Thanks once more to reviewers of both this and 'Nothing left to do but die'. Replies are somewhere around here.
Chapter 36: Emotional Outlet
Running through forests is not a fun experience.
Obviously, you've got the trees to worry about; running into one of these will certainly spoil your day. Then you've got felled branches and tree stumps that are always lurking somewhere to trip you up, largely uneven surfaces which make the trip all the more difficult, and also, there's always the chance of pestiferous Demons showing up.
As you've probably guessed, that's what happened. Demons appeared to the left of the group, shouting, swinging assorted sharp weaponry carelessly above their heads, shouting assorted death threats and insults, and occasionally tripping over one of the aforementioned obstacles, thereby ruining what weak image of fear that they had built for themselves.
The nice thing about Demons is that they have more chance of being completely truthful on a CV and consequently getting a job as a priest then they do of shaping the 'world' around them so as to achieve an advantage in a combat situation. Consequently, the bullets which were fired all reached and pierced the torsos of the targets.
This first wave of screaming idiots was soon followed by a second, larger one. It seemed that Neo wasn't going to sit back and wait for us to find him after all.
Another round of gunshots took most of the Demons out, two managed to get within striking distance of us both Dragon and one of the Zion based humans. Dragon dodged the three swings with every appearance of casualness and launched a fist into the Demon's face, sending him flying gracefully into a nearby tree.
The human dealt with the second Demon in a similar fashion. She grabbed the hand that was holding the knife that the Demon had swung at her, landed a kick into the enemy's ribs, and then another into his face after he fell to his knees. Impressive.
There was silence for a while; everyone looked around themselves to see if any more Demons were approaching. When it seemed clear that there weren't any, I remembered the gunshot that had emerged from the direction it seemed to have emerged from, which I now remembered was also the direction that Eric appeared to have wandered off in.
Fairly soon after this, I remembered that his gun, like mine had, annoyingly, been confiscated by Smith. Anyway, this served to add some pace to my charge. I didn't doubt that he could take care of himself, gun or no, but I ran faster anyway.
I froze almost instinctively as I heard the disturbingly familiar whir of a sentinel. A few seconds after this I charged back in the direction of Dragon, who was the only person I knew who was carrying a weapon capable of torching sentinels.
By the time I reached him, he seemed to have his metaphorical hands full. The sentinels seemed to realise the threat he posed to them as much as I did and were focusing most of their efforts on him.
An eardrum shattering explosion ripped through the air as one of the mechanical squids collided with one of Dragon's rockets. Assorted sentinel pieces fell to the floor.
I stopped again. Since Dragon was the only one who could take the sentinels out, crowding him wasn't going to help him achieve this end.
One of the Zionites, a human with a ridiculous looking goatee, pointed in a direction that was towards my left. I turned my head to see that six more sentinels were heading our way.
When Dragon noticed this, he fired a rocket in their direction. It was too hasty a shot however, and the missile struck a nearby tree.
Most of us started running in various directions, some people instinctively started firing bullets at the machines, not having the time or appropriate frame of mind to realise that this would achieve less then nothing.
I looked back over my shoulder as I was running and saw what I had feared, the sentinels were faster then we were. They spread out; no doubt they'd identified promising targets. A few seconds later I turned my head again to see that their arms had been extended to snatch one of us from the floor of punch through out stomachs.
Then they died.
I kept running as I saw it happen, it took my brain a little whiles to tell the rest of me to stop.
The sentinels froze in mid air. They were twitching violently; sparks were flying off of the creatures as if they had run into a live electrical current. A few moments later, they fell to the floor with a somewhat graceless thud.
I looked around me to see what the cause of this was, and saw Smith standing amongst the scorched nature, holding his hand up in the direction of the sentinels, with a familiar grin on his face, the kind that accompanies the satisfaction that follows a kill.
I was surprised, but at the same time, I wasn't, if that makes any sense. I expected to die for about the fourth or fifth time today, and once again I'd dodged the Grim Reaper's trademark Scythe. I remember thinking that I must have been getting used to it.
And Smith had saved my life.
Smith, who had effectively ended my life just a few months ago, (which felt more like centuries considering everything that had happened), who had almost destroyed all of humanity, who was considered by many to be Lucifer released from the pit, had now saved my life. I needed to sit down.
After a few heavy breaths that were more force of habit then anything else. (I'd given up breathing. More trouble then its worth), I suddenly remembered Eric and charged off again in his direction.
To be continued
Agent Josie: First the sayings, then the speech patterns, if I'm not careful you'll end up stealing my ears. Strange image. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: I still have no idea how to create a realistic, evil Neo, that's why I keep putting off bringing him into the story. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: Sorry about that, I shall lock myself in a cupboard and cut off three of my fingers so as to remind myself not to forget any more replies. Sorry it took me so long to update and thanks for reviewing.
Chapter 36: Emotional Outlet
Running through forests is not a fun experience.
Obviously, you've got the trees to worry about; running into one of these will certainly spoil your day. Then you've got felled branches and tree stumps that are always lurking somewhere to trip you up, largely uneven surfaces which make the trip all the more difficult, and also, there's always the chance of pestiferous Demons showing up.
As you've probably guessed, that's what happened. Demons appeared to the left of the group, shouting, swinging assorted sharp weaponry carelessly above their heads, shouting assorted death threats and insults, and occasionally tripping over one of the aforementioned obstacles, thereby ruining what weak image of fear that they had built for themselves.
The nice thing about Demons is that they have more chance of being completely truthful on a CV and consequently getting a job as a priest then they do of shaping the 'world' around them so as to achieve an advantage in a combat situation. Consequently, the bullets which were fired all reached and pierced the torsos of the targets.
This first wave of screaming idiots was soon followed by a second, larger one. It seemed that Neo wasn't going to sit back and wait for us to find him after all.
Another round of gunshots took most of the Demons out, two managed to get within striking distance of us both Dragon and one of the Zion based humans. Dragon dodged the three swings with every appearance of casualness and launched a fist into the Demon's face, sending him flying gracefully into a nearby tree.
The human dealt with the second Demon in a similar fashion. She grabbed the hand that was holding the knife that the Demon had swung at her, landed a kick into the enemy's ribs, and then another into his face after he fell to his knees. Impressive.
There was silence for a while; everyone looked around themselves to see if any more Demons were approaching. When it seemed clear that there weren't any, I remembered the gunshot that had emerged from the direction it seemed to have emerged from, which I now remembered was also the direction that Eric appeared to have wandered off in.
Fairly soon after this, I remembered that his gun, like mine had, annoyingly, been confiscated by Smith. Anyway, this served to add some pace to my charge. I didn't doubt that he could take care of himself, gun or no, but I ran faster anyway.
I froze almost instinctively as I heard the disturbingly familiar whir of a sentinel. A few seconds after this I charged back in the direction of Dragon, who was the only person I knew who was carrying a weapon capable of torching sentinels.
By the time I reached him, he seemed to have his metaphorical hands full. The sentinels seemed to realise the threat he posed to them as much as I did and were focusing most of their efforts on him.
An eardrum shattering explosion ripped through the air as one of the mechanical squids collided with one of Dragon's rockets. Assorted sentinel pieces fell to the floor.
I stopped again. Since Dragon was the only one who could take the sentinels out, crowding him wasn't going to help him achieve this end.
One of the Zionites, a human with a ridiculous looking goatee, pointed in a direction that was towards my left. I turned my head to see that six more sentinels were heading our way.
When Dragon noticed this, he fired a rocket in their direction. It was too hasty a shot however, and the missile struck a nearby tree.
Most of us started running in various directions, some people instinctively started firing bullets at the machines, not having the time or appropriate frame of mind to realise that this would achieve less then nothing.
I looked back over my shoulder as I was running and saw what I had feared, the sentinels were faster then we were. They spread out; no doubt they'd identified promising targets. A few seconds later I turned my head again to see that their arms had been extended to snatch one of us from the floor of punch through out stomachs.
Then they died.
I kept running as I saw it happen, it took my brain a little whiles to tell the rest of me to stop.
The sentinels froze in mid air. They were twitching violently; sparks were flying off of the creatures as if they had run into a live electrical current. A few moments later, they fell to the floor with a somewhat graceless thud.
I looked around me to see what the cause of this was, and saw Smith standing amongst the scorched nature, holding his hand up in the direction of the sentinels, with a familiar grin on his face, the kind that accompanies the satisfaction that follows a kill.
I was surprised, but at the same time, I wasn't, if that makes any sense. I expected to die for about the fourth or fifth time today, and once again I'd dodged the Grim Reaper's trademark Scythe. I remember thinking that I must have been getting used to it.
And Smith had saved my life.
Smith, who had effectively ended my life just a few months ago, (which felt more like centuries considering everything that had happened), who had almost destroyed all of humanity, who was considered by many to be Lucifer released from the pit, had now saved my life. I needed to sit down.
After a few heavy breaths that were more force of habit then anything else. (I'd given up breathing. More trouble then its worth), I suddenly remembered Eric and charged off again in his direction.
To be continued
Agent Josie: First the sayings, then the speech patterns, if I'm not careful you'll end up stealing my ears. Strange image. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: I still have no idea how to create a realistic, evil Neo, that's why I keep putting off bringing him into the story. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: Sorry about that, I shall lock myself in a cupboard and cut off three of my fingers so as to remind myself not to forget any more replies. Sorry it took me so long to update and thanks for reviewing.