October
1969
Afghanistan
The mission was going smoothly. So far.
"Go, me and my men will keep watch." Kardivar said aloud before stepping closer to Stitch and his crew. "I want eyes on them at all times." He looked over to the four men that were about to infiltrate with Stitch and the others, Kardivars suspected men.
Stitch nodded. "Move in." He said into his headset.
The four of them each made sure to stay with one of the four other men at all times.
Stitch threw up hand signals, telling them for each set of two to move in from each side of the building; left, right, behind, and above. Anthony and his partner were assigned to infiltrate from above through the dusty glass plate.
"On my command." Stitch paused. "Breach!" Glass shattered, doors burst opena and smoke filled the room.
"I don't want survivors, I want that breifcase with the intel intact!" Stitch roared over the radio as bullets flew through the air.
The bullets ceased and the smoke cleared.
Stitch eyed the large room, no single person alive. "Search every single inch, tear this place a part if you have to, somewhere that intel is here. We may not have killed everyone." He looked down a small hallways with three rooms. "Petrov, you two go." He pointed down the hallway. "Jackal, Fuze, follow."
They split up down the hallway, each sticking with a man.
"You know you can trust me right." The woman spoke, observing Anthony's tension.
"Thats the last thing you should tell someone who has a gun in their hands." He said, taking them into a dark room.
"I'm just saying. I only want to help." She said taking a deep sigh.
"We'll see about that." Anthony turned his flashlight on, the woman did the same. They tore the room apart searching every drawer. He felt like he was being watched.
"Hold on." He put a hand on her shoulder, looking and listening around the room. "Listen." He said softly.
"I hear it." She said. There was someone else breathing, watching them closley, hoping they would leave any second.
"Move that filing cabinet." He said.
There was a man curled up in a small boxed area. He pulled his pistol out. Anthony shot the weapon from his hand, the man responding in a swift charge. With one powerful suplex he put the agent on his back.
"American." Anthony's partner spat. How wrong she was, in fact he was looking down on one of their own men, an ally just playing his role."Open it and see if its what we came for." She planted her boot into the enemy's chest.
"It is." He read the papers, knowing how useless they actually were.
Within seconds she shot the enemy. Trying to grab the case with their free hands and weapon in the other, Anthony fired his weapon first. What should have been a careless mistake served him well. The bullet ricochet off one of the walls and into the woman's leg. She fell to one knee, grabbing her knee.
"I'm doing you a favor. Perseus isn't forgiving as I am." He placed a bullet in between her eyes, spots of blood splattered over his uniform. "Target has been identified, KIA." He stared at the corpse.
All the other men came rushing into the room.
Kardivar was the first to barge in, eyes fixed on the body. "Petrov! You idiot!" He shouted, grabbing the young man by the collar.
"I needed her alive." He said firmly, shoving Anthony into the wall, his grip still firm.
"She was a threat. If we kept her alive theres no telling what could have happened, shes already responsible for giving intel to the Americans!"
"Did you even ask her what she gave away?" He sounded like he could kill the younger man at any moment.
"No." Was all he could say.
"Useless." Kardivar fired his pistol beside Anthony's ear. Ringing sounded through his head, he shut his eyes, reaching for the sides of his head. Suddenly he felt the hot part of the gun pressing into his neck. He let out a tight and faint yell.
"Clean your mess up Stitch." Kardivar shoved Anthony away, leaving the room fuming.
Stitch gave Anthony a deadly glare. There weren't words to describe his pure hatred for the newly aquired agent. "Get rid of it!" Was all he could say before he too left the room, leaving Jackal, Fuze, and Anthony in the room.
Verdansk
Once the scene was delt with they finally returned home.
"So who was it that eleminated the traitor?" Perseus asked.
Kardivar and Stitch turned their heads, looking at Anthony. "Petrov?" He asked.
"Yes sir?"
"You eleminated her?"
"Yes sir." He replied, his heart racing.
Perseus eyed the young man, making an approving hum. "You judged good."
Anthony was stunned.
"Sir, we could have used her alive. She could have answered many of our questions." Stitch protested.
"We have no idea what she has given them!" Kardivar held out his arm, frustrated.
"We don't need to know what she gave them. Whatever it was clearly wasn't all that vital, or else we would all be compromised as we speak. We know her intentions." He paused. "Sure we very well could have learned who she was talking to but our opportunity will come." He turned towards Anthony. "She was too dangerous to keep alive, you stopped her before she really could have gotten her hands on something trully important." He patted him on the shoulder.
"Thank you.. sir." He said quietly, a weight off his shoulders.
"Dismissed." Perseus returned to his desk, two soldiers opening the door to escort them out of the room.
"I have tried comradery, even tried to be reasonable once." Kardivar walked beside Anthony. "I didn't like it to much." He shoved past Anthony, frustrated.
He went to sit on his bunk. His hands holding his head. He was torn. He couldn't seem to please anyone at once. Whenever he did good for Perseus he always seemed to upset his team. Even when he was back in camp if he tried to do a favor for Antonov he would upset his superiors. There was no balance. It wasn't possible. This he came to realise.
He had no reason to remain loyal to his team. Yes, if he had to pull his teammate from a cliff with just a simple pull of the hand, he would. But his loyalties, his deepest trust would never lie with them. They never did anything for him. They never paid off medical bills, never gave him a second chance at life. They didn't understand who he was as a person. Only Perseus knew how much of a broken person he was. He had every reason in the world to remain by his side.
The door to his quarters opened. Fuze shut the door behind him. "Funny guy.." Ortega greeted. "I was wondering who they were rooming me with."
Lights had been turned out for the night. He fell into a deep slumber.
Free me...
Free me.
Anthony, free me.
He opened his eyes. He stood in a building of some sort. An office building it seemed. Everywhere around him was purple. Purple crystals on the walls, floor, in the corners here and there. He didnt know what was happening.
Seeing a blockaded window he approached it carefully. Where was this deep hungry voice coming from? Peeking outside he saw things he didn't think were even possible to dream of.
"What in the hell.." he watched in awe as a jellyfish like creature danced across the purple sky. Everything was purple.
Destroy him! The voice commanded.
He panicked not knowing what was about to happen. Seeing a weapon lying in the corner he ran to it picking up an Ak-47u. There were several barracades all around him, even upstairs.
He stood his ground, waiting for the threat to make itself known. It was quite. Then he heard a low growl from behind. He saw a man slowly walking towards him.
"Hey!" He shouted aiming his gun. "Tell me where I am." No response. "Was that you talking, earlier?" No response.
He turned on his flashlight on the side of his gun. "What..." his eyes were wide at the sight before him. It walked like a man, even shaped like a man. But this was no man. Its skin was rotten. Flesh was hanging off the exposed bone, its eyes were a glowing yellow.
Trying his best to keep his composure he backed up until he felt the wall. His eyes wide he fired his bullets into the monster until it fell. With its eyes no longer glowing, it laid there, dead. This had to have been a person at one time with the torn lab coat and pants it wore. The smell of the corpse was unbearable. The sight of the being... it looked like a thing broken free from a bedtime story, something that couldn't be real. He was looking at a zombie.
Fetch me his soul!
"Who are you!?" He screamed, confused and feightened. Suddenly multiple zombies began huddeling and tearing a part one of the barricades. He fired his mag into the creatures. He ran dry.
He searched the floor hastily for another mag. Luckily he found about three along with a box of bullets. Quickly reloading, he saw more zombies at the next barrier, and the next, and the ones behind him.
He fought them off, some three at a time until they were all gone. It was quiet again. He reloaded all his mags, preparing for anything else.
You will join us!"
More zombies rushed inside. He killed them like he did the previous ones. He heard barking. A dog? No.
At one time it might have been. If there were dogs in hell this is what they would look like. A hungry, devilish hound. It was on fire, screaming as if it were in pain. Multiple rushed him. Fighting off the last one he took a moment to breathe.
He hard a loud crash. A large metal suit made a large hole in the wall.
"You didn't warn me this time!" Anthony was frightened. He looked to see a zombie behind the red tinted window of the suit. The creature shot out a few flames as it approached him. Anthony shot at it helplessly.
"Pathetic." The thing said, snatching Anthony's gun from him and shattering it to peices.
He was backed into a corner. He didn't know what to do but he wouldn't go down without a fight. He couldn't. Without thinking he swiftly kicked the side of the machine in the back of the leg, hoping it would do something.
He cried out in pain, something in his leg most likely broken from the tough surface meeting bone. The machine picked him up, gripping him around the throat.
Anthont squirmed, his cries of pain now muffled. The zombie looked him in the eyes behind the red timted sheild. As it growled at him more zombies slowly crept in from all angles. The dogs, slowly eyed their prey like the beasts they were.
Feeling his lungs burning, he used his fist to beat against the metallic hand holding him. He let out choked cries. He wasn't making it out of this alive.
He heard a loud crunch, he stopped struggeling. The purple world around him became black.