Chapter 4

Call the Exorcist

R.C.

Well, apparently the tank…. Or the person inside. Either way that tank shot killed one of the blues. But we didn't care, we got back to Red Base with Donut there still holding the flag.

"What happened?" Donut asked as soon we got on top of the base.

"Big… Tank…" Grif said panting heavily. "Shooting... Whooooh!"

I just looked at him. Simmons just said what I was thinking as he looked at him. "Damn, man, we only ran like three hundred feet. You are really out of shape."

Grif just slowly turned to Simmons. I could just feel him glaring. "Fuck... You!"

Donut then looked around and over the base. "Where's your car?"

Simmons then gestured to Grif. "General Patton here had a great strategy to leave it behind."

Grif then turned to Simmons. "Hey, it would have worked if that tank hadn't shown up," he countered.

"You lost the jeep?!" Donut exclaimed. "Oh man, Lopez is gonna be pissed."

"Forget Lopez!" I exclaimed. "I'm pissed! I worked on that gun for close to an hour."

"Wait," Grif interjected. "You can remember that. Just do over again!"

"Look, Colonel Mustard! I can remember it but doesn't mean I wanna repeat that shit and that jeep got totaled. I gotta fix AND upgrade it again," I yelled pissed.

"Wait a minute," Donut said getting in the conversation. "Where is it?"

Boom!

Suddenly the jeep flew from between Donut and me and Simmons and Grif.

"What the hell?!" Grif explained.

Boom!

"Son of a bitch!"

We just kind of scattered around avoiding getting shot. "Holy crap! What the hell is that thing?" Donut asked panicking.

"That's the tank!" Grif exclaimed just as panicked.

Donut looked at me and I quickly shook my head. He then quickly turned to Grif. "Hey uh, Grif uh, you wanna hold the flag for a little bit?"

"No, keep that away from me!"

Cate

That tank was back on and now shooting at the jeep. Caboose was still inside operating the tank. Tucker stood beside it. I was just sitting on it cause… I had no intention of being the second person to die on this team.

"Why do you keep firing at the jeep?" Tucker asked.

"Because it's locked on!" Caboose yelled. I didn't know if it was because the cannon fire or because he was freaking out.

Well unlock it," Tucker said as if it was simple… again never operated a tank and legal can't so I'm not sure.

"Last time I unlocked it, I KILLED CHURCH!" Caboose yelled, now I know panicking.

I then looked at Tucker. "Why do you think I'm sitting on the side of the tank."

"Oh, right," Tucker said a bit nervous. "keep shooting the jeep then."

R.C.

At this point, we were hiding like rats. I hid with Donut in one side of the base ramp and Simmons and Grif in the other. Yet with every explosion… no fire. I was kinda disappointed.

"I hate to be the one to point this out guys," Donut said over the cannon fire. "but I think we're screwed."

"Yeah," Simmons said mostly talking to Grif. "I have to agree with the rookie on this one."

Suddenly our radios started to kick in. "Blood Gulch Outpost Number One," said gruff southern voice. "Come in, Blood Gulch Outpost, come in. Do you read me? This is Sargeant-"

"Oh my God, Sarge is that you?!" Grif shouted through the radio.

"Roger that, Private. I am currently inbound to your position from Command."

"Sir, this is Simmons," Simmons said entered the radio conversation.

"Hello, Simmons. I hope everything's gone alright while I've been gone."

"Actually sir, things are kind of hectic right now," Grif said. "The new rookies arrived, and somehow he managed to infiltrate the blue base, and now we have their flag, the Warthog is damaged, one of their guys is dead, and there's this huge fucking tank about to destroy our base."

For while, there was only radio silence. I thought for a moment we lost contact with Sarge, I wondered how we would get it back, but…

"Am I talkin' to the right base?" he asked.

"Sarge," Grif said serious yet freaked out at the same time. "we, are going, to die here."

"Well then hold tight boys. I think I gotta solution to your little 'tank' problem."

Suddenly, I heard a plane fly overhead. I couldn't help but smirk. I was going to finally get a good explosion.

Cate

Suddenly, I heard a plane fly overhead. I frowned. I didn't like this. "Uh, Oh," I said.

Tucker seemed to see the same thing cause he was backing up. "Hey Caboose, you might wanna get out of the tank. Like right now."

I quickly jumped off as I heard Caboose hit random buttons. " I can't figure out how to get this thing open!"

Soon bombs were being dropped towards the tank. "Night vision engaged," the tank said.

"Rookie! Get out now!" Tucker yelled.

"And if you don't its karma," I added. Tucker then looked at me. I shrugged. "Am I wrong?"

"Well," Tucker started. "No."

"Okay, open the duh, okay, I, Sheila, will you please open the door?" Caboose said panicking.

"Driver canopy open." Caboose quickly jumped out the tank and started running as fast as he could. "Thank you for using the M808V main battle ta-"

Boom!

The tank exploded and flipped over into the air and shook the ground. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap running, running, running!" Caboose shouted as he sprinted towards us. He finally reached us, panting. "Man, that was close."

"Yeah," Tucker said wearily. "Look at your tank though"

We all looked to the tank, it was upside down and destroyed. I was upset such a good vehicle… gone. But Caboose was a bit more upset.

" Sheeeeiilaaaaa! Noooooo!" Caboose cried.

"What?" Tucker said as he started looking around. "No! Sheila! Sheila!" He then stopped and looked at Caboose confused. "Wait... who's Sheila?"

"Sheila's the lady in the tank," Caboose said sounding like he was crying. "She was my friend..."

Tucker then pumped his fist. " Oh, dude! I knew you could pick up chicks in a tank!" He then turned to me. "Suck it, Cate!"

"Okay," I said as I folded my arms. "Do you want to fix it?" as I pointed to the tank.

I could just feel his smirk. "I know what I can fix, Bow Chicka Bow Wow."

It was starting to think Church's last words were meaningful.

Well, my day got busier and well… it's not good yet not bad. I went to see if I could fix the tank to no avail. Caboose was cleaning Tucker's armor and Tucker was trying to get in contact with command.

"Come in Blue Command. This is Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha. Do you read me?" Tucker said as I was getting close. He then noticed me. "Hey, you fix the tank?"

"Yes," I said sarcastically. "I left it upside down."

"What? I thought you were mechanic?"

"Yeah," I said. "Look, one, that tank is upside down. Two, even I could get it to work. I have no idea what to do with the gun. You'll have an over glorified shield if you can lift the tank of course."

"Great," Tucker said. "We paid for a shitty mechanic."

"You don't pay me! I am your only shitty mechanic… forget that last part."

Before Tucker could respond, Caboose entered the conversation. "Okay, that is the last of it, your armor is clean now."

"Did you get all the black stuff off?" Tucker asked.

"This is Blue Command, come in Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha," the radio in our helmets were going off.

"Hello! Command! We need help," Tucker responded sounding relieved.

"Roger that, Blood Gulch, what is your request?"

"I don't know what the technical military term is for it, but uh, we're pretty fucked up down here. We need men!"

I had to stifle a laugh. That was not the right way to say it.

"Dude, how long have you guys been down there?"

"No, no no, naw," he said sounding a bit embarrassed. "it- not like that. we need more men to help us."

"Roger that. Did you get the tank we sent?"

"Yeah, that got blown up too and are mechanic sucks."

"Wow. Sucks to be you."

"Yeah, we know."

"Okay, here's what I can do. The nearest blue forces can be there in sixteen days, or I-"

"Sixteen days?!" Tucker interrupted. "That's almost two weeks!"

"Or I can hire a nearby freelancer and get him there within a few hours."

"I like 'in an hour' one," Caboose said joining in the cover.

"Ditto," I said.

"Yeah, me too," Tucker agreed. "Roger that Command, we prefer the quicker solution."

"10-4 Blood Gulch, we will contact freelancer Tex, and have him there post-haste. Command out."

"Yeah," Tucker said and turned to me. "Whoever he is, make sure he can actually fix a tank."

I simply flipped him off.

"What's a freelancer?" Caboose asked.

"Freelancers are independent," Tucker explained. "They're not red or blue. They're just guns for hire, who'll fight for whoever has the most money."

"Like a mercenary," Caboose said seeming to understand.

"Right. Or like your mom, when the rent's due."

We were just quiet. That was… I'm not going to lie it was kinda funny. But to hell, if I was going to admit that to Tucker.

"Oh, that's funny," Caboose complimented.

"Yeah, you didn't think that was too obvious?" Tucker asked.

"No no, no no, that was, that was good."

I turned I saw it and Caboose and Tucker did too. Some person in white armor faded in. "Tucker... Tuuuckerrr..." it moaned.

I… I was not thrilled. "Exorcist! Call it now!" I yelled.

"Who the hell are you?" Tucker just as freaked out as me.

"I am the ghost of Chuuuurch... and I've come back with a waaarniiing..." He moaned.

Caboose, on the other hand, "You're not Church," Caboose said almost amused. "Church is blue. You're white."

"Rookie, shut up, man. I'm a freakin' ghost! Have you ever seen a blue ghost before?" Church yelled.

Tucker then turned to me and Caboose. " Yeah, that's definitely him." He turned specifically to me. "Exorcist?"

I frowned. "Yeah, I don't do ghost and my uncle is on call…. I am not ashamed."

Church groaned. "Now I gotta start all over again." He cleared his voice went into his spooky voice again. "Tucker... Tuuuckerrr... I've come back with a waaarniiing..."

"Is it really necessary to do the voice?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, it's kinda annoying" Caboose agreed.

"Again, uncle on call," I mentioned.

Church sighed annoyed. "Fine. Okay, here's the deal. I've come back from the dead to give you a warning about Tex. Don't let – "

"What's the warning?" Caboose asked.

Church quickly turned to Caboose annoyed. "Shut up for one second, and I'll tell you."

Caboose lowered his head, "Oh, sorry."

"Seriously, man, I mean, I'm coming back from the great beyond here. You think this is easy? It's not. It's not like I just, you know just pop in and out whenever I feel like it, it takes a lot of concentration," Church… I'm just going to say it, whined.

"Sorry," Caboose repeated.

"I mean, it's bad enough that you killed me, to begin with, but now I come back, and I can't even get a word in edgewise, man." Church then took a deep breath. "Okay. Here's the deal."

"Is this the warning?" Caboose asked… he learned nothing.

"Alright, that's it," Church started. "I swear to God, Caboose, your ass is haunted. When we're done here, I'm gonna haunt you."

Tucker then turned to Caboose. "Yeah, you're even starting to bug me," he added.

"The story, already," I interjected.

"Okay," Church started again. "Tucker. You remember that I told you I was stationed on Sidewinder before they transferred me here to Blood Gulch, right?"

"No," Tucker responded.

"Sidewinder, isn't that the ice planet?" Caboose questioned.

"Yes," Church answered.

"Cool, what was that like?" Caboose asked excitedly.

"Um... it was cold."

" That's it? Just cold?" Caboose asked dejectedly.

"What do you want from me, a poem? It's a planet made entirely out of ice. It's really, fuckin', cold," Church responded.

"And it wasn't very nice," I added with a smirk.

Tucker groaned. "Would you just let him talk?"

Church sighed once more. "Alright, well, one day when I was there, everything was just like normal. I remember I was out on patrol with my partner Jimmy. That Jimmy was a real good kid, everybody liked him."

"Do you think I was a good kid Church?" Tucker asked almost innocent like.

"Tucker, don't get jealous man, just listen to the story, okay?" Church said before he continued. "Like I said, guys were hanging around, waitin' for some action, bitching about the cold…Anyway, Jimmy was in the middle of telling me all about this girlfriend he had back home. He was going marry her once he got back. And that's when Tex showed up. Private Mickey was the first to go. He was halfway across the base when all of a sudden, he just started screaming bloody murder. The whole thing was over before it even started. Poor Jimmy was the last one to go. Tex walked up to him, pulled Jimmy's skull right out of his head and beat him to death with it."

"Wait a second," Tucker interrupted. "How do you beat someone to death with their own skull? That doesn't seem physically possible."

"That's exactly what Jimmy kept screaming."

In my head, I was chuckling… dark I know, but now I have a guy getting beat up to death with his own skull screaming, 'This doesn't seem physically possible!' …. If I go… I hope and also don't hope that happens to me… what mixed dreams.

"Bottom line is these freelancers, they're bad news, and Tex is one of the worst," Church finished.

"Okay, badass comes kills everybody and even defies physics," I then looked at Church with a raised eyebrow…. though nobody could see it. "Why didn't he kill you?"

"To tell you I don't know why I'm not dead. Could've killed me at any point. But maybe it's because Tex and I have run into each other once before," Church answered… almost nostalgic.

"Where?" Tucker asked.

"You uh, you remember that girl I told you about back home? Well, let's just say that Tex is the real reason why we never got married." He soon started to look faded… even more than before. "Guys, I'm fading fast, and I don't know when I'll be back. Just listen to my warning: don't let Tex get involved here."

"Okay," Tucker responded.

"I mean it, Tucker. No fighting, no scouting, nothing. You'll regret it." Church faded out and he was gone… again.

Tucker then turned to the Caboose and me. "So, Tex and Church were after the same girl."

"I told you his girlfriend was a slut," Caboose interjected.

"I thought you said she was a cow?" I questioned. I then felt something shiver up my spine. I turned. There a small distance stood someone in back armor. He didn't even say anything, and I was already nervous. "Uh, guys. Freelancers here." I'm just glad resisted the urge to say trouble… he might have made my mixed dream come true.

A/N: I hope you enjoy! Check out my other stories and until next time, Bye-Nee!