Chapter Ten

The rain was still falling heavily on his head and each step he took his boots sunk into the earth. The mud was soft and kicked up easily. His possessed state worsened and his eyes lost their shine. His body was moving on its own will; desiring for the taste of blood.

A guard was stationed at the base of the building and was slowly dozing off standing up. He wore a tight jacket and black pants. There was a gun belted to his right side and a sword attached horizontally to his lower backside.

As Scott approached closer he took his right hand and reached behind him for his weapon and pulled it from its secured position. The guard's ear caught one of the footsteps and quickly peered out into the darkness. Scott stopped moving and stared at him.

The guard said nothing but took out his flashlight and swung it from his left over to his right. Finally the beam caught a glimpse of Scott and quickly the guard circled back at what he had seen. Scott was standing in the light, not moving, staring at the guard, barrel pointed. He dropped the flashlight.

"What the," he went for his gun but was cut short as a loud explosion rang.

There was a moment of silence as the guard stood there. The hand that reached out for the gun fell back to his side and he stumbled backwards, slamming into the wall. Blood began to pour down his face from bullet hole in between his eyes. He slowly began to slide down to the ground, death had already taken him.

When Scott knew that he was dead he walked up and put the gun back behind him. He looked down at the guard. Did the guard have a family? Did the guard have a life outside of this? Did he have a child? Did he have a wife? Why did so many people have to die? Why would he want to die? Why would he do what he does just for money? Or was it more than just money? Was it something deeper? Why did Diadem create so many questions wherever they go?

Scott squatted down next to the corpse. He felt no shame for killing him, he felt no sorry if the man had a home, wife, child, or family. Scott grabbed the sword behind him. The gunshot he had made could have ruined his element of surprise that he would need. He couldn't risk killing by it anymore. Scott was surprised as he unsheathed it, that it was a strait-edged katana. It was perfectly balanced. Scott looked at the man; just as he had thought, the man must have had a Japanese origin. He had fought many people before with swords, none ever wielding a katana. Samurai swords were no longer popular, even to the Japanese people. However, he would just have to make do with this.

He took off the man's belted sheath and attached it across his back in a diagonal fashion, with the sword's hilt on his ride side. After it was secure, he turned towards the locked door and instead of seeing if it was locked, instead of checking for a key on the dead body next to him. He kicked the door down with his steel boot and it flew across the room.

A bold of lighting struck behind him illuminating the dark room before him. Scott's eyes widened. Unlike last time where people urgently rushed back and fourth, darkness consumed everything. The random strikes of lighting showed the horrific sight inside. Bodies lay piled along the floor, each one gashed in various places with wounds to deep and precise for a gun.

Scott slowly walked in, "What could have done this?" he muttered to himself.

The smell of death filled his nostrils; these men had been dead for hours. Whatever had slaughtered them was fast and ruthless. The guard outside must have not even heard one sound, from the way he was acting before his death. Scott continued to tread through the pools of blood before him.

He could see in front of him that the elevators were no longer working. His head went from left to right. Finally he stopped at a fixated area and ran towards it. He stopped at a door and tried to turn the knob. No use. He raised his foot and kicked it down. He continuously kicked over and over again till his foot felt as though it was bleeding. No use, he would have to do it. He grabbed his gun and shot a bullet at the knob. It fell to the floor and an alarm sounded off.

It no longer mattered; his surprised tactic was most likely taken away by whatever had killed all of those men. He began to run up the staircases. The lights from the alarm shined brightly, filling each flight with a radiant scarlet glow. One after another he quickly climbed up the stories. It seemed he had been running around in circles for minutes on end until he finally reached the top floor. He could see a light coming from around the cracks in between the door and the wall.

He gripped the handle and pushed it down slowly, bringing the door close to him. A blue light wrapped around his body as it flew past the opened door. He walked in the room and looked around at things. There were rows with test tubes and beakers. Capsules sitting at the end of the room let out a subtle green light. It wasn't quite strong enough to take over the blue lighting coming from above. He noticed one of the capsules had shattered and some residue from inside was still splashed on the ground. Scott stood confused; this wasn't the room he had been into before.
When he had been here before gathering information, the highest the vents could reach was the floor with the men having a meeting. He surely would have seen this room on the way up. However, there were vents in the room, releasing a cold stale air. His breath began to heat up the air around him and smoke began to form.

There was no sound, the room was absolutely silent. He could only hear his breath and his slow beating heartbeat. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he noticed a blinking. There was a computer on the end of the table, on the exact opposite side of the room. Without making much noise he quickly moved over to the monitor and gazed at it. In big bold letters three words were displayed that froze his heart.

Weapon of War

"Weapon of War," he repeated what he saw, "What is this?"

He began to press keys below the monitor, hoping that one of them would show more data. After a few attempts the screen changes and information begins to fill up the page. His long waited search is finally over; he can now see what this Weapon of War is.

There is a loud explosion of gun powder and the screen in front of him shatters, glass flying in all directions, one slicing him right under his right eye. Scott reached for his gun and pointed it up at the direction from which the bullet came. His eyes widened, on the opposite side of the room, barrel staring at his, Herti stood still.

"You shouldn't look at things you don't understand," his voice was calm and a smile grew across his lips.

Scott didn't say anything, he just kept staring.

"Are you here to avenge your friend, and save your other? Well you're too late for avenging. As you can see everyone in this building is dead. However, I guess you could still save your friend. I don't know why you would want to though."

He flipped a switch next to his side and the floor began to rumble. Another capsule began to rise right in front of them, in the middle of the room. Scott lowered his gun. He could see Lu's face slowly come up from under the ground. She was floating in the capsule, naked, and unconscious. After the capsule stopped moving and the floor ceased to rumble, Scott sprinted to her.

"Lu!" he screamed, "Lu, are you okay?"

He tried to break the glass but it was no use.

"What have you done to her?" he screamed at Herti.

"I haven't done anything?" he responded, "We actually saved her life, but I guess you don't know do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"So you do not know anything. I see. What a pity, this must all be so tragic for you."

Scott stopped beating on the glass and came around to Herti's view, "Release her! I'll kill you fucker!"

"Now, now, I would have assumed your foul language would have subsided from the last time we had met."

Scott clasped his teeth together in anger and closed his left hand in a tight fist. He could feel the blood slowly pouring from his palm.

"I'm going to kill you," his voice wavered in extreme anger, "I'm going to kill you! First you kill Charlie, and then you take Lu. I don't give a rat's ass what happens to this pathetic excuse for a country anymore. We just wanted to make some money. We just wanted to live the best we can. Why them? Why not me?" he raised his gun up at Herti, "Why wouldn't you just fucking kill me?"

Herti looked at his seriousness and was thrown into a hoarse laugh, "You don't get it do you. Ignorance is truly bliss. We couldn't have killed you if we tried. However, if you truly want to die, I can make it possible now."

Herti fired at Scott; the bullet grazed his left cheek and hit the capsule behind them. Scott turned around and saw that the capsule must have been bullet proof.

Herti whispered calmly into his left ear, "You should never take your eye off of the enemy, the very basic tactic of war."

Before Scott could react Herti slashed his back with a hidden dagger. Scott rolled away from his foe and could feel a trail of blood behind him. He got up and began to pant. Herti tossed the dagger aside and begin unleashing ammo. Scott jumped and kicked over a table to hide behind. Still panting with one eye closed he took out his cartridge. There were still six bullets left, however, he couldn't take the chance, and he threw the cartridge away and pushed a new one in. Hopefully he could take down Herti with this one, it was his last.

Scott rose from his secured position and unleashed five rounds; only one of the collided with the enemy. It hit him in his left arm, paralyzing it; however it did not make much a difference because he continued to fire with his right.

He ran off into hiding again. His panting had gotten heavier; the wound must have been much deeper than he had originally thought. He could see his vision fading in and out. If he didn't finish this soon he would lose by blood loss.

"Will you quit hiding like a scared dog and fight me?" Herti was laughing loudly.

Herti walked up to Scott, yet Scott made no movement.

"What is the matter? Are you tired from the blood loss already? That's depressing; I thought you were a much better fighter than that."

He walked up closer to the black figure with the sword hung diagonal on his back.

"Game over for you," he fired and Scott fell forward.

He laughed hysterically aloud as he dropped his gun to the ground.

"You should know what the true meaning of game over is," Herti's eyes widened and he quickly turned around.

Scott was hanging upside down from a pipe about 10 feet from the ground. He fired and the bullet traveled and struck Herti. He fell over, blood flying from his neck. The bullet went through and passed out his neck, leaving him paralyzed on the floor.

He jumped off the bar and walked over to the lifeless body. He took off the sword from the dead scientist. Scott still couldn't believe that the lifeless man had been under that table the whole time, even before he had met with Herti. However, there wasn't any time to think about that now.

He ran over to the capsule and stared at Lu. It was no good; he couldn't tell if she was alive or dead. The switch! Herti had flipped some switch; maybe there was another that would open it.

When he had reached the small console his eyes lit up. There was another switch, quickly he flipped it. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. All of a sudden there was a giant rumbling and everything around him shook. The capsule began to open from the top, slowly lowering downward. Scott watched as the fluid inside began to spew out and created a mess on the ground.

Finally the level of the fluid reached just below Lu's hips and she began to fall outside of the capsule. Scott ran up and caught her just as her bare body flew towards the ground. He held her for a moment and stared gently at her emotionless face.

"I couldn't protect you," he whispered, "What have I been doing all this time?"

He placed his left hand on her cheek and removed some hair out of her eyes with his other. His touch seemed to have disturbed her and her eyebrows twitched in an uncomfortable manner. She began to cough roughly and the fluid that had just surrounded her quickly was spat up.

"Lu!" he brought her closer and rested her on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry Lu."

She continued to cough and he lowered her a little so he could see into her eyes. She still wore the same smile he had always seen. A few tears began to sprout from the corners of her eyes.

Scott's ear was taken off to the side when he heard glass shatter. He looked over and saw Herti standing up. He was panting and gripping deeply onto his neck which the blood would not stop pouring out of. He tried to speak but his vocal chords were damaged and all that came out was a horrible non-human hoarse scream. He turned around and just as he gave into his death, he fell onto a button that lay on another console.

Self destruction sequence activated: 30.

Scott looked up and saw the number thirty being displayed on all of the monitors in the room. He looked at Herti who had died with a smile on his bloody face. After laying Lu down gently he got up and thought.

"How am I going to get out of here," he rambled to himself, "the building is too high to run down the flights of stairs, plus I have Lu."

He looked over at the screen "25". Fear gripped his heart and he looked away. He noticed the glass windows that started just a little off the ground and almost reached to the ceiling. It was no use. There was water down below, but at this height he couldn't even guarantee that he would land into the water perfectly. That option would be as safe as if he had jumped onto cement ground.

His eyes glanced over to the screens, "18". There was nothing he could do. He was going to die here.

He thought to himself, "Fuck, At least I got my revenge."

He walked over to Lu and picked her up and rested her on his lap.

"Looks like we aren't going to make it after all of this," he smiled.

Tears began to fill her eyes.

"Shit, don't cry please," he wiped off her tears then kissed her lips, "I still love you."

Her eyes widened and she grabbed his shirt, bringing him close again and she forced her lips on his.

The lights had turned to red and flashed, they had reached their ten second warning. Lu stopped kissing him but kept him close to her mouth so that his ear was right next to her face.

He could hear the voice thought the speakers.

6…5…4…

When the third second struck Lu gently whispered into his ear, "I'm," she paused for a moment and he heard the voice say two, "sorry."

He let go of her and caught a quick glimpse of her smiling, and still crying.

The voice counted down the final second. Scott closed his eyes and accepted his fate that he would die.

In that single instant various pictures flashed through his closed eyes. He could see himself with Charlie. He knew Charlie was in a much better place. He could see his father, mother, sister, grandmother; each one had died sometime during the war. He could see various people he had met, friends, foes. All the missions that he had accomplished and some he had failed were as clear to him as if they were happening. He guessed what life might have been like if there was never any war. However, he couldn't see what he would have been like if there was never any war. After everything was done, he finally saw Lu. The girl he had always been in love with since they were young children. The town they had grown up in that no longer existed. The dog they had found that sadly got run over just a few weeks later. The first kiss they shared in his tree house. The thought to be last kiss they shared outside the town in the dark. The many times he had wished he could see her, then realizing that he was so weak he had to push her away to keep himself strong; the constant fear of losing her. The sheer amazement of seeing how beautiful she could look in a dress. Finally, the last kiss they had been able to share before all of this had happened, outside the ball room, on the balcony.

He felt himself fall back a little, maybe the building was rumbling before it exploded; he figured he would never know. Then he could feel it, the explosion; the heat all over his body, consuming him like he was small wasteful garbage. Something rang in his ear as he was thrown.

"Is that glass breaking?" he asked himself.