"Uss... eshhik" Involuntarily came his voice as he slipped in and out of proper vision.
"Heh. Huh? What? What!?" He said as he finally awoke.
Nikolai looked around the room.
He was his hand were tied to piece of dull gray pipe.
The same went for his new friends in the dimly lit room.
Everyone was propped limply in a small metal chair, hands tied to a piece of pipe hat sat near the ground and their feet latched to the front legs of their respective traps.
To his right sat Sakaki.
"Psst. Sakaki." He whispered as loud as possible. "Get up!" he went on.
She eased into reality. "Huh? Where are we?"
"I'm not sure. Some assholes took got us off guard when we went for the treasure."
"This isn't good."
"No kidding."
They paused to examine the area as they could help themselves.
"I'm lost. You have any bright ideas Sakaki?"
She shook her head.
The sound of boots clomping down a hall of concrete filled the room quickly.
The two stared at the offending door.
Two soldiers in massive dull exoskeletons swung through the door.
They wore gas masks that seemed designed to be unsettling and macabre as possible.
"Everyone wake up!" He bellowed.
At once everyone sprung to attention.
"Well. More flies to a light huh? More people trying to muscle in and take our shit?"
"What do you need with so much gold anyway?"
The stalker swung his hand and out and struck Nikolai. "Cram it! As you can imagine running a religion is expensive enough without the entire thing being militarized. So you can see why having a mountain of cash under feet can be useful."
Nikolai leaned back in his chair. "Monolith?"
"Praise the Monolith!"
"Why the hell should I?" Nikolai said defiantly.
He struck him once more. "We are the sword of the Monolith, the power that's been anchored to this place and the power that shall kill those who mock it."
"You're a cult."
"We're divine."
"Then why aren't you all perfect and beautiful?" Osaka interrupted.
The monolith stalker hit her across the face.
She began to scream and writhe in her seat.
Nikolai clenched his teeth. "You son of a bitch! I'm gonna kill you for that!"
Then a fist plunged into his stomach and forced him to vomit in his lap.
He began sputtering and coughing as the monolith soldier watched. "Pff. I'm done with this. You can spend eternity in here for all I care. As for me it'll only be a day or two before another rat runs into the gold mine."
He walked out the door arrogantly making fists and swinging his shoulders.
"Osaka? You alright."
She sniffled. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine."
"Alright. We need to get out of here now."
Tomo leaned forward. "How do we do that? We're chained up."
"Not the case over here he's got me tied up in ordinary rope. Who do they think they're dealing with?"
"You still need to cut it." Osaka said.
"Not a problem." He jerked his leg forcing a pocket knife to fall to the floor near his hands, he spent a minute picking up the knife with his third and fourth finger.
"Got it." He began cutting the rope.
Chiyo looked at the door. "Hurry Nikolai I hear someone coming."
The rope snapped. "Ha!"
Just then the door swung open revealing the man from before. He inspected the team for a moment. "Where's that guy you were with?"
Nikolai lunged from the back of the door a violently stabbed the knife into the monolith soldiers back.
He groaned and threw his elbow into Nikolai's forehead. He came back at Nikolai when he grabbed the soldier by his jacket and slammed his head in the heavy door.
Nikolai stood catching his breath. "Did you see that shit!?"
Yomi shook in her seat. "That was very skillful now please we need to get out somehow!"
"Hold on a sec."
He checked the body of the soldier for a key.
"I got nothin'."
"What? He's gotta have the key somewhere." Kagura said.
"Not a thing. I gotta go look for the key. I'll be back."
Chiyo leaned forward and cocked her head. "Nikolai wait. This cabinet all our stuffs in here."
He walked over and grabbed his AK-47. "Not exactly pro's are they?"
He stepped out of the door and readied his weapon.
Down the hall sat another stalker in the same tattered jacket and gas mask as the man he just slain. A keyring hung from his belt.
In front of him he reviewed some papers. He sat unarmed except for a machete on the opposite wall from him.
Nikolai stomped in to the room after closing the door behind him. "The key." He ordered. "Give it up."
The soldier went for his machete.
"Game over!" Went Nikolai.
The gun clicked without the satisfying response of a successful shot fired. Nikolai squeaked slightly.
The monolith stood malevolently. "Did you think we would leave you in the same room as your fucking ammo? We made those other mistakes so you would do this exact thing and we would have an excuse to kill you."
The man stepped to Nikolai making him put his fists up reflexively.
He swung the sword down vertically and Nikolai stepped out of the way. Then he placed his hand on the back of the soldiers head and forced his face into his knee with the muffled crunch of breaking bones and popping cartilage.
He then grabbed the machete and twisted it from the mans hand.
The monolith stood up and was greeted with his machete at his neck.
"Now. The key." Nikolai held out his hand.
He handed him the tools for their escape. He then turned the sword backwards and bashed the handle into the mans temple.
He snatched the key and ran to the rest of the group.