I'm sorry... Johnny thought desperately, his vision clouding once more as Samantha laughed, forcing him to pull the trigger...
Just as Johnny squeezed the trigger, Zack appeared in the doorway behind him, running forward and kicking him in the back while sending him flying face first into the ground as his gun slid across the floor towards Isabella and Dempsey.
Isabella opened her eyes slowly, seeing the back of a green army uniform in front of her face. Worrying immediately and thinking the worst had happened, she spun the Marine around while she searched for any bullet wounds. Finding nothing, she looked up at him with a smile as he stared down at her, chuckling as he pulled her close again.
"Worried about me?" Dempsey said teasingly, making her cheeks turn pink.
Turning away, she was about to deny it... But why should I? She thought with a grin, happy he had finally shown some emotions towards her. She focused her attention towards Zack who had Johnny restrained under his boot, still face down against the floor, struggling to catch his breath after having the wind knocked- Er, rather kicked, out of him.
Nikolai rushed up the stairs, followed by Takeo, Richtofen and...
"Brianna!" Isabella shouted happily, making the blonde girl's head snap up as her eyes widened.
"IZZY!" She cried as she ran forward, tackling her younger sister to the ground in a bear hug. "I thought I would never see you again..." The older woman sobbed as she proceeded to squeeze the air out of her.
"Bri... You're crushing me..." Isabella managed to choke out, as Zack laughed in the background, Johnny still struggling underneath him.
"Good to see ya Izzy," Zack stated, sending her a small grin and a wink while wrestling with the other man in order to keep him restrained. "And I'm glad you're okay Bri..." He said more to himself with a sigh of relief, nodding thankfully towards the doctor and letting his guard down for a moment as Johnny/Samantha decided to make their move.
"We'll, it's been fun you guys..." Johnny said in an evil whisper, catching the group's attention. "We will definitely have to do it again sometime!" He finished, chuckling slowly at first until it escalated into the insane cackle of a madman.
Everyone was powerless to do anything as Johnny disappeared in a flash of red, followed by Samantha's taunting laughter.
Fuckin' A! Zack thought, extremely pissed off that he didn't get to break that bitch's face. If I see that bastard again... I swear...
"Oh, what's this?" Brianna asked, looking at her sister and pointing up towards the roof at a bloody teddy bear holding a sickle.
Isabella walked over to where Brianna was standing and examined the small bear, hearing a strange sound when she touched it. Not wanting to disturb anything, she put the demented bear back, shrugging her shoulders as they stepped back to where the rest of the group was.
Nikolai, Dempsey and Zack were bragging about their head shots and kills while Richtofen fussed over his Wunderwaffe and Takeo daydreamed about honor...
"Please... Help me... She's coming! The mechanism must be repaired!" The disembodied voice took everyone by surprise while also snapping Isabella out of her thoughts.
"You guys want to see something cool?" She asked, raising an eyebrow mischievously and motioning for everyone to follow her.
I keep forgetting about Gersch... Isabella realized while feeling rather absentminded, as she turned to walk down the steps towards the stage, hopping over a few crawlers that were still hissing and groaning.
"Don't kill those things..." Zack instructed, pointing to a crawler as Nikolai raised his pistol to blow its head off. "Just trust me man." He finished, as the Russian shrugged and kept walking, holstering his gun again.
Isabella stopped before the stairs, in front of the barriers blocking her path, looking forward about twenty feet and spying a generator laying on it's side. Pulling her last Gersch device out of her bag, the group watched curiously as she activated it and tossed it forward, hearing a slight clank as it landed on the ground near the flashing generator.
Samantha's creepy laughter could be heard as a purple light erupted from the device and the generator was sucked into the vortex, disappearing with a flash as an alarm went off followed by an announcement.
"Kassimir Mechanism activation in progress. Error. No power detected." The monotone voice said as Gersch congratulated them.
"You've done it! Now, it needs as much power as possible. Hurry, she's getting nearer!" The whispering man demanded, leaving everyone but Isabella, Brianna and Zack confused.
"Maybe ve should help zhis... Zhing." Richtofen spoke up, very much intrigued.
"Come on..." Isabella said while walking away before anyone could ask any questions, she just wanted to get this over with. Turning and heading towards Stamin-Up, followed closely by Dempsey, her sister and Zack, their group made their way past the perk machine to the junkyard.
Isabella walked under the stairs where a computer console was located, the screen displaying nothing but static at the moment. Looking at all the buttons she spied a blue circular one with an X on it.
There's no way this is really how you activate it... Isabella thought with a chuckle as she pressed the blue button.
The static on the computer screen changed to the Illuminati symbol as the voice on the loudspeakers filled their ears once again.
"Power re-routed. Kassimir Mechanism Node 1 activated."
"Three more! No, stop it!" Gersch cried as Richtofen laughed and clapped his hands.
"Zhis Kassimir Mechanism sounds intriguing! Vhat's next?"
Smiling, Isabella nodded to Zack who raised his gun, taking out the two crawlers that had finally caught up to them. The round ended as an eerie silence encompassed them all, making the group a bit nervous. Everyone reloaded, preparing themselves for future hordes of zombies as Isabella readied her cannon, turning to the doctor to answer his question.
"Well," Isabella replied, looking around while waiting for zombies to start spawning outside the windows. "We'll have to wait for a monkey r-" She was cut off by the familiar sound of alarms as the voice on the loudspeakers informed them of intruders.
"We have to get to the perk machines!" Isabella shouted above the sound of tiny space ships crashing around them.
"This way!" Brianna yelled, running towards Stamin-Up followed by the rest of their group. "Here..." She said, pointing towards a button on the wall near the yellow perk machine that had not been there until now. "Two people stay here and guard this machine..." She explained, looking around as Nikolai ran over to the wall and grabbed the AK74u while Takeo reloaded his Browning.
"Go." Takeo said, nodding towards the Russian soldier. "We have this covered."
"Press the button when you see the signal!" Brianna shouted, turning to run down the hallway, followed closely by Isabella, Dempsey and Richtofen.
"How will we know what the signal is?!" Nikolai yelled, unsure of this plan as Zack paused, looking back before running after his girlfriend and the rest of the group.
"Trust me!" He shouted, grinning mischievously before turning back around. "You'll know!"
Something always goes wrong when we split up... Nikolai thought, a bad feeling filling his gut as he readied his AK, preparing for the worst.
The rest of the zombie slayers rushed down the path until reaching the stage and the doorway leading to Juggernog. Isabella opened her mouth to speak but the doctor beat her to it.
"Leave zhis von to me." He said grinning and holding up his Wunderwaffe before sprinting towards the stage and the button at PhD Flopper. Brianna was next to interrupt as a small space ship crashed a few feet away from them.
"Zack and I will guard Juggernog, just go get Speed Cola!" The blonde shouted to her sister who nodded in response before running towards the stairs by Pack-A-Punch followed by Dempsey.
Sprinting up the steps, Isabella caught up with a monkey right before it was about to latch onto the glowing green machine. Firing her cannon twice in a row, she sent it sailing into the wall as it disappeared in a flash of red.
Dempsey raced up the steps, standing next to her and readying his Galil as he heard more screeching primates approaching. Two monkeys rounded the corner from the steps, screaming and jumping as Dempsey unloaded a full clip of ammo on both of them, killing one as the other was taken out by a blast of air.
Silence...
Until a large explosion shook the ground.
What the fuck was that?! Isabella wondered for a moment before realizing that must be the signal as she shouted for Dempsey to press the button on the wall.
Down at Juggernog, Brianna was guarding the machine downstairs with her Afterburner while Zack set off a large bomb they had found earlier on in their explorations here. The building shook as the explosion took out the entire doorway, bits of the wall still crumbling and falling to the ground as Zack stumbled back rather shocked at how well that worked.
Might have been cool to save that for the zombies... He thought, looking at the damage done to the building and noticing the charred bodies of the space monkeys that were now smoldering piles of ash. The bomb had killed a group of three undead monkeys racing towards them at the time, the flames from the blast cremating them instantly.
As the explosion went off, everyone hit their respective buttons at the same time, making them all sink back into the wall as Gersch's voice filled their ears once again.
"It needs to be more concentrated power for this to work!"
"Uh, you sure we should be helping this guy?" Tank questioned, looking at Isabella who was still guarding the steps.
"Trust me, it's fine." Isabella reassured him, thinking about the matter herself. "He's not the bad guy..." She began explaining, meeting his eyes as he stayed silent for once, listening to her words. "The reason he's trapped here or whatever, is because of Samantha..." She finished while frowning, lowering the Zeus Cannon and thinking to herself.
There must be one monkey left somewhere-
"Check this out!" Dempsey said, picking up a toy that was laying on top of the Speed Cola machine. Is this a doll or an action figure? He thought amused, looking at it momentarily before getting bored once again.
"Oh... Hi Dempsey!" A tiny voice from the doll said, making the Marine jump slightly.
"Who is this guy?" Dempsey asked, chuckling while tossing the doll to Isabella.
Catching the doll in her free hand, she noticed it was a miniaturized version of Nikolai in Matryoshka Doll form, drunken scowl included. Laughing at the resemblance for a moment, she was about to put it back in it's place when a small voice interrupted her.
"You pretty even without vodka goggles on!" The tiny doll said, finishing it's statement with a whistle as Isabella and Dempsey burst out laughing.
Putting the doll back on top of the perk machine, she looked the left, noticing a tape player on top of the strange machines next to Speed Cola. Pulling the radio down she fumbled with it for a moment before locating the play button and pressing it, resulting in static then the sound of a voice.
"They're entering my head! Always my head! I can't hinter, I can't, OOF, I can't stop it! Keep it out! I want you to LEAVE ME ALONE! Calm down there! Calm down! No, no I won't! ShutTheShutTheFuckUpSTOP! J-Just stop! Fine... Okay, okay I will-"
The message ended in static before the tape clicked, reaching it's end as Tank looked at Isabella with a look of confusion.
"Samantha did this!" Isabella hissed, throwing the tape player on the ground in anger and pulling out her pistol. "You're the reason for all of this..." She continued, her voice cracking slightly as she emptied a full clip into the radio, effectively making sure it would never play again.
You're the reason I'm stuck here... Isabella thought sadly, feeling tired, hungry, stressed and very close to breaking down. Suddenly she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders as a deep voice filled her ears.
"Don't worry..." Tank assured her, making her feel better already. "We're gonna get her." He promised, turning her around and giving her a look of determination. "And when we do find her..." He added seriously. "She's going to pay."
Isabella nodded, knowing deep down that if she was going to make it through this she had to keep herself together mentally. "You're right." She said, smiling up at the Marine and turning to head down the stairs. "Let's go meet up with everyone else."
...
Over at PhD Flopper...
...
"Ah, zhis ist just too much fun!" Richtofen sang as he zapped another monkey that came rushing up the stairs, laughing as it exploded. Noticing the coast was clear for the moment, he moved forward, walking down the steps while examining the area around him.
Vhat an interesting place ve have come to zhis time... The doctor thought while looking around absentmindedly. His sharp eyes soon picked up on the tape player wedged between the two concrete barriers to his right.
Vhat have ve here... He thought curiously while stepping forward and pressing the play button. Static filled his ears at first as the tape started and began to play...
"I give you my sincere gratitude for that... But, down to business, I am pleased to report all projects are running smoothly again after these here personal changes. As I had previously mentioned. Yuri Kravcheski is a brilliant scientist, but it he has been so far incapable of handling "Project Mercury" - or as you call it, "the Gersch Device"."
The man in the recording chuckled slightly before continuing. "...And so due to numerous setbacks and delays I am forced to transfer Yuri to AK64-A experiments. I have decided that your nephew should take his place. I look forward to working with him directly. The recent incident with the Kassimir Mechanism leaves no doubt in my mind, that this is the right decision. The explosion caused the Mechanism significant damage - it will take time to re-manufacture all of the parts - unless some can be salvaged ..." The message ended in static before stopping as the device shut itself off.
Gersch... Richtofen thought as he remembered the interactions between himself and his fellow scientist. They had worked together a few times on various projects before his demise at the hands of Yuri/Samantha.
Vhat a vay to go... He mused while staring into the distance. Killed by his own creation...
Dempsey and Zack's loud voices approaching snapped him out of his personal thoughts as he turned around, seeing them walking towards the stage, followed by Brianna and Isabella. Sprinting forward to join them, he eyed the Marine distastefully before commenting.
"Ah, Dempshey, you have survived anozher day..." Richtofen said sarcastically while looking towards the American soldier. "Vhat a pity."
Dempsey frowned, opening his mouth to argue but got a better idea as a wicked smile appeared on his face instead. Turning around and spying Isabella walking behind him, he slowed down a bit until he was walking beside her, as he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him while they walked as she smiled up at him, unaware of the doctor fuming behind them. Tank however, did have an idea of how pissed the doc would be as he chuckled to himself, looking down at the hot girl on his arm.
Yep, I'd say I'm the winner here! He realized, laughing to himself as they lead the way towards Stamin-Up.
Brianna rolled her eyes, noticing the rivalry between the two soldiers as she turned to focus her attention on her man walking at her side as she reached out to hold his hand, following her sister and Dempsey.
Richtofen watched the Marine walk away with Isabella under his arm, frowning and feeling a stab of jealously in his chest at coming in at second place with anything concerning the American.
Vell, ve vill see... He thought smiling slightly, returning to the calm yet insane doctor we all know and love.
"In der Liebe und im Krieg ist alles erlaubt..."