Chapter Seven: Dust and Echoes
Washington D.C., United States of America
September 4
"You do realize where we are, right?" Carter asked, attaching his DMR onto the magnetic plates on his back. "This is some alternate version of Earth."
Ashley grimly nodded, tossing some of Carter's MRE supply into her side pouch. "I figured that out when I read that brochure. The Museum of History is on Earth." She paused, casting a glance at Carter. She couldn't see his facial expression, since his helmet covered it up. "Well, are you ready to move out?"
Shrugging, Carter nodded. "I guess so. Are you sure that this'll work? That what ever that thing is can really get us outta here?"
"It's our best bet," Ashley said, snatching her knife off of the dusty, age-old counter. "I hope that it'll work."
Carter still seem unconvinced. "It's something that was dug up centuries ago, in Egypt. It's probably just some cermonial trinket that the museum tried to aggrandize by making it seem more important."
Ashley rubbed the back of her neck. "Maybe, maybe not. But I have my reasons for believing that it will." The door squeaked on its rusty hinges as she opened the door, holding open for Carter. "Although, it's kinda of hard to explain.
"I'll believe anything right now," Carter said walking out the door, and into the wastes. "After all, it appears that we somehow got stranded in some messed up form of Earth. So, try me."
Ashley followed him out, holding up the brochure for the museum. "It should be about twenty miles north of here," she read, glancing at the faded map on the other side. "We follow this road for a few miles," Ashley pointed at the cracked asphalt trail that led into the ruins of the city, "and then we go from there."
Carter nodded, folding his arms as he started walking. "You haven't told me your reasons for believing that this stone can get us out of here. The only reason that I'm actually going along with this was because I was getting bored in that station."
Taking a deep breath, Ashley began to tell her tale to her fellow Spartan. "I was escaping Reach as a stowaway on a Covenant ship, and in the end, I got sucked into the slipspace void. I woke up in a strange place, where they were other Spartans, but they weren't really Spartans, they just had the armor."
Carter nodded. "I'll buy that. I crashed into a Scarab, and woke up here."
"Then, me, Tucker and Grif, two of these non-Spartans, somehow ended up in another reality, and well...before I can continue, I'll need to explain what the Sidera is."
She noted that Carter remained silent, and went on her with explanation. "The Sidera is sort of this world inbetween other worlds. Ours, this one, Tucker and Grif's, and many countless more. It's the parallel to the Prime World, which is the world where other worlds are created. You believe me so far?"
"Yeah, so far. Honestly, my mind is pretty screwed up. I'll believe anything as long as it offers some sort of explanation as to why we're stuck here."
"Okay. Now, there is a group of eight worlds that make up the Res'nee worlds, and in each of those realms, there's a keystone hidden. If the keystones are brought together, then one can gain access to the Prime World."
"And you think that that stone in the museum might be the keystone from this world," Carter piece together. "If you're right, and I would believe so, then I guess we need to find this stone."
"If Giovanni hasn't already gotten it," Ashley muttered.
The blue Spartan glanced over at her. "I'm going to take a guess that this Giovanni wants to get them all for some reason."
"Pretty much," she answered. "There's something there that he wants, and he claims that it's complete domination of all of the worlds. He's quite charming in person."
Carter tapped the M6C pistol on his hip. "If you see him, I can hit him. He's only a man."
Ashley chuckled. "My my, you're in for quite a surprised when you meet him," she said, sheathing her combat knife. "The man is practically a god, with powers that no human should have. He thinks that he is the ultimate power in all worlds, and I'm planning on proving him wrong."
"Hold up," Carter ordered suddenly, and Ashley complied. "We've got company." He pointed at a group of people coming at them, rifles in hand. Each person was decked out in slapdash armor, something that looked like it had been put together in minutes. Most of the pieces seemed to be everyday objects; plates, metal pots, planks of wood. Some had rather interesting pieces on their armor; tires and what appeared to be part of a desk chair as a chest plate.
"I wouldn't go that way if I were you," one of the men, apparently the leader, called out as they got closer. "Them damn mutants had most of the city overrun, and they put up a hel'ova fight."
"We can take care of ourselves," Carter informed them. "We also put up a hel'ova fight."
The man shrugged. "Yeah, sure. But when they hack your limbs off and feast on your organs, don't say that I didn't tell you so." He stepped out of the Spartan's way, motioning for the rest of his troops to do so as well.
"Hey," Ashley suddenly said, remembering that her MA37 was out of ammo. "You wouldn't be willing to give me a gun, would you?"
"You got the money, I'm sure something could be worked out," one of them said. "Or you can tell us where you guys get that badass armor, and that'll work."
The lead man nodded. "Which one were you lookin' at?"
Carter grabbed her arm. "You can take my pistol. We don't know how well their weapons work."
Ashley shook him off, and her eye darted from gun to gun. They mostly had assault rifles, but one appeared to be holding a nice 12 gauge shotgun. "Maybe that one," she said pointing.
Nodding the man holding it handed to her, so she could look it over. "It's a pretty good shot, and blows your foe away with ease," he said, sounding like one of those TV commercial people. "Simple to operate, and ammo is quite easy to come by, even in this wasteland."
"Come on," Carter insisted. "We've got nothing that they'd want anyway. Your friend Giovanni might already be at the museum."
Ashley took her assault rifle off of her back and held it out to the leader. "Would this be a good trade?" she asked. "It's out of ammo, but it takes 7.62mm rounds, if you have any."
The man took the MA37 from her, and looked it over. "Seems really high-tech," he stated, flipping a switch on one side, ejecting the clip. He caught it and handed it to the sole woman in the group. "Saunders, fill that up with some of your ammo."
Saunders took it, and began digging into one of her many pouches, and began loading bullets into the clip. "It holds thirty-two," Ashley helpfully added, but Saunders just grumbled something. A minute later, Saunders tossed the clip back to the leader.
He slotted it in, whistling when he saw the blue display a glow 32. "Damn, this is nice," he said. "Allright, it's a trade." Ashley slung the 12 gauge onto her back, and the MA37 was handed to the man that had the shotgun to begin with. "Give her some shells, too."
The man walked over with his hands cupped, overflowing with shells. Ashley noted that they looked indentical to the shells from her world, so she figured that she shouldn't have to much trouble with the weapon. She took them and dumped them into her pouch.
The leader tipped his dirty red baseball cap. "Pleasure doing business with ya, I wish you luck in the journey through the remains of DC." He motioned to his group, and they walked on, each trying to get the chance to hold the new weapon.
"That was a stupid deal," Carter said, watching as they left. "The MA37 was better than that shotgun."
"I know," Ashley told him, turning back to the direction of the museum. "But this gun is more conveinent. It's easier to load, and I don't have to refill the clip everytime I empty it. And shotgun shells are easy to find."
Carter threw his hands up in defeat. "Whatever. Just don't complain when you want that Assault Rifle back."
They walked in silence for several minutes, until Ashley spoke, glaring at the dead city. "So, that's DC?"
"What's left of it," Carter said grimly. "Apparently, there was a nuclear war, and this was the outcome. Total destruction. Makes me sick."
"Look on the brightside," Ashley added. "No Covenant."
"Somehow, I get the feeling that they'll be the last of our worries."
They reached the edge of the ruined city, gazing around at the collasped buildings and piles of concrete covering the roads. Rusty cars lined what was left of the streets, tires long since rotted away, or stolen to use as armor. A few skeletons lay here or there, and one had its hands tightly clutched around a baby carriage, which contained a really small jumbled of bones.
"You were right," Ashley told Carter. "This is sickening, but the Covenant were worse."
"Were they?" Carter countered. "Killing is killing, no matter who does it, humans or genocidal aliens." He paused, letting it sink in. "How far the the museum?"
Ashley checked the brochure's map. "Um..." she looked around, trying to find any landmarks she could use. Finally, settling for the remains of Joe's Cuppa Joe coffee shop, she calculated the distance. "About a mile, straight in front of us."
Carter nodded. "Let's make this fast, okay?" When Ashley nodded, they took off sprinting, hoping to avoid whatever the man had referred to as mutants.
"Hostile!" Carter shouted, jumping to the side as a volley of bullets lit up the streets. Ashley dove to the ground, hands flying to her shotgun, and her eyes trying to locate the enemy.
"Where?" she shouted, flinching as a bullet hit the cracked pavement mere inches from her head. "I don't see him." A red marker appeared on her HUD, denoting the location of the shooter. He was up on the top floor of a wrecked building, shooting out of a giant hole in the wall. Using her helmet's zoom feature, she took a look at the attack.
It looked human, but only slightly. It was larger, its mucles larger and its skin was green, with veins popping out here and there. Its the skin on its face was tight, pulling its lips up over its gums, revealing yellowing teeth. In its hands it carried a minigun, with an ammo box on his back.
"Oh hell," Ashley cursed, as another wave of bullets whizzed past her. "Take that thing out!"
Over the whirr of the minigun, Ashley heard the three sharp cracks of the DMR. Then, silence. "Got it," Carter annoucned. "Armor piercing arounds blew his head to hell." He walked over to Ashley, and held his hand out to help her up. "Now we really need to hurry. There's probably more of them."
But Ashley didn't answer, she was too busy staring at the man with the black trench coat and black fedora, standing across the street from them. "Giovanni," she muttered, and Carter looked over at the man.
"So we meet again, dear Ashley," Giovanni said. "I can't possibly imagine what you were after in this run down city." He pulled a disk shaped object from his pocket, and held it up. It was the keystone. "This, perhaps?" A smile played across his ominous face. "This makes five."
Carter aimed his DMR at Giovanni's head, and without hesistation, fired. Giovanni's hand moved over in front of his face, and he closed his fist. All of that happened almost instantly, making it almost unseeable with the human eye.
"Pathetic attempt, Carter," Giovanni said, opening his hand. The DMR bullet fell to the ground. "But you can't possibly kill me. Not by those means."
"I notice that you don't have you goons with you," Ashley pointed out, knowing that she and Carter were on the losing side.
Giovanni chuckled. "Those goons are preoccupied, and preparing to launch the major attack against the city of Guirel, in the Sidera." He paused, wishing he could see Ashley's expression, but her helmet made that impossible. "That's right, we've broken through into the Sidera, one step closer to my goal."
Giovanni turned his back to them. Carter raised his DMR again, but Ashley lowered it. "Don't bother," she said, watching as the man in black waved both of his hands, opening two portals.
"This is where we part ways, dear Ashley," Giovanni said, "and since I'm such a nice individual, I'll let you return to the Sidera, although I'm sure there's nothing you can do." He grinned evilly, backing into the portal on the left, which then faded.
Ashley groaned, and looked into the portal on the right. She could see a shanty diner, with a few metal shacks surrounding it. The desert background pretty much pointed to the Sidera as the loctaion. "Well, we have no where else to go," she sighed, turning to Carter. "You coming?"
He shrugged. "What the hell. I have nothing better to do anyway."
They stepped through the portal. "I told you that I knew how to get out of here," Ashley said, as the reappeared on the outskirts of the small town.
"Yeah," Carter agreed. "But that's not how you meant it."
"Whatever." She glanced around. It wasn't the town she had been in, and she didn't know where she was. "This is great.
