempsey's challenging the sky as 'breaking the fourth wall,' and just considered him nearly as insane as Richtofen.
"No offense, Dempsey, but that was nearly as crazy as Richtofen." Takeo said.
"I agree, and I am drunk!" Nikolai had to add.
"I am not crazy! I just think differently zan ze rest of you! Zat does not vake ve crazy!' Richtofen shouted at the two, nearly ready to pull the trigger on his STG.
"Haha, Richtofen you are nearly as crazy as fifth wife, always with the brains, and the blood and the cutting. Fifth wife would have enjoyed this if she did not meet unfortunate accident with stairs and lots of lighter fluid. True, that also resulted in the burning of Nikolai's third house, but that marriage ended better than others." Nikolai ended by rambling to himself about the murders of his wives that he married just to kill.
"Vell, if you are done vit reminiscing on ze deaths of your most likely fake vives, ve should try and vind a better place!" Richtofen said, stopping the Russian from further telling about his long dead wives.
"Tak, help me get this door open." Dempsey was now attempting to open the door that was directly in front of the stairs with a nearly broken sign above it that read: 'Communications Room.'
Together the marine and the samurai slid the door open, creaking the walls and causing a few disturbing cracks.
"Doc, if your weapon truly is the best, why don't you take point?" Dempsey asked, stepping out of the way and motioning for the German to go first.
"I vill show you, Dempshey, ze STG vill destroy anything in its vay!" The insane man exclaimed, running into the murky water.
When they reached non wet ground on the other side, Takeo and Richtofen attempting to pry open the doors to the supposed Communications Shack.
"I wonder if this water is contaminated, or just looks that way. Maybe Richtofen is hiding vodka from me in this water..." Nikolai muttered, kneeling down next to the murky water.
"Go ahead and see, Nikolai, I bet it is vodka." Dempsey said, hiding a grin.
Nikolai bent over and took a mouthful of the water and spat it out all over Dempsey.
"You think I drunk enough that this water looks like vodka to me? No, sadly I am sober enough to see that this water will most likely kill me if I drink it." Nikolai said, the statement followed by the sound of laughter from both him and Richtofen.
"Fucking sober Russian. Damn Nazi scientist." Dempsey said under his breath, and the other two didn't hear it.
"Dempshey, vhy don't you go in first zis time?" Richtofen was standing next to the now open shack, his STG aimed inside, ready to shoot at any moment.
"Of course, Richtofen, why don't you help Nikolai count his wives?" Dempsey asked, pointing at the Russian still laughing on the ground.
"Well, there was first wive, she like me very much, but she very bitchy, but the sex was excellent. Sadly, she die in accident involving axe and lack of vodka." Dempsey didn't stick outside to listen to the Russian go over the rest of his wives.
After checking out the shack and a couple of chalk drawings of weapons and not much else, Dempsey noticed a phone with an unfinished dialing number.
"Richtofen, get your sorry ass in here!" He yelled, and the German almost instantly appeared by him, probably grateful to get away from Nikolai.
Takeo and Nikolai came in a couple of seconds later, Nikolai still rambling about his third wife.
"She like me very much, but sex was horrible..." He mumbled.
"Nikolai, how about more vodka?" Dempsey suggested.
"Vodka!" the Russian yelled, raising a bottle out from his backpack.
"Okay, Richtofen, this phone is left undialed, care to say if you can finish it?" The American continued, pointing the DG-2 at the German.
After looking at the phone for several seconds, Richtofen reached a conclusion.
"9-3-5." He said the numbers as he dialed each one in turn, then listened for a voice at the other end.
"Iiiii know when you're sleeeeping..." A ghostly voice came through the phone, scaring everyone except Richtofen.
"You don't know shit about me, asshole!" Dempsey screamed back into the phone, but the person on the other end had already hung up, a loud clicking sound signaling so.
"Richtofen, who in hell was that!" Dempsey asked the German who stood calm and collected.
"Oh, zat? Zat vas Dr. Maxis' voice-mail. He's a bit... different than the rest of ze Group 935." Richtofen replied.
"Maxis? The father of that demented child Samantha?" Nikolai asked.
"Ze very same." Richtofen replied.
Then out of nowhere singing and instruments started playing out of nowhere.
"Sounds a bit goth... Maybe too depressing, doesn't it?" Dempsey said, unfazed while the rest of the group shuddered at the sound.
"Dempshey, shut up and get to ze front door, I hear ze children... Crying for ze flesh, so beautiful." Richtofen was back to his insane state of mind.
"Here we go again." Nikolai said, his bottle of vodka replaced by the .357 magnum.
"Honor will sustain us, my drunk friend." Takeo said.
"Your honor is fine, Takeo, I just want to shoot this thing!" Dempsey yelled, raising the DG-2 up to his shoulder.
"Dempshey, I have considered your intellect, and deemed zat you may call ze DG-2 ze Vundevaffe, just out of ze lack of intellect you have." Richtofen said, shuddering at the thought of calling his lost DG-2 a Wunderwaffe.
"Well, let's get electrocutin'!" Dempsey exclaimed, firing off his first shot.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the ones before it, hopefully the ones after it too. I'd be great if you could review or send feedback or ideas to help this keep going.
-DeltaG