Authors note: THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD! I just have a lot of shit to do lately with student loans unfortunately and family problems galore, such is the burden of life. Also, writers block helped with delaying the story, but I have plans for bloody and gory action for the next few chapters. If you guys have anything you want to suggest for the story, PM me since help is appreciated. Other than that, I hope you enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 20: Catching Up
O-O-O
The sounds of gunfire and explosions were constant and ongoing in Redding, the chaotic peace of the Bloodskull mercenaries was now broken with even more chaos from their former employers, who got impatient and fed up with the mercenaries' behavior and defiance.
With the madness of bloodshed and combat ensuing, the surviving humans were caught in the crossfire, and little by little, they were whittled down by Barbadons who ran in their way, while the few that made it past the Bloodskull clan were gunned down by Imperial Sleg soldiers instead.
Dipper, Wendy, and Nate were the only ones who didn't get gunned down in their group of escapees, and rather than going towards the risky route of easy escape that had Imperial Slegs advancing from, they pushed deeper into the city, hiding from Bloodskull mercs while keeping a steady pace ahead of the Imperial Slegs.
Dipper was frantic about the whole situation, not just because he was in the middle of a warzone, but mainly because his sister and family friend were lost somewhere in Redding, a city filled with bloodthirsty Barbadons who would gladly tear apart any living creature that got in their way. He was understandably panicking about the whole situation, not knowing if the last of his family was dead or not, and Wendy had tried her best to calm him down.
"This is insane! We need to find Mabel and Soos!" Exclaimed Dipper, running through an empty street uptown.
"Shh! Keep it down!" Whispered Wendy loudly, as the three stopped at the corner of a street block, huddling an apartment building's wall at the edge, peeking over to see anyone coming before turning to Dipper. "You keep yelling like that, and you'll get the whole block's attention."
"But we gotta find-
"I know! Just… calm down."
Dipper covered his face with his hands, trying to hold back from rising his voice to calm himself.
As much as she wanted to hug Dipper and tell him everything would be okay, Wendy knew the better thing to do was to go survivor mode and get her group out of here. She wanted to find Mabel and Soos just as badly, and it pains her to do this, but she needs to get her two friends out of Redding first.
Dipper is on the verge of breaking down into tears and screams, since as book smart and mature as he is, the emotional part could use some work when it came to situations as drastic as this. Nate was just silent throughout the whole thing, only occasionally speaking if spoken to about how to get out, but otherwise was silent, the effect of Lee's death still haunting him.
The trio moved forward since no one was coming their way, and managed to reach the center of Redding, the very same center where they met the chieftain of the Bloodskull mercenaries, Balrock. The center was not empty however, there were still Bloodskull mercenaries in the area, about sixteen including Balrock himself, who appeared to be talking with the mercenaries.
The mercs looked a bit different than the usual, having slightly darker red armor and less of that armor covering their bodies, giving them more flexibility and was lighter in weight, and also wore some kind of red war paint on their exposed skin.
Twelve of the mercs stood at a small circle with Balrock while the rest were hanging around at a street corner, chatting to each other while looking through some items of interest.
The trio of humans hid behind a broken down car, hoping that they did not get spotted by the Barbadons and listened in on their conversation.
"How many of them are there?" Asked Balrock to a merc standing in front.
"Scouts say that there's about five Imperial battalions heading our way from the north with armor and air support." Reported the merc.
Balrock growled at the statement. "How long until reinforcements come?"
"Half an hour, chieftain."
Balrock scoffed, knowing that this battle would not be an easy one, just the way he liked it.
"We also have reports that some of those Imperial scum crash landed close by."
"Good. That gives us plenty of fighting here." Commented Balrock, eager to face the Slegs that got stranded in his territory.
Balrock motioned his head at a merc to his right welding a large weapon for him.
"My axe."
The merc complied, giving his large weapon to Balrock. The weapon in question was a large two handed axe, double bladed and heavy to wield, but the sadistic twist to the weapon was that it incorporated powerful chainsaw edges on both sides, rows of steel teeth that can cut through flesh and armor with ease and brutality. The axe was made from some kind of metal, mostly colored the standard metal color with a crimson paint palate, a white Barbadon skull decorated on the middle of the bladed chainaxe.
Balrock pulled a small cord close to the top of the axe, and grinned widely when hearing the angry buzzing sound as the teeth spun around, gripping onto the chainaxe with both his hands in a tight grip.
"Get your rippers out! You got some chopping to do!"
The dozen mercs complied and took out their weapons, wielding heavy pistols on their lefts and some kind of short melee weapons on their lefts, which appeared to be short swords with the same kind of chainsaw edge on a single edge.
They pulled small cords near the top of the shorter handles, revving up the chainswords that made the same buzzing sounds, somewhat quieter than the chainaxe.
"Now go chop them up! And make sure to bring back trophies!"
"RAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Balrock and his Barbadons screamed with adrenaline and bloodlust, eager to kill today and ran past the road where the trio of humans were hiding. The humans leaned their backs at the car as far as possible and thanked the heavenly powers that the charging Barbadons payed no attention to the detail around them, more caught up in getting into a good fight with the Imperial Slegs.
The humans then looked over the car, seeing that there was only the four Barbadons left, looking though a small pile of the human's belongings, two of them on the ground sifting through the pile, another one standing close with a bottle of vodka in his hands, and the last one leaned by a building wall close by, fiddling with his short chainsword weapon.
"Nothing." Said one of mercs disappointingly. "The humies got shit on them."
The Barbadon next to him picked up a pistol, letting out a small chuckle at the weapon.
"Look at this thing. The deadliest thing they got is a fucking peashooter."
The Barbadon wielding the pistol then took apart the pieces, easily dismantling it without any trouble and threw the weapon pieces on the ground.
"Why are we here?" Slurred the merc with vodka. "We should be… be fighting out there."
"Because the boss said someone needs to watch this stuff." Said the merc by the wall. "It's boring as fuck, but the boss said to stay."
The two mercs on the ground agreed, while the one standing just took another swig from his bottle, mostly because drinking was all that was left to satisfy him.
"Look at this." Slurred the tipsy merc, looking at the car that the humans hid behind.
The trio of humans ducked, wondering how they were going to handle the Barbadons ahead if they spotted them.
"The fuck are you talking about? You're drunk as fuck." Said the Barbadon by the wall, shaking his head.
"I'm drunk as fuck, but I can still give a good fuck!" Claimed the slurring merc, getting a chuckle out of the two by the pile.
The humans hidden close by just quietly conversed to themselves, trying to formulate a plan to get past the mercs and payed no mind to their conversation
"Who wants to be the first one to punch the armed Sleg and live?" Asked Dipper sarcastically with concern in his voice.
"We don't have a lot of options." Replied Wendy. "We can't sneak past them, and they're blocking our way."
Dipper stuttered at the response.
"Y-you can't serious."
"Does it look like I'm kidding?"
Dipper stared at the redhead's eyes, sighing in defeat.
The trio looked above the car again, with Wendy picking out targets to go after.
"I'll take out the two on the ground by our stuff." Wendy pointed at the other two mercs. "Nate. You go after the one leaning back, and Dipper can get the jump on the one with the booze."
"Not much of a plan to go by." Commented Nate.
Wendy frowned. "At least there's no one else around."
Nate just shrugged, and prepared to get ready to sprint out when given the order with Dipper, with Wendy telling them to wait when she heard things heating up between the Barbadons.
"What about the humans? They can-
"Fuck them all!" Shouted the drunkard. "I fuck them all and I love it!"
"That's why they call you ape fucker." Joked one of the mercs at the pile.
The drunk one got agitated at the comment, and walked to the pile at the Barbadon who made the disruptive comment.
"The fuck you say about me?"
The merc on the ground stood up, grinning as he stood a few inches over the smaller Barbadon.
"You heard me, alright. Ape fuck-
The merc's sentence was interrupted with a punch to the face by the drunkard, socking him so hard at the jaw, he knocked a tooth and loosed another, making the more sober one spit out blood and yank his loose tooth out.
"I fuck you up too!" Shouted the drunk merc. "I fuck you up like the bitch you are!"
The sober merc was about to pull out his short chainsword and gut his agitator, but the drunkard beat him first and smashed the bottle against his head, and while the hit didn't do much, the broken bottle top did its job, since the drunkard stabbed his victim in the neck multiple times before jamming the glass deep in his throat to put his foe down.
The other Barbadon got up in a hurry, avoiding the falling body of his former comrade and got into a shouting match with the drunkard, arguing with him before pulling a heavy pistol at his face, going into a tense standoff with the drunkard while the last Barbadon still breathing just rolled his eyes at the sight, as if it were an everyday occurrence.
Nate and Dipper nodded to Wendy, who motioned her hand to make them run.
The humans sprinted out of their cover as fast as they could, wanting to cover the distance between them and the Barbadons in front immediately, and it helped that the cover they hid behind was close.
"What the fuck?!" Exclaimed the Barbadon leaning at the wall, who was then sucker punched in the jaw by Nate before he could get a good look at the human.
The other Barbadons reacted accordingly, with Dipper charging into the drunk Barbadon and knocked him down, mostly due to the mercenary being drunk from an excess amount of alcohol in his system.
Wendy ran up to the last Barbadon with the pistol, who aimed quickly at Wendy to fire a round off, just glazing Wendy's arm before the redhead high kicked the pistol away from the merc's hands, and kicked with her other leg into the merc's face to knock him back.
Nate's struggle with his foe was quick and brief, with his opponent revving up his chainsword and took a few slashes at him, dodging each one of the attacks perfectly. A sloppy move by the Barbadon gave Nate the chance to grab ahold of the Sleg's arm and break his joint, twisting it as hard as possible and snapped the merc's bone.
A shout of pain escaped from the merc, dropping his chainsword on the ground briefly, only for Nate to pick it up and slash vertically at the Merc's neck in his jugular, tearing apart the soft tissue and sprayed crimson blood on Nate's face, who simply started angrily at the Barbadon gasping at the tear, and dug the chainsword blade deeper and tore through flesh and bone and pierced the armor until stopping midway down the merc's torso, deciding to push the halfway sliced body to the ground in a pool of blood, the chainsword still stuck in him.
Wendy's opponent put up a fight as well, who had his chainsword out and tried slicing at the girl to gut her, letting out a war cry out of frustration that she wouldn't stay still.
"Don't move, you little shit!" Shouted the merc, as one more slash made Wendy combat roll towards the pile of her group's items, and quickly grabbed her favorite hatchet from the pile before the merc tried a vertical slash downward.
Wendy rolled away once more, close to the Barbadon's side and stood up quickly to hack away at the merc's face, cutting deep into his tissue and managed to hack off one of his saber teeth in the process. The scream was the last thing the merc uttered before Wendy dug the hatchet blade in the back of the Barbadon's neck, just deep enough the sever the spine and instantly kill him, before he collapsed to the ground.
Dipper was dealing with the last merc, standing over him and beat him over and over, surprised at how much punches the merc could take even when drunk. Seeing that the merc had a bloody and bruised face, Dipper relented and took the pistol on the ground next to him from the other merc the drunkard had killed, standing up and aimed the gun at his bruised opponent to get him to surrender.
"Don't move." Ordered Dipper, not wanting to kill the merc in cold blood.
The drunkard simply laughed and fumbled with trying to get his chainsword out.
"I-I said, don't move!" Exclaimed Dipper, stepping back while still pointing the gun.
"Fucking pussy!" Shouted the merc, dropping his cahinsword and tried picking it up until a shotgun blast blew away a huge chunk of the drunkard's head.
Dipper turned to his left to see Wendy, who had taken his shotgun from the pile to kill the merc.
"He wasn't going to surrender, Dipper." Said Wendy in a stern tone as she walked up to him. "Barbadons don't surrender."
"I couldn't just-
Wendy handed him the shotgun, which Dipper took with his free hand in exchange for the pistol he carried.
"Please Dipper. If you have to shoot them, do it." Advised Wendy worryingly. "Don't even think about it. Just do it."
Dipper silently complied, even though he wasn't a big fan of killing in the first place. It was one thing to shoot someone if they were attacking you, but to do it when they were on the ground and barely able to get up, even if the merc didn't surrender, he couldn't just shoot him. He didn't want to be a murderer.
"He wouldn't have been able to do anything." Argued Dipper, who walked over to Wendy to the pile of stuff, while Nate followed closely behind and looked around if anyone was following them.
Wendy blinked suddenly from the statement, thinking about how naïve Dipper still is.
"You don't know what he would have done." Wendy argued back, sifting through the pile to see nothing but broken vests and weapons, aside from Dipper's shotgun.
"I still wouldn't have killed him in cold blood."
Wendy got up, not really paying mind to Dipper's argument and checked the merc's bodies for weapons.
"Just be lucky he wasn't sober." Wendy replied, not wanting to get into a moral argument about killing people. "I would've had a heart attack if something happened to you."
While Dipper felt flattered that Wendy still cared, the memory of her blowing away the merc's head still lingered in his mind, making him unsure about how to feel in this situation. Wendy told him it wasn't easy to kill people for survival, and he could tell that Wendy killed A LOT of people to get this far.
But how far did the killing have to go?
"We can talk all you want about morals when we find Mabel and Soos and get out of this hellhole, okay?"
Dipper nodded, gathering his thoughts and focused on the more important matters of finding his sister and close friend. Wendy then handed him a book, his journal number three that she had found in the pile.
"Keep that safe, for your own sake." Said Wendy, turning over to Nate to see him covered in Barbadon blood on his face that he continued to wipe away.
"Nate? You okay?" Asked Dipper.
"I'm fine, kid." Replied the tattooed rebel. "It's not my blood."
Wendy then handed over a pistol and a chainsword to Nate, along with another one of the chainswords to Dipper, who slung the shotgun around his back to hold the crude and messy weapon.
"Just pull the cord near the handle to rev it up, and try not to cut off your hand."
"What are these things?" Asked Dipper, observing the strange weapon in his hands.
"Chainswords." Replied Nate. "Barbadons made these chain weapons to make piercing armor easier in melee. They don't look like much, but they're very effective."
"Looks like something out of a board game I saw." Commented Dipper.
"Imagination can run pretty wild." Quipped Wendy, not really wanting to admire the crude weapons.
The sounds of gunfire and explosions still rang out, reminding the humans that peace was nonexistent in this battlefield.
"Let's move."
Wendy led the way straight down the road, wanting to take a left down south away from the Sleg Imperials closing in, growing more concerned about the louder sounds of battle that indicated how persistent the Imperial Slegs were.
All of this chaos made Dipper wonder if Mabel and Soos were even alive.
"Don't say that." Thought Dipper to himself. They had to have made it."
But silently in his thoughts, he still had doubts.
O-O-O
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls, but I do own the Slegs.