A.N. - Hey there! I'm still trying to get a feel for writing, so sorry if the chapters seem a little bipolar, lol. Here's another late chapter :/ sorry…
"Ah, shit…" Annette staggered into Cole's open arms, but quickly cleared herself from his awkward embrace. If it hadn't been for her dark complexion, she would have been an intense beat red. She eyed the now deep, agitated cut that had grown in size. A few minutes ago, she exerted herself when trying to close the emergence hole, and now she paid the price. Annette had been bleeding out, the cut worsening the more she moved. But she wouldn't think that way, even though she had almost fainted from blood loss.
"Damn, baby! Why didn't you tell anybody you got a big ass hole in you?" questioned Cole, in genuine concern for his new fellow teammate. He pulled a temporary patch out of his survival kit and began to stop the blood flowing out of her hip, to her dismay. She was still standing with her arms folded, trying not to concentrate on Cole ripping a hole in her non-cog issued jumpsuit while he knelt at her side. She smirked when she noticed Cole having a hard time getting through the home made Reaver-hide protective gear.
"It wasn't as deep as it is now; it was just a tiny cut from shrap-ouch-shrapnel."
"Mmhmm, sure it was." The three onlookers winced as Cole pulled out a two-inch long piece of metal, and presented it to Annette with a questioning look on his face; one eyebrow raised and a small smile tugging the corners of his mouth. "You mean to tell me you didn't feel this thing in your side ten minutes ago?"
"Ten minutes ago, I was kicking a drone's ass. I think a little thorn in my side was the least of my worries, Cole." She plucked the metal shard out of Cole's gorilla sized hands and held it in her own. She realized that it was by no means little; his huge hands just made it look that way. In her own hands, it was half the size of her middle finger. She stared at it hard, and looked back to her bleeding hip, asking herself the same question Cole did.
This big-ass thing has been cutting me up all day… how the hell? I should've known. If it was strong enough to get past the Reaver-hide, it MUST have caused some damage…damn…
"You'll be good for a little while, baby. Just a fleshy, but you gon' need stitches…stitches…stitches…" The word echoed in her mind as soon as it hit her ears. A little childhood fear of needles nagged and cried in the back of her mind. She wasn't afraid of a pack of wretches that had numbers exceeding the 50 zone, but she was afraid of needles. It was the slow pain of being stitched up that came with it, not a quick scratch or cut that a wretch could give you.
Fuck. I fucking hate needles. Fuck my life. Fuck it all.
"Damn, stitches. Today is not my day. Thanks, Cole." He rose from his spot and patted the pad down to make sure it didn't chaff her armor and rip off.
"Anytime, baby! I'll sweet talk Baird into stitchin' you up. Come on, we gotta go save him so he'll still be able to do anything… other than bitch, of course." Cole ushered Annette towards the door and the group got a move on once again, but not before Annette threw a scathing glare at the robot. In response, Jack cloaked, ending the expression-fight before it began.
"Now hold up, who's Baird?" She questioned. Cole mustn't have heard her, because he just kept on thundering along. She decided that stealthy would never be a word used to describe Cole. She could hear him coming a mile away.
Delta walked through the entry into an immense, abandoned library. The windows on the wall to the left of them no longer held glass, and the metal frames that still resided in the windows sat in a distorted, bent up position. Medium sized book cases stood in random areas of the room, and the books that inhabited them were slowly falling apart as they aged. One book in particular caught Annette's eye, labeled War and Peace. A small path that stood apart the regular elderly cement was made of checkerboard tile, and led to another door in between the four windows.
Annette jogged over and picked up the book and dusted off the cover to reveal the title. She chuckled to herself and called out to the others. "Hey, any of you read this?" She shook the book in front of her, making sure they saw the irony in the title.
"Nope, but I'm pretty sure Marcus has." Dom elbowed his buddy's shoulder, recalling the fact the Marcus actually had read that book. He responded with a non amused grunt and a shake of the head as Annette watched from a distance. That was not the answer she expected. She was about to ask more, but was stopped by her nose, which felt like fire. Something smelt bad; real bad, like something-crawled-in-here-to-die bad.
"Ah, good lord ALMIGHTY! What the HELL is that smell…" Annette's right hand retreated to her nose as her eyes watered due to the flame igniting in her nostrils. She almost quit breathing, and wasn't about to do it through her mouth, in fear of tasting it as well. She flailed her left arm wildly attempting to fan away the stench, but to no avail. The others watched, wondering what was bothering her this time. The smell hit them a few seconds later.
"Damn, what is that?" Dom wrinkled his nose in disgust, utterly offended by the wicked stench.
"Seriously. Something smells wrong in here." Marcus walked towards the door and peered out the broken windows, looking for the source of the deadly gas. Kim was pacing towards the weapons lying in front of the widow when it hit him; setting him at a stand-still for a few seconds. He dismissed the disgusting odor as irrelevant and continued with examining the weapons; seemingly non-affected. It affected Annette the most. Sometimes, gifts can be curses.
"It's those Seeders. They're nasty, man. Nasty." Cole explained.
"Get your heads back in the fight, soldiers! Focus!" Kim silenced the bunch. Or rather, attempted to.
"Well, it's gonna be mighty hard when you don't have a gas mask for this shit." Annette managed to bleat out in between the shallow coughs. This ordeal made her pissed off at herself; she wasn't paying attention, which got her a sliced hip. Now, she has to put up with Kim's insensitivity. Formality was not in her repertoire; no more yes sir, no sir crap.
"Nothing I can do, soldier."
"Well, you could start by lightening up. It's not like we'll die out here if we don't follow protocol and whatever the hell else you're so uptight about." That earned her a sharp jab from the elbow of Dom. He had silently made his way to her side while she argued.
"Knock it off before you get in real trouble." He whispered harshly in her ear.
Who the hell? Who does he think he is, my father? The fuck is this?
"Yes, daddy!" Annette shoved him away and folded her arms, turning her head in the other direction. That little sarcastic insult stabbed at Dom a little more than it was intended to. He thought of his dead kids, his lost wife, and immediately started blaming himself…again. She's a grown woman, why am I treating her like a kid, let alone my own?
Marcus let out a gruff grunt of disapproval. He knew what Dom was going through, and that little comment agitated him as much as it did Dom. Annette heard the snort, and whipped her head around to Marcus's direction. What, you too? Mind your own damn business.
"You know, you remind me of someone." Annette decided to humor his attempt at changing the subject.
"And who would that be?" They were off topic again. Marcus wondered if Kim ever lost his temper; he seemed to be letting this small talk slide.
"Hah, Baird," Cole busted out laughing, and the rest of Delta, except Kim, stared at him wondering what was so comical. "I can't wait till you meet him." Annette didn't know if that was a good, or a bad thing.
"Don't bust a gut, now, why is this so funny? And am I gonna be happy to meet him, or not?" Cole laughed even harder when he heard those two questions. She became less and less eager to meet the person who would be stitching her hip back together. Cole's laughter subsided and answered with a maybe statement.
"You'll see, you'll see." That did sound good to her at all. Not one bit. She raised a questioning eyebrow at Cole and began to ask what he meant by 'you'll see'. This question didn't make it out of her mouth in time.
"Are you two finished? If not, we have all day for this meaningless small talk!" As soon as that tidbit hit her ears, the words Oh Hell No flashed in the attitude of her facial expression. She almost lost her composure in an instant, but Cole interrupted before she could manage to shout a syllable.
"Yes, sir!" He saluted his C.O., and gestured at Annette to do the same. She threw a mock salute and rolled her eyes at Kim who had lost his damn mind. At least it was somewhat of a salute…
Kim let out a callous sigh and resumed his by-the-book manner. "You two! Get over here and take these weapons." Kim ordered Marcus and Dom to pick up weapons that sat in front of the windows right of the door. "Don't use them until I give the order."
Cole and Annette braced their backs on the wall, next to the door. Annette stood in the middle of the window seals to the left of the door, while Cole took cover on the left side of the door frame.
After half a minute, the door slowly opened up to a moat that cut a gap of water between one part of the house and the other. Sitting in the corner at the other side of the house was a humongous, rotting creature that spat balls of black mist. The little clumps of mist rose in the air and then plummeted down on top of Delta squad. They dived away just in time to avoid most of the shower of shadowy vapor.
Annette took cover next to the wheel that lowered the bridge. Another vat of poison exploded in mid air as she put a burst of bullets through it. The plume of smoke expelled by the blast traveled to Annette, making her inhale the dark haze. She coughed and hacked, exerting herself trying to drive out the sickness in her lungs.
"Fuck this shit, I'm allergic! What the friggin' heck…" In all her life, she's never had allergies. Now that she's out fighting these Locust, she's found an allergy; Seeders of all things. Her eyes puffed red and she began to sneeze uncontrollably, making her aim suffer.
They saw her distress and picked up the pace, for her sinus's sake. "Pull the trigger, and wait for the system to triangulate the area!" Kim directed. Annette didn't know what Kim meant by triangulating the area. She thought that they were just normal rifles, but obviously not. She watched Marcus and Dom press the trigger button, and saw the light red target beam that shot from the guns. Kim, Cole, and she covered them while they worked on using whatever kind of weapon it was to shoot the stinking seeder.
A faint beeping emanated from the weapons that Dom and Marcus held. Seconds later, a shaft of light shot down to the Seeder's stand still, setting it aflame. She witnessed the strong, bright ray annihilate the Seeder as it released a get wrenching roar in pain. Images flashed in her mind as she watched the ray; images of fear, fire and destruction. Words from a historical radio transmission boomed in her head.
For those citizens who cannot make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us. This is the only way.
Roasted Seeder didn't smell any better than live Seeder, but at least it was dead; no more globs of nasty, skanky gas. She unlatched the water flask attached to her belt and removed her gloves to scrub her face. It relieved the swelling in her eyes almost immediately, as if she wiped off the sickness completely. She felt fresher, but her mind still pinched at a thought. A nagging thought that would stay with her the rest of the day.
Shit, those things are portable now? Damn. Handy destruction. We're screwed.
"Wow, glad that's over." Cole's boots pounded on the broken concrete towards Annette. She was lost in thought again, staring at the weapon now hanging on Marcus's back. Cole had a habit of breaking concentration, but this time it saved her. "Now we can get you stitched up, baby!" His optimism was refreshingly bright, and brought up her mood enough to respond with a quick smile.
She stood up and slipped on her thin, but tough gloves and poured a little water on them to wash off the smeared blood from her hip. Annette dropped into silence. The last flashback had her shell shocked. Hell, everything did that to her today. She was used to the enemy attacking her. Defense was always her forte; it came with being stranded, and staying put. But now, she's on offense.
Kim marched towards the wheel to drop the bridge. As she crossed, a small pack of ammunition caught the corner of her eye. It sat in the clouded water under the bridge, left to rust. She thought about fishing it out, but dismissed the idea as wasted time and energy. She could find ammo elsewhere.
How did that get there? What sorry ass dropped ammo here? That's just stupid. What a waste, I'm surprised some stranded didn't fish it out a while ago.
"We should use the Hammer of Dawn all the time!" Dom suggested. They got to the other side of the bridge and ambled past blocks of stone and one of the large entrances to the building.
"It only works outside… and even then, only when the satellites are over head. Basically, you lucked out."
Lucked out? 'The friggin' heck? I didn't luck out thirteen years ago. YOU assholes may have, but we didn't. All that fire and shit for nothing. It's fuckin' sad.
Annette kept a reign on her attitude before she snorted and shook her head; letting her opinion shine through. She's done it once, and made a helluva impression on Delta. If she did it again, she could be charged with insubordination. On her first day.
Delta arrived at the large door frame that loomed over their heads. As they entered, they were met with more checkerboard tile and a thick, bolted door.
So much for crossing the bridge; not even Jack could bust this door. Either he couldn't, or he'd take all friggin' day trying… stupid robots.
Kim saw that there was no future in this path, so he made an effort to contact control. "Control, this is Delta, come in." Kim was answered with a faint crackle and fizz from the comms. "Still no good. There must be more Seeders. Let's go." Annette blamed karma for their misfortune; especially hers.
They turned around and began jogging back to the library's entrance. Annette maneuvered her way to Cole's side as they crossed the bridge. She was about to make another attempt at getting an explanation from his previous comparison of her and this Baird person, but Kim saw right through it and hurried the group along.
"We gotta move! Alpha's waiting!"
I fucking know, jackass. You think I'm deaf?
Kim smacked the green button on the input pad to the left of the door and stood in wait as it slowly opened. The group dashed to the door to left of the one they had gone through before. Straight ahead, through another doorway, they could see a Seeder thrashing around in the middle of the bottom floor's courtyard. The floor that they stood on overlooked the Seeder, giving them the advantage of attacking it from all four sides. Marcus moved to the left side of the balcony that surrounded the square, while Dom moved to the right.
"Aim off of the sides!" Kim shouted. They met across from each other on each balcony and readied the hammer. But before they got the chance to pull the trigger, a locust wave burst through the door on the side of the square to Marcus's left. Wretches toddled their way towards him, dragging the larger of their deformed appendages behind their backs. The few Drones and Grenadiers that entered the hall parted ways with the wretch pack and ran for Dom's side, attempting to sabotage his and Marcus's attempt at annihilating the Seeder.
"Cole, you take Dom. I'll cover Marcus. We gotta cover them while they fire the Hammer! Let's go!" Annette separated from Cole and ran to fend off the attacking wretches with her Machete. Kim stayed at his end of the square to shoot down the Nemacyst that the Seeder spat towards his squad. As Annette reached Marcus before the wretches did, Cole spotted a Grenadier that was about to Blindside Dom as he aimed the hammer.
"Three, two, one, FIRE!"
Dom and Marcus pulled the trigger simultaneously, and watched the solid red beam of flame shoot down from the sky and land on the Seeder. Cole sprinted towards the shotgun-wielding Grenadier while revving his chainsaw attachment, and darted to the left as it volleyed a round at his abdomen. He spun around it using one of his down-pat Thrashball plays, and brought the chain down on the nape of its neck. As that grenadier fell to the ground and began hemorrhaging, Dom rejoined the fight and shot a Boltok round through its head. Cole switched his Rifle to Semi-Automatic and put shells through the next ugly ass thing that moved.
On the other side, Marcus and Annette fought side by side; one slicing, the other pistol whipping and adding the occasional chain sawing into the mix. As the last drone hit the floor and the last piece of wretch fell from a blade, Annette noticed how much better her hip felt without a two inch nail suck into it. She could move a lot easier, except the skin still stung when you moved the wrong way and it ripped.
"Damn, that was a bit too close…" Cole thought. Dom couldn't agree more.
"Hey, thanks man. Almost got my ass handed to me back there." The both of them tapped fists before they checked the bodies for any signs of life.
"Anytime, baby!" He grunted out while he snapped the neck of a drone. A shot was heard in the background; Marcus had just ended the life of a wretch that was dragging itself into cover.
"Hey Rich, you missed a spot."
"Yeah, whatever." She snorted. Annette ambled over to Kim to ask a question that would decide what they would spend the next hour achieving.
"Do the comms work?"
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A.N. – Sorry again that this was late! School is starting, but I'll keep the schedule as best as I can :) Constructive criticism needed and appreciated! Thanks for reading.
