Through the Fire and the Flames

Chapter 3

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"Where am I?"

William turn his head around the room, and stood up, but quickly fell back on his knees when he found that he was too weak to support hiself very well. A 3rd animal walked in to the room, and turned to William. "Hi. I'm Weston, I lead the rebellion forces here in this small cave. I heard you helped some of my comrades, am I right?"

"Yeah, some soldiers were going to bring them to their... master, whoever that is... I wasn't going to let them just walk away with the others I saved. It... was just instinctive," William answered Weston.

"You... don't know who their master is?"

"I have amnesia."

The leader looked taken back, "I'm sorry to hear this. I wish there was a way to help this..."

"No, don't worry, it's best I don't, I think."

"Err, if I may ask, why?" Weston walked over to William.

"I used to work at that nuclear testing facility as a guard before it exploded." William closed his eyes, trying to block out images of death happening back in Robotropolis.

"Did you? Hmm, so, you may have had connections to that Robotnik, right?"

"Wha? Who's he? And even if I remembered, a guard there knew only the other guards near his location. And maybe a few scientists in that sector of the facility. Only 3 of my friends lived..."

"Oh... I'm terribly sorry for asking such questions. But, we have to take every precaution around here for spies." Weston looked around the room quickly, and grabbed a vial. "Here, drink. This'll help on the weakness you feel."

William really couldn't refuse, so he took it and drank the fluid slowly. At least it's not bitter...

"You should feel the effects take place in about 15 minutes. Until then, you're still gonna need to rest. It's only a painkiller." Weston left the room.

"Man, that was a close call back there huh? By the way, what's your name? Mine's Jerry, Jerry Kalis. Don't ask, I don't even know where my last name is even from." Jerry said this, somehow, in a single breath.

"I really don't even know my real name. Only my first name, William. Until then, I'm just using the last name Foster." William layed back down on the ground.

"Sucks to not even know what your last name is man." Jerry walked towards the door. "Hey, I'll leave you alone so you get your rest, like Wes said."

"Wes?"

"We all nicknamed Weston Wes around here. I'll see ya later man." And with that, Jerry left the room.

"What's with him?" William asked the remaining animal, which now he remembered it to be a lion.

"Ah, he's just a bit on the hyper side today. Don't worry about Jerry though, he's usually a good guy to be around. Oh, I'm Carie Lios. So, you say you have amnesia, right?" Carie began.

"Yeah, at least, I think I do. I'm guessing you're a medic, right?"

"Yup! That's me! I just relocated from our island jungle location just last week, but since this new place needed a medic, they reassigned me here under Wes's unit. At least, he SAYS it's a unit. I think it's just a small crowd sometimes, especially since this is a cavern." Carie kept talking about the times she's had being a medic, and William tried to listen the best he could. But the painkiller seemed to also be one of the older ones that would put him to sleep nearly, unlike the ones he was used to.

"Got a question. You guys have more bases of operations?"

"Yup! Actually, I can't tell you too much about them, or..."

"I get it. It's not like you can trust a guy who you just met." The pain in William's arm was long gone, the painkillers doing their job, but William could still not move the arm, lest it hurt a lot. No painkiller could have taken that pain away, especially since this was about the only painkiller they had, at least William thought that they had.

A sound was heard several times outside the door, and there were a lot of shouts. "HEY! We're under attack!"

"We're surrounded!"

"Damn, they've found us!" Carie said softly as she looked at the door, expecting it to open at any second. It didn't. The sounds all ceased eventually, and only a few cies of pain were heard from then on. "I hope no one's dead."

"I'm gonna check it out."

"No! What if they spot you? They'll kill you for helping us earlier!" Carie attempted reasoning with William, but it didn't work too well on him. "Willy..."

"Sorry Carie, but this is my time to pay you guys back for helping me out after I was shot," William said as he walked out of the room. Almost immediately he ducked down to ensure he wasn't seen as easily. He may have only been a guard, but William was damn sure to use his training for this. Maybe he'd even pick up a few new moves to help him out.

Around a corner in the cavern he found 2 animals, a dog and a wolf, being held hostage by a single guard. Thinking quickly, William grabbed a rock, threw it at the room, and dashed to another entrance to the room. The guard went to investigate the location of where the rock was thrown from and William took this opportunity to dash in the room form the other way and then stealth kill the guard with his bare hands. This got a bit of blood on his hands, but WIlliam didn't care too much about that.

Picking up the large gun (a Jerrison .44 their world's Desert Eagle .44), William went on to free the dog and the wolf, who thanked him and ran off in the opposite direction of the other hostage locations. Unfortunately this gun didn't have a silencer, so William tried to only use it at most needed times. Even more unfortunately, that was all the time, so stealth was almost completely out of the question.

Ducking, William looked around a corner, and fired 2 rounds at a hostage guard, and blood exploded from the guy's face. "What was that?" A second guard turned around in fear, not knowing where the gunfire came from, thus giving WIlliam a perfect shot without being see. Another headshot later, the guard fell down. This time, the hostage was Jerry. "Hey man, I was wondering if you'd come around! Hey, I'd better tag along with you, so someone doesn't freak out and give you away before you shoot those soldiers!"

"Err, you sure? You know what you're even doing?" William was a little skeptical on letting the cat join him, especially since stealth worked better with only one person in a smaller setting, like this cave maze.

"Hey, I also know where to go, unlike you, who'd be running circles finding the next hostage!"

"True..." WIlliam couldn't really deny this, so he decided to let Jerry follow, "okay, just stick close and don't get yourself killed. If you need a weapon, there's tha one right there."

Shaking his head, Jerry refused, "I don't use guns that well. I'd be more likely to miss and hit one of my friends."

"Okay, suit yourself. I'm taking the extra ammo then," Wiilliam shrugged and took the clip out of the pistol and added it to his inventory. It fit nicely on his belt, and didn't even hinder William's movements.

"Come on! Hurry up Will! They'll kill another if we don't hurry!" Jerry began to try to hurry William.

"They've killed one already?"

"Yeah, they got to Victor just as they stormed the place!"

"Damn them..." William cursed the soldiers and he moved on, with Jerry tagging along closely, just like he was told to do. William winced as he moved his arm once more, the painkillers now starting to fully affect his pained arm.