Okay… next chapter… so tired…
Chapter 12: The Man who disappeared
I walked out of the room where I left Richard. It definitely wouldn't be safe for him to stay there or come with me, but for now it would do. Besides, Holiday would've been helping him too… if he didn't die while we were in that room.
The room was filled with bodies of Replica soldiers. They have been killed in many gruesome ways, from getting their tarsos ripped in half to even getting their head, legs, and arms cut off. This definitely couldn't have been those invisible ghosts that attacked me and Richard earlier… they're on Alma's and Fettel's side, for sure! If the Replicas are being controlled by Fettel… if what Ms. Kwon told me was right, then why the hell would the ghosts and the soldiers be fighting against each other?
I shook off the frustrating thought and continued on, with my eyes sharp. The hostiles may have been cleared in this area, but god knows whether I'm safe or not.
Suddenly a wooden shelf fell in the room, and every chemicals in it were spilled on the floor. There were even labels that said "DANGER, HARZARDOUS CHEMICAL" signs on the bottles before they cracked, so I backed away from the chemicals flowing to my feet.
"Go check it out." A robotic voice was heard.
It was one of those Replica soldiers… so there WERE still survivors…
I quickly hid behind a crate as they came into investigate what happened.
"Check it!"
"Roger."
Two Replica soldiers came into the room and checked everywhere around the room… everywhere except at least where I was… although I did hear a few screams from the other room.
"What the hell… ARRRRGHHH!!"
The Replica soldier was killed when I took a short peak. There was still one more left…
"Fuck!!"
The Replica soldier started shooting, hopefully not at me… but how could he see me when I was hiding?
The room turned silent for quite a while. I wondered what was happening over there…
When I got out of the cover the soldier was laying on the floor dead. However I saw a little girl wearing a red dress who disappeared all of a sudden… which I seriously doubted it was Alma.
When she did disappear though, all the room filled with blood and corpses were gone. And so were the hazardous chemicals that were spilled all over the floor. What did she do…?
The shelf however was still knocked down. I walked over it and moved onto the next room… though it wouldn't be any safer because that's where those things that killed the Replica Soldiers were.
Speaking of those things, where the hell were they? Did that little girl… most unlikely Alma… did something that reset everything and vanished the ghost like creatures? It definitely couldn't have been Alma for sure. She's here to KILL me. Why would a murderer all of a sudden be a savior? That's completely impossible.
I proceeded to the next room. There were dead bodies of some SFOD-D members here too… maybe that explained how Betters and the survivors of Bravo Team lost contact with them.
I heard someone groaning in a nearby corner… I checked by to see… a survivor.
"Excuse me, are you a Bravo Team member???" I questioned, kneeling down and looking at his wounds.
"Hey… d…don't get any closer…" He gasped in pain and clutched his chest.
"Hang in there, you're gonna be okay!!!" I replied.
"The F.E.A.R… Operative… is… a t…traitor… it's… J…J…"
The SFOD-D soldier's chest suddenly got ripped open, and the last thing I heard of him was a scream. When I turned back to see who did it, it was those ghostly figures again, but it soon ran away somewhere else instead of trying to kill me.
What the SFOD-D soldier said… a traitor…? What did he mean? And a F.E.A.R. operative? I really hoped that wasn't the F.E.A.R. Point Man Ms. Kwon was talking about… then again I remembered the other name… "Jankowski".
I stood up and continued on. The only thing left was an elevator, so I pressed the button to keep going down… But as I did I noticed the elevator was coming here instead.
I leaned near the wall and got ready to open fire as soon as it opened… until the radio transmission came in…
"D… Par… er… Hold your fire!!" The elevator opened as the voice became much clearer.
"M…Mr. Holiday???" I called as he came out.
"I had to check in on ya in case you were in trouble… I was starting to lose your radio signal." He explained and playfully punched me in the arm.
"Where's Richard…?" I asked, extremely curious and somewhat concerned.
"Well… we split up to find you. I'll try to contact him." Holiday answered and tried to contact Richard… "Holiday to Richard, do you hear me, over! Private Richard!!"
There didn't seem to be any answer. Holiday cut off the comm. Link.
"Either something happened to him or I just can't reach him over the radio…" He muttered.
Holiday then went for a nearby door and I followed. He kicked it open and the two of us went in to investigate… there seemed to have been a fierce battle between ATC security guards and Replica soldiers, noticing the bullet holes. While the ATC probably died because of bullet wounds from the battle, the Replicas had scratches all over them and even parts of their bodies torn off.
Although there was a body of a SFOD-D soldier there too… but the question was why there was only ONE. They couldn't have separated and even if they did they would've been in groups of two or more. Holiday checked the corpse…
"What the hell…? I see his own SMG bullets in his chest… he couldn't have possibly killed himself…" Holiday wondered as he kept looking at his SMG, which for some reason had a fresh clip on it too. But it was strange… if he killed himself why would the SMG round have a fresh new clip, and even more strange how could he be dead with full rounds? It DEFINITELY couldn't have been the ghostly figures… he was killed by BULLETS, not scratches. But it was even weird with a new clip on it… He couldn't have reloaded if he was dead…
Me and Holiday proceeded to the next room. There was nothing but blood in this room… but no bodies lying around. This didn't make sense, unless if people somehow managed to walk to the next room while they were bleeding. But then a single person wouldn't leave so much blood… or that more than one person would've been here and managed to walk out of this room by themselves.
Suddenly my comm. Link started to blink, implying someone was trying to reach me through the radio…
"Rich… here… Can anybo… her… me?????" It was Richard's voice, but I was barely able to hear what he was trying to say.
"This is Dash!! Is that you Richard???" I answered loudly, even if Richard probably couldn't hear me that well.
"…Found… F.E.A.R. operati… owski... with... irl in red dress… st… away!!!"
Then I couldn't hear Richard anymore. What did he mean? Did he mean he found the F.E.A.R. operative named Jankowski? And even stranger with girl in red dress meant just one thing for me… I really hoped he was okay…
"He seems to be in trouble… we have to move quick." Holiday said as if he was ready for battle.
However, the door ahead of us opened up… and there was a Replica Soldier coming out from there…
"TARGETS SIGHTED!!" He shouted as others came in to investigate.
Me and Holiday ran away from the room to avoid injury, and took cover behind a few boxes from the previous room. However by the time we found cover they entered the room. Holiday opened fire on them with his assault rifle and he managed to bring down a couple soldiers.
"Dash, take a piece of the action!" Holiday ordered and I nodded as I fired my assault rifle as well.
However one of the soldiers had a grenade in hand, so I had to get out of the cover or I would've been blown to pieces. I narrowed my eyes and the bullet trails seemed to go a lot slower. Not a single one managed to hit me. The slow motion also allowed me to see where the grenade was going. It was coming this way… right towards me…
I managed to bat it away with my rifle and it went straight towards back to the soldier that threw it. I just got lucky… but my reflex time was getting short so I quickly got back to taking cover. But that definitely wouldn't help as much as they would come and probably knock the crate down.
One of the soldiers had to reload so Holiday managed to rush towards him and roundhouse kick him in the face, making the soldier get knocked off his feat. But the surviving Replica soldier finished reloading. Seeing this I quickly fired my rifle at him, and the bullet luckily went straight to his face.
"Great work Dash… we're real bad motherfuckers down here. Aren't we?" Holiday teased as I laughed a little bit back.
We proceeded back to the blood room full of blood. We went to where we last saw the Replica soldiers entering… and that was when I heard my comm. Link beep again…
"This… Richar… Can anyone… me???" He faintly moaned.
"RICHARD!! Respond!!!" I shouted, now getting worried.
"…at B6… rendezvous there… NOW…"
And the comm. Link was cut off.
To be continued…
Yes I AM aware of those spelling mistakes over Richard's conversation with Dash("owski" is Jankowski, "irl" is girl). It was on purpose to show that there's huge amount of static on the radio. That's all I got to say for now. R&R!!
