Chapter 10: Administration

A wave of bullets impacted Dameon's back. As they struck his hard skin, they made a crackling noise, like metal striking concrete. After thirty shots poured into Dameon, the Sentry bot stopped for a few seconds to let its barrels cool down.

During the brief pause, Dameon threw Chloe over to Orleans, who was still cowering next to the administration building. Dameon then turned around to face the robot which leveled its rocket launcher arm straight at his chest.

Before it could fire, Dameon charged the machine like a football lineman. Hunkered down on his knees, Dameon ran into the Sentry bot, grabbed its front tripod leg and pulled it up towards the sky as hard as he possibly could – brining the robot crashing down on its back.

As Dameon went to make his next move, the Sentry bot swat its chain gun arm at Dameon, which hit his body with the force of a semi trailer, sending him flying into the front of the brick administration building with a thud.

The Sentry bot then propped itself back up by digging its two massive arms into the ground. It readied itself to kill the intruder. The robot once again leveled its missile launcher at Dameon, who ripped the axe off his back and swung it at the Sentry bot's rocket launcher arm over and over again as hard as he could, knocking it down to the robot's side.

Clink, clink, clank, clink.

Dameon continued swinging the axe against the robot's arm. On his final swing, he damaged the wiring to the missile launcher's guidance system, crippling the robot's left arm, while his axe snapped off right below the blade from the force of the impact.

While the robot paused to survey the damage, Dameon scooped up his sniper rifle from the ground, the only object handy, and swung it like a bat against the Sentry bot's steel frame and well protected head. He continued banging the gun against the robot's chassis, but barely dented the Sentry bot's steel body while warping his own rifle's barrel.

The Sentry bot quickly backed up and held out its functional arm. The barrels on its chain gun began to swirl and whine.

"Ahhhh!"

Dameon bolted forward and grabbed the rotating barrels with both of his hands, clamping down on them with his fingers and preventing them from spinning around in a complete circle. The barrels and motor strained against the stress. The Sentry bot began to pivot and jerk back and forth to try and throw Dameon off.

Dameon's fingers began to crack. He feared they would all snap off at once, at any second. The barrels on the robot's chain gun strained to turn and began to smoke as the gears wore raw.

"Shiiiiiit," Dameon could feel his fingers failing, breaking apart into white pebbles.

Orleans then ran up behind the Sentry bot and fired four shotgun rounds into its back, damaging it enough for it to shut down.

(**********************************************************************)

"Wow, you're actually bullet proof," Orleans marveled at Dameon's naked back.

Dameon was sitting on top of a desk in the administration building while Chloe surveyed the damage to his body.

His back was mostly chalky white; it was shattered all over like rock that had been struck with a hammer. In between the cracks in his chalky, concrete-like skin, blood seeped up from the soft flesh below.

Chloe pressed her hands to Dameon's ugly back. She stared at the blood that ran down onto her finger tips.

"I'm still somewhat human," Dameon muttered through his pain. He pulled his robe back up.

"Guess I'm damn lucky I didn't try and throw you down that survey pit," Orleans smiled and shook his head, "where's Dani by the way?"

"She's dead," Chloe glanced over to see Orleans' expression.

He barely shrugged at the news and then began to walk down the hall, eagerly looking for any sign of the Chinese cargo, "ah ha. Here it is!"

Orleans disappeared into a room marked Evidence Lockers.

Dameon was slow to get off of the desktop. Chloe tried to help him down but he waived her off. He slipped down to the floor and painfully stretched his muscles.

Orleans popped back out of the room; "there a key in that desk?" he called over to Dameon and Chloe.

Dameon fumbled to reach for the desk drawer.

Chloe easily pulled it open before he could reach it, "nope," she strained to see down the hall, "its says the C.O.'s office is over there, she pointed to the short hall off to her right. A tattered American flag was hanging above the door.

Orleans practically charged down the hall and began digging through the commander's desk.

Dameon and Chloe walked over to the evidence lockers – three large wall safes. There were index cards placed into a slot above each safe door. From left to right they read 'detainee personal effects,' 'staff equipment,' and 'Yang- seizure.'

Chloe and Dameon heard Orleans' rushed footsteps coming back up the hall. Dameon put on a tough, grimaced face. He leaned on his rifle as Orleans entered the room, jangling a pair of golden keys.

"Are you ready?" Orleans seemed to float across the room.

"With bated breath," Dameon exhaled slowly.

Orleans inserted the smaller key into the safe, turned it, and swung the heavy steel door open.

He stuck his head inside the safe, obscuring the view of the contents.

"Well?" Chloe was curious.

Orleans looked back to them, "jackpot," he said causally. He then began to laugh, "JACK-POT!"

Dameon limped over to get a peek in the safe. Inside were several items he recognized: two Chinese assault rifles, several grenades, a Chinese pistol, an officer's sword, three stealth boys, stacks of prewar currency, a pile of old papers, a pair of sunglasses, and a half a dozen MF batteries and MF rounds. Towards the back of the safe were several strange objects he had never seen: three silver discs that looked like landmines, a long rifle with an undulating metal coil running along the barrel, a black full body suit complete with a matching helmet, and a small wrist top computer in perfect condition.

Orleans instantly grabbed the strange coil gun, "Whoa-ho," he held it up; "the fuck is this thing?"

Dameon grabbed the pile of old papers and flipped through them. It was a catalogue of the seized assets and a topographical map. He began to read the list of seized items.

"Twenty five thousand dollars U.S. currency, two Chinese officer swords, two Chinese assault rifles, one pair of cryptochromatic spectacles, three Chinese spider recon drones, one Chinese Gauss rifle, one Chinese sneak suit, one 'pip boy,'" Dameon's voice trailed off as he flipped the pages and studied the description provided by the government for each item. He glanced back at the topographical map that had a small red dot penned in near the edge of the bay with sloppily written text written above it.

Location of spy submarine.

"Huh," Orleans slid out the magazine for the Gauss rifle, "takes MF rounds. Saw a few dozen in the safe."

Dameon continued to read the documents.

The Black Ghost Hei Gui Chinese stealth suit, or 'Sneak Suit,' was first encountered during the attack on Anchorage. It uses light refraction to render the wearer nearly invisible from a distance of twenty yards. At closer distances, the processors embedded into the Kevlar are able to project an image of the background onto the suit's skin, mimicking the natural environment by using several hundred thousand embedded pixels for superb image resolution. The suit's active camouflage is highly similar to the refractory field created by our own 'stealth boy' model, however, the sneak suit does not need as much energy to operate and can successfully cloak the wearer for hours or even days. Send to Quantico for immediate scientific analysis - D.I.A.

Dameon flipped the page and continued reading.

Dhooooom.

Dameon was jostled by the loud boom and Chloe jumped at the noise. Orleans had fired a round from the Gauss rifle down the hall while Dameon was reading. It created a one foot square hole in the brick, blasting through the far wall to the outside.

"Look at that!" Orleans shouted. He was still pointing the rifle at the wall in awe, "it ate through that brick like it was paper."

Dameon looked at him annoyed and then turned to Chloe, "take it. Take the rest of what's in there. All I want is the suit," Dameon reached for the Chinese sneak suit.

"Huh?" Orleans put the weapon down and watched Dameon pull out the large black body suit, "hey I said you only get thirty percent."

"There's a lot more in the safe," Dameon began to roll up the suit's fabric. The movement pained him. He handed the suit to Chloe.

"That's the biggest thing in that damn safe," Orleans turned red.

"You get the guns, the ammo, the computer thing. . .have you ever even seen a working pip boy?"

"What the fuck good is that going to do me?" Orleans walked back to the safe.

"What good is the suit going to do you?" Dameon pocketed the page with the description of the sneak suit and handed the stack of papers to Orleans. He pointed to the top page which was the faded topographic map.

"What's this?" Orleans stared at the map.

"You like puzzles? It's something about a Chinese submarine that sunk in the bay. They marked it off on the map. Know where that is?"

Orleans glanced at the page. A thin smile momentarily cracked across his lips, "could be interesting. But I think I'm done with this swamp. Time to head up north or something."

Dameon nodded and turned to Chloe, "well, we're leaving for Quantico."

"Hey, I didn't agree to this split" Orleans scrambled to raise the Gauss rifle.

Dameon grabbed the Gauss rifle's strange barrel before Orleans could fully raise it, "Take your share or take nothing. You're choice."

Orleans paused. He cocked his head and looked between Chloe and her ghoulish guardian. Even though Dameon was still in great pain he kept a stony, fearsome face.

"Fine. After I gather up this cargo, I'll head out too. I'll come up north to the highway with you two if you wait a few minutes. Make my way back to the Pitt or trade this cargo in the Commonwealth or something."

"What about your wife, Trisha?" Chloe tried to get a better grip on the sneak suit while glaring at Orleans with icy eyes.

"What about her?" Orleans shrugged and began to unload the safe.

"You're just going to leave her? She needs you," Chloe's voice was tinged with anger.

"Come on Chloe, let's go," Dameon put his hand on her shoulder and pulled at her, trying to cajole her out of the room.

"I'm not going back to those shits at the camp. They couldn't be bothered to come up here," Orleans shouldered the Gauss rifle and plucked a few MF rounds from the safe, "they might shoot me on sight if I came back anyway. They can have her. I'll get a new wife, somewhere."

"You piece of shit," Chloe jerked away from Dameon.

"Hahaha, yeah well," Orleans calmly held his hand out to Dameon for a handshake, "good working with you then, partner."

Dameon stared at Orleans' outstretched hand as if it were a wriggling viper.

"That's pretty low," Dameon mumbled.

"Hey, you want her, go get her. She might slow you down a little," Orleans made a sarcastic laugh and then turned back to the safe.

"You bastard!" Chloe ran up to Orleans and hit his face with her balled fists.

Orleans grabbed her arms, holding her back, while making sure not to hurt her. He kept his eyes nervously on Dameon while restraining Chloe.

"Chloe come on!" Dameon grabbed her and tore her away from Orleans.

Dameon then dragged Chloe outside while she kicked and tried to break free in a rage.

"You're not going to do anything!" she screamed at Dameon, "that girl will be left for dead, or something even more horrible."

Dameon let go of Chloe once they were fully outside. He closed the door to the administration building behind them, "I can't make him go back to her can I?" Dameon looked away from Chloe and up at the night sky, "and killing him wouldn't save her either."

"But," Chloe wiped her face, "we could. . ."

"We could go back, or we could finally find Emily. It's your choice," Dameon leaned against the brick outer wall, "and choose quickly. I want to get away from this camp and Orleans before he double crosses us."

Chloe was silent for a minute. She looked back towards the stinking bogs and Trisha, and then north towards the road that went to Quantico. She sniffed back more tears and wiped her reddening nose and eyes, "fine, let's get Emily."