"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T DECIDED?" yells an all too familiar voice behind me.
Noda seems to have had followed us into these tunnels. Rather annoying, but whatever. I'm starting to get the feeling, actually, that he may have some sick obsession with me. Though, judging by the picture of Yurippe he looks at every night, I think he may want to have his revenge on me for breaking her arm.
"Well, I was just trying to see exactly how gullible you people are. Judging by the way you happily invited me into, what I assume to be, a secretly kept base under the school, without my word of compliance I might add, I'd say my test brought results."
"YOU WERE DICKING US AROUND?" asks the bearded child who escorted me.
"No, I was testing to see just how protected this place was. I didn't have to lift much of a finger to make my way into here. I'm not so sure this farce of yours will prosper well with this level of incompetence."
"You're not leaving here in one piece." Says a voice I hadn't heard since our last…'encounter'
I turn my attention to the Yurippe girl, who had apparently been sitting on a throne in the darker part of the room. She sits there, legs crossed, shotgun pointed at me. In suit, several of the workers pulled up their projects, all pointing at me.
"I don't appreciate wild cards, Mr. DeSantos. This was as much of a trap as it was an offer of cooperation. You WILL comply."
"And if I refuse?" I ask, keeping my gaze on her.
"Have you ever been taken prisoner? I doubt it's much fun. Yet, in a world where nobody dies, could you imagine the potential for cruelty? You may die of starvation, but you'll come back. We may rip all of your arms and legs off, but you'll come back. We may rip off all of your skin, slather you in honey, and leave you to the bugs, but you'll still die and come back…eventually."
"Wow, you're good at the matriarchal bitch thing, aren't you? I still refuse."
Now, I'd like this moment to ask you. Have you ever been penetrated by thousands of bullet sized projectiles? No, of course you hadn't. So there is no way you could have imagined the pain I was in as I was fired upon by all my adversaries. The worst part? After they were done, I was still semi-conscious.
Yurippe walks over my bloody body. She smiles. Then she points her shotgun at my face, and pulls the trigger.
It was painful.
I think I can safely say I am, if not the only one, one of the extremely few people to have experienced both a peaceful and painful death.
I open my eyes, and am greeted by the sight of darkness.
I can feel that my arms are chained up. I can tell it's been a while because my arms are still numb. I can also feel that they were kind enough to give me a change of clothing. Hey, at least there's that.
I try to make out something, anything, of my surroundings. If my mind isn't playing tricks on me, someone is sitting, well, sleeping on a chair in front of me. It's that Noda child again; I recognize that halberd leaned up against him.
"Hey, Noda." I say. Still, he rests.
"Noda! …NODA, YOU IDIOT! WAKE THE HELL UP!"
"WHO YOU CALLIN' AN IDIOT?" he says, getting up from his chair and brandishing his weapon…several feet to my left. Now that I think about it, why are there no lamps, or hell, torches to light things up?
"You mind getting me out of these chains?"
"And why would I do that?"
"So I can kick your ass, that's why."
"Whose ass is getting kicked?" he responds, then pokes at the dirt wall in front of him with his weapon.
"Nobody's has to be if you just let me out of here peacefully."
"You think I'm stupid, don't you? Wel-"
"Quite stupid, actually. You yell and scream a lot, plus you're arrogant. In my experience, the loud and arrogant ones are typically dumber than the rest."
He lunges his weapon in to the dirt with an audible grunt…several times before stopping.
"That was painful. To watch, I mean."
He reels back his halberd, then starts turning in place, searching for the source of my voice, no doubt.
"Try behind you." I say.
He faces away from me, and thrust his weapon into his chair. This kid is truly stupid. I couldn't contain my laughter. It seems this was enough to alert him to where I was located, his jab barely missing my torso.
"You almost had me that time. Now, maybe you can get me out of these chains?"
He brings his face in towards me, attempting to look me in the eyes. He reeks of sweat and dirt. I wonder how long we've been down here. Do the guards change shifts?
All that aside, how can I get this idiot to let me free?
"Are you, by any chance, in love with Yurippe?"
He backs away from my face. "What do you care?"
"Hey, I'm not judging your choice. She's pretty nice looking, I guess. I mean, that Angel girl is much better looking, if you ask me, but I guess Yurippe could get third place in that contest."
"Stop talking about her like that!"
"Or what, you'll kill me?"
"Maybe I will. Just for laughs."
"Oh, c'mon. That can't be enough, can it? Sure, you could kill me, but anyone could kill a chained up prisoner easily. If you beat me in a fair fight, maybe that Yurippe girl will be impressed. Maybe she'll 'reward' you."
Silence…
"You think so?"
Jackpot.
"Oh, hell yeah. Imagine it; you being the guy that beats the guy who decimated a good number of her crew in less than a minute. Anybody would be impressed. You could become her right hand man. Maybe better. But you'll never know until we fight each other."
"But, won't everyone think down upon how I let you free?"
"No one has to know. You could say that I escaped. That it was just you against me."
Silence…
The sound of his halberd being stuck into the ground: that was mistake number one. The cuffs on my wrists begin to come off: that was mistake number two. As soon as I am able to pick myself up and stand on my two feet, I take a moment to let me arms wake up.
Noda being stuck into the wall with his halberd, as I start to walk away: That was mistake number three.
"Christ, you're an idiot, Noda." I say over the sounds of his screams.
I notice the faint noise of footprints. I take this as my queue to hide behind a conveniently placed stack of munitions crates.
A single figure runs past me to check up on the screams. I follow behind them, my light footsteps masked by Noda's screaming. When we get to Noda, the figure begins pull out a pistol from their side.
I pull the halberd out of Noda and slice into them. The let go of their gun and I catch it midair.
As I begin to take a nice look at my new toy, a hand begins to creep its way up my leg.
At a closer glance, it's the bearded boy from before. His face straining from the pain he is no doubt in.
I kneel down to look at him in the eyes. "I never got your name." I say.
He looks at me like he wishes he could kill me. "Chaa." He says.
"Nice to meet you, Chaa." I say, right before I pistol whip him in the back of the neck.
After I loot his body for extra clips and a freaking BUTTERFLY-KNIFE, I get up to walk away. As I do, I recount the story he told me on our way down here.
Carnage, eh? I'll show you a carnage.
I shoot the still and rasping Noda to silence him.