33
Last Alarm
Chapter Thirty-Three
"The Heroic Death of "Mr. Cuddles"
As Written by Poynton90 and Firemanjim
Location: Tokonosu International Airport, "The Floating Airport"
Five miles off the Coast of Japan
Holding Room – Main Terminal – Airport Security Area - Sublevel Three
Date: Spring 2013
Time: Morning
Z-Day Plus Three
As Sgt. Rika Minami listened to the heartbreaking story being told to her by the man sitting handcuffed to the chair in front of her, a man who had once been a member of England's most elite warriors, and had also been her former instructor and mentor in anti-terrorist techniques just ten years prior, Rika could not help but be deeply saddened by the former SAS trooper's tale of his spiraling downward descent into his own private hell as the man continued with his story.
Even before she had even stepped into the small detention room, Rika had already realized while outside on the tarmac fighting side by side with her former mentor early that morning, that the man now sitting before her was nothing at all like the man she once remembered.
The normally cool, calm, sometimes overly strict, but always fair, combat professional that had kicked her ass so many years ago into the mud at the SAS training grounds at Hereford was gone.
Instead, the man that was now sitting here before her was an openly hostile, easily provoked, bitter, semi-paranoid, shell of his former self, and she had been completely shocked at the man's hostility towards her, and the rest of her fellow SAT.
And now as she listened intently to the former SAS commando as he described the tragedy that had befallen him after the already tragic death of his family, Rika now understood clearly why her former instructor had been so hostile towards her and her fellow officers.
"I doubt I would have been able to deal with all that he's been through and still want to keep on living, much less be sociable towards others." Rika thought to herself as she studied her former mentor's scarred face and searched for a small shred of evidence that anything remained of her former mentor and friend,…and saw no traces in him at all of his former self.
When she had first seen Andrew out on the airfield, her heart had flip-flopped at the sight of her former instructor, a man she had not seen since her platoon had left England during that especially rigorous training period that each platoon in the Japanese SAT had been sent to almost ten years ago.
A training period that she and some of her other fellow SAT had barely survived, much less actually passed the exceptionally grueling CQB course that none of its participants would soon ever forget.
Despite their previous experience in CQB techniques that each member of the SAT had already gone through at the JSDF Training Academy with the JSDF Special Forces Group, the training that the new SAT recruits received at Hereford had been brutal beyond description.
And by the end of it, Rika and her teammates had all experienced more pain and suffering as well as countless injuries in the two weeks that they were quartered at 22nd Regiment Headquarters, than most newly enlisted Military recruits would experience during their entire basic training in Boot Camp.
And while all of the SAT members left feeling much more confident in their capabilities as an anti-terror unit, every one of the SAT officers including Rika were more than happy to return to Japan when it was all over.
Lance Corporal Andrew Poynton had been an extremely tough, but fair instructor. He had shown no mercy when a person made a mistake, but like each of the instructors, his reasons for his strict way of instruction had been to solidify their ability to work as a team, and to think "outside of the box" to insure success of the mission, and most importantly, to keep each other alive.
And by the end of their training rotation, every member of the SAT had a healthy and sincere respect for their SAS instructors, especially Lance Corporal Andrew Poynton.
A respect that had not prevented Rika and Tajima from exacting revenge on him later however, with an exceptionally clever prank that later, when word of it got out, would quickly spread to all members of the Special Operations community all over the world, and before long, would become legendary at Hereford.
A relatively harmless prank amongst an instructor and his former students, that nearly ended up in the Japanese SAT almost never being allowed to set foot anywhere near Hereford ever again if the Commander of the SAS hadn't stepped in to smooth things over with Rika and Tajima's former Commander and Lance Corporal Poynton.
And later, much to Rika and Tajima's surprise, nearly two weeks following their "friendly prank" at Hereford, Col. Dempsey, the Commander of 22nd Regiment, as well as the men of RED and BLUE Troop had sent a special gift basket to the SAT office, with an open invitation to the SAT sniper team to return to England as "honored guests" whenever they wished.
An invitation that Rika and Tajima would not dare ever accept, as long as Lance Corporal Poynton was still serving as an instructor there.
At least in that respect, Rika was glad that the man in front of her had no recollection of her at all.
"Heaven help me if he realizes who the woman sitting in front of him is right now." Rika thought to herself as she squirmed slightly in her chair, the unease she felt in being locked in the same room with her former instructor beginning to build.
"I'm going to kill you for this later Tajima, you asshole." Rika grumbled under her breath as she thought about how Tajima had easily won eight out of ten rounds of "Junken Pow" outside in the hallway, thus forcing Rika to be the one to attempt to be the one to make contact with their former SAS instructor, much to Tajima's relief.
"But of course instead of dying out there in the battlefield like a true soldier should have, I woke up several weeks later back in Hereford at the base hospital." The former SAS commando continued as Rika's thoughts of getting revenge on her partner were interrupted.
"And after many more months of physical therapy, and a lot of double-talk, I was finally kicked out of the hospital and then out of The Regiment, on my arse." Andrew added.
"And now here I am." He then said with a shrug. "Sitting here in this nice cozy little room after being tased repeatedly, locked up and interrogated by you chaps that truly expect me to believe that you were once my friends."
"Many thanks for your hospitality." Andrew said sarcastically as he leaned back in his chair as Rika stared at him blankly as if in complete astonishment, after he had finished speaking.
And as Andrew studied her face, even he had to admit to himself that his story had been a little "dark" the way he had explained it to her, which he believed was the reason for her shocked reaction as she stared at him silently.
"Not to mention my sarcasm." Andrew thought as Rika seemed to be gathering her thoughts on how to reply to him as time seemed to drag on without her responding.
"I have to admit, every time I look in a mirror and see the reflection staring back at me, I can't help but see the same look on my face that this SAT woman is giving me now." Andrew thought as he waited for Rika to speak.
"And then I ask myself the same f_cking question every day,…." He added.
"How the hell did I survive that impact, anyway?"
"The force alone from the door being blown off from the Rover should have killed me immediately on impact with my head not to mention the blast of the buried IED in my opinion."
"But then again, I'm no doctor, although Jim may have been able to shed some light on the situation if I'd asked him".
"Maybe if he's still alive I'll ask him one day if I can ever find him again after all this is over."
Andrew's private thoughts were interrupted as he noticed the SAT sergeant sitting in front of him, suddenly balling her hands up into fists as her body began shaking as if in anger.
"Oh balls, this doesn't look good." Andrew thought to himself as it looked like the SAT woman was about to explode and punch him in the face or something as he watched the anger building up inside of her.
"So, you don't remember me or Tajima-San?" Rika asked abruptly in an angry voice.
"Whoa, what the f_ck's brought this on?" Andrew thought as he gazed into Rika's angry face and thought about making a joke just to ease the tension, but then thought it best just to answer her truthfully without giving her any more reason to get any more pissed off at him than necessary.
"No, sorry darlin' but I really can't say that I remember you at all." Andrew replied apologetically with a heavy sigh as he looked her directly in the face.
"The doctor who treated me said I might end up with minor brain damage or something like that, but I really can't remember you, sorry ducky." Andrew replied honestly as he looked down at his hands, and then noticed the small puncture marks on his shirt from the taser prongs fired at him earlier.
"Bollocks, this was my best shirt too, for f_cks sakes." Andrew grumbled to himself at the sight of the ruined shirt.
"Ah well, at least I got some more shirts in my pack if I'm allowed to get to them I hope." Andrew thought and then looked up as he heard the sound of Rika Minami moving her chair back and then standing up and turning as if to leave.
And as he watched her move towards the door, Rika raised her hand to knock on the door but then stopped herself and then turned to look back at him and almost smiled.
"All those things you did in Ireland, do you regret any of it, Andrew-san?" Rika asked quietly, almost as if she were afraid of what his answer might be.
Andrew gazed up at her curiously and then pondered her words for a long hard moment, before finally giving his answer.
"No, not at all, love." Andrew replied with all sincerity. "Those people I killed deserved what they got."
"And I have no regrets." Andrew said with no emotion in his voice.
Rika frowned slightly as she listened to Andrew's reply, her face betraying exactly how troubled she was at his answer, Andrew noticed as he smiled slightly.
"By the way, you kept saying that you met me in, what was it, 2003?" Andrew then asked Rika, as she nodded in response, her hand still resting on the doorknob.
"Well, this isn't an easy subject to talk about,…." Andrew began.
"And why I'm even talking about it at all to her is beyond me." He thought to himself.
"But I do have to admit, right after the death of my family, I kind of went "off the rails" so to speak, and my actions in the field became more forceful, and more violent, and more reckless." Andrew continued.
"And so I killed any and all terrorists that got in my way without remorse or any compassion or fear of anything happening to me, which really is not the normal way we do things in the SAS you understand." Andrew admitted as Rika raised her eyebrows at his words.
"At least, not most of the time." Andrew said with a smirk.
"What do you mean, "Most of the time?" Rika asked, growing curious.
"Have you ever heard of "The Increment" before?" Andrew suddenly asked Rika as he noticed her looking at him curiously, probably wondering what he was about to ramble on about now.
"No. I'm afraid I haven't." Rika replied softly. "Do you wish to tell me about it?"
"The Increment" was a section of the British SAS that can trace its routes back to the sixties,…" Andrew began as Rika listened to him intensely, following his every word, hoping against hope that her former instructor was beginning to regain parts of his memory.
And also intentionally keeping her hand on the doorknob in order to beat a hasty retreat if he suddenly did remember who she really was.
"We dealt specifically with assassinations, murders, terrorist training, and guerrilla warfare. Anyone who was a so called "Freedom Fighter" we happily trained and sent them on their way, as long as the higher ups gave their approval."
"Really?" Rika replied, seemingly unimpressed, believing that the former SAS commando was just stalling now and wasting her time.
"And you were an operator involved in all that too, I suppose?" Rika asked, sounding almost bored.
"Who do you think it was who trained the Mujahedeen against the Russians in the eighties?" Andrew asked her with a smile as she gaped at him in surprise, realizing that he really wasn't joking.
"Of course, that operation was a bit before my time, but "The Increment" did help the Afghans out a lot." Andrew said with a large shit-eating grin before he let the grin slip from his face as he turned to face Rika, noticing her bored expression.
"Listen Sergeant, I have nothing against you or your officers, but I haven't done anything wrong, and all of you know that." Andrew then said, his voice no longer being friendly.
"On top of that, I also saved you're arses out there instead of leaving you to rot, so I do believe I'm owed a little something in return for that, which in my case, I'll settle for you letting me go and giving me back my f_cking equipment and my flight out of here, thank you very much!" Andrew said hotly.
"Or, you could take the alternative." Rika said calmly after a moment of hard silence, as she walked away from the door and then placed both of her hands on the table in front of the handcuffed prisoner.
"Alright love, not that I'm really all that interested,….." Andrew said curiously as the Rika stared at him with a strange look on her face. "But what's "the alternative"?"
"Your cooperation, of course." Rika replied without batting an eye.
"Give me your full and complete cooperation, and I'll let you out of your restraints as long as you agree to help us out." Rika said as she waited eagerly for Andrew's reply.
"Help you out with what, love?" Andrew said with an evil smirk. "You're going to tell me a big girl like you needs a bodyguard?"
"Hardly." Rika retorted growing frustrated with Andrew's mental games.
"But with a few hundred helpless civilians and only a handful of us to protect them, we are in dire need of help here, and we won't be getting any reinforcements anytime soon from the outside." Rika explained.
"So, I'm asking you up front Andrew-san, will you help us?" Rika asked as she looked into the man's face who stared back at her with an aloof smile.
"Hmm, no,.." Andrew said with a chuckle. "That ship has sailed, love."
"What do you mean by that?" Rika asked, her eyes beginning to burn with anger at his response.
"If all you wanted was my help, then you should have just said so instead of tasering me last night." Andrew answered with a scowl. "I would have come willingly, then."
"But all of you f_cked that up pretty spot on didn't cha'"? Andrew added as Rika tried to calm herself despite the fact she wanted to punch the man's light's out.
"Andrew, please we're sorry about that, but we really do need you, please" Rika said apologetically, her eyes no longer burning with anger, but now almost pleading.
"'We", or "You", love?" Andrew replied with a scornful laugh.
"If you're making a "special offer" to me, I must say, it's rather tempting. Been awhile since a woman and I had a go at "it". Andrew said with a malevolent grin as Rika gasped in shock at his words.
"Oh yeah I can play this game, too bitch." Andrew thought enjoying how Rika had responded to his toying with her.
But instead of her responding with a shout of rage or sarcasm, as he had expected, Andrew was then surprised at what the SAT sergeant did next as he received a rather large resounding slap across the face instead with the blow feeling like the force of a sledgehammer.
"OW! SON OF A BITCH!" Andrew muttered angrily after receiving the slap as he actually felt as if his brain had shifted in his skull from the blow.
"BLOODY HELL!" He thought to himself as he blinked his one good eye as it began to tear.
"Did she just knock out my other eye?!" Andrew thought blinking the tears out of his remaining orb as he tried to focus, and then upon regaining his vision, began to laugh as he saw Rika spin around and begin to angrily storm towards the door and from the room, completely pissed off at him.
"Sorry love, that slap sure rattled my brain, but I still don't remember you." Andrew said with a laugh despite his pain as Rika spun around and glared back at him.
"Oh you'll remember me soon enough Andrew-San, VERY soon!" Rika said angrily, putting emphasis on the word "Soon" as she turned her attention back towards the door.
"Oh f_ck me, what does she mean by that?" Andrew thought to himself nervously as Rika pounded angrily on the door.
And as the door opened from the outside, Rika turned around to face Andrew once more as an evil smile formed on her face for a moment before she disappeared through the doorway and the door was slammed shut behind her and then Andrew heard a loud "click" as the door was locked from the outside.
"Oh balls, what have I done now?" The former SAS trooper thought growing nervous, as the room went dark again and Andrew was left all alone again, totally enveloped by darkness.
The Police Chief in charge of the Airport Police Hideki Nagano, sighed heavily as he watched the live video feed of the prisoner sitting in the dark on the video monitor in the adjacent room.
Standing next to him and also watching the monitor as well, Rika's partner Corporal Tajima also grunted in frustration as he watched the ghostly image of their prisoner through the IR camera sitting alone in the dark, after watching Rika's failure to jog the memory of their former Instructor.
The holding room at Tokonosu Airport Security was unlike the normal interrogation rooms found in regular Police precincts.
Its design had not been for Police interrogation purposes, but rather, was merely for detaining unruly passengers prior to their transport off the island by the Tokonosu City Police to a normal jail cell on the Mainland, and as a result, there was no two-way mirror built in to watch the detainees with.
Instead the room was sound-proofed so that the detainee's screams of rage would be muffled so as not to alarm any of the other passengers above ground.
And as such, any view of the prisoners was therefore limited to the cameras installed in the small detention room that were connected to the video monitors installed in the adjacent room as the Police Chief and Tajima watched Sgt. Rika Minami trying in vain, to "flip" their prisoner.
"Good try, Sgt. Minami." Chief Nagano said as Rika closed the door behind her and stood in front of the Chief, her head hanging slightly in defeat.
"I'm sorry, sir." Rika said apologetically as the Chief raised his hand to silence her.
"Not your fault Sergeant, you did everything you could." The Police Chief replied with a slight smirk. "This man was trained to be able to defeat interrogation methods one hundred times worse than anything we could think of,…legally."
"So don't be too hard on yourself, Sergeant." Nagano added.
"It is a shame though, really." Nagano thought to himself as he sighed once again and crossed his arms in deep thought.
"A person of this man's skill would truly have proven a valuable asset in our current situation right now if Sgt. Minami and Cpl. Tajima had been successful in their task of bringing him back, that is." Nagano thought to himself as he watched the prisoner staring blankly into space on the video monitor.
As things stood however, the former SAS operator only considered the Airport Police as his captors, and himself as their prisoner.
And because of that, Nagano knew that the former SAS commando would no doubt attempt another escape as soon as an opening presented itself.
The risk of their prisoner escaping their custody was just too great to release the man and allow him to be roaming free around the airport which he had already proven to be a serious hindrance to their operations before he had been taken in and restrained.
The man was just too great a security risk, period.
And the thought of their prisoner with his background and level of training running around free scared Chief Nagano more so than the hundreds of Infected that had somehow continued to infest the entire airport, and seemed to be growing in even greater numbers every day without letup, as more victims fell to their onslaught.
With all that on his mind, having one of the infamous "Boys from Hereford" locked up in the middle of his Command Center in the middle of a losing battle did not suit the Police Chief very well at all.
In his current state of mind, the former SAS commando was a ticking time bomb that Nagano simply did not need.
"Dammit." The Police Chief swore as Rika glanced at Tajima who met her eye and then with his eyes widening in comprehension, shook his head "No".
Noticing the look between the sniper team, Chief Nagano frowned as he stared at his two officers.
"What?" Nagano said gruffly as the two snipers cast nervous glances at each other once again and then sighed heavily, each of them extremely hesitant to answer the Chief's question right away.
"What is it you two? Speak up!" The Police Chief barked, irritated by their hesitation as well as puzzled by their behavior.
"Well sir, there is this one thing we haven't tried, but,..." Rika said letting her voice trail off.
"Well, what is it?" Chief Nagano repeated, his voice going up an octave as he began to grow even more irritated at the reluctance of his sniper team to answer him quickly.
"Excuse me sir,…." Tajima began as Rika seemed preoccupied with staring at the floor.
"What Sgt. Minami is about to suggest is actually very dangerous, sir." Tajima replied, his brow beginning to sweat as Rika avoided the Police Chief's gaze, her face turning pale.
"Well what is it? C'mon man, out with it already!" Chief Nagano snapped, losing patience.
"Well sir, where you ever told by the previous Police Chief about the time he sent "Bravo" Platoon to Hereford at the invitation of the Commander of the British SAS for advanced CQB training?" Tajima began as Police Chief Nagano watched Rika looking like she was about to be sick.
"Yes, I remember him vaguely mentioning something about that." Chief Nagano replied.
"I also remember him saying that some members of a certain "RED Troop", I believe it was, sent you two a gift basket, and also gave my predecessor a bottle of exceptionally fine scotch and a card saying that you two were welcome back any time, after you both returned from England."
"Which by the way, did struck me as rather odd because I've never known in all my career of any organization that ever received such high praise from the SAS before, and I don't believe your former Chief ever did explain what it was exactly that you two did to warrant such high praise or an open invitation like that." Nagano said, growing suspicious as Tajima also began staring down at the floor the same as Rika, as both officers' faces started to turn beet red.
"Must have been one hell of a scandal if these two are that unwilling to talk about it, after all this time." Nagano deduced by their silence as he shook his head in disgust.
"All right, you two,….!" Chief Nagano snapped finally losing patience. "I don't care what it is you've done, or what it is you have to do again. But unless that man can remember who he is, and start to realize that he is better off helping us instead of fighting us, he is still very much a threat to us all."
"So whatever scheme you two have up your sleeves that will help us. GET IT DONE!" Nagano snapped, his demeanor clearly showing that he was in no mood to hear of any more failure.
The two SAT snipers immediately snapped to attention, and then after saluting, then quickly disappeared through the door and quickly headed down the hallway towards the SAT dorm rooms.
And then after a brief period of time, the two officers returned, with Corporal Tajima holding a small square-shaped object in his hands with a towel draped over it as Nagano looked at them with a puzzled expression, curious as to what it was that Tajima kept concealed under the towel.
But then what really caused Chief Nagano to be concerned however, was not the object that Tajima held in his hands, but the strange looks on the faces of the two officers as they approached him.
The normally calm, reserved, SAT sniper team looked absolutely petrified.
Nagano was suddenly now very alarmed at the sudden change in the appearance of the two snipers who had until now, proven to be two of the most courageous people he had ever known.
And seeing them this way began to unsettle, even him.
"What the hell did those two do over there in England to this man that has them scared shitless now?" Police Chief Nagano wondered as they walked up to him.
Nagano was just about to stop the two officers and demand to know what it was that could possibly be causing the sniper team to react with such fear, when he suddenly stopped himself.
And then once again, Police Chief Nagano closed his eyes and shook his head.
"No, I'd better not ask. It's probably better that I don't know." Nagano thought to himself as he looked into the frightened eyes of his two officers.
"Sir,…..?" Rika said nervously, taking Nagano's attention away from his thoughts. "We're ready."
"Very well, proceed, Sergeant." Chief Nagano ordered, waving his hand towards the door of the detention room.
"Before we go in, sir." Rika began, her voice unmistakably shaky. "I must ask you to please stand near the door, and for heaven's sake, please do not to lock the door behind us."
"And sir,… Rika continued before Nagano could protest. "No matter what you may hear, please do not let anyone come in. We may have to come out pretty fast and we don't want to be stumbling over anyone in the process."
Nagano frowned at Rika's words for a moment as he looked directly into Rika's face, studying her closely.
The Sergeant was obviously not joking in the slightest as far as Chief Nagano could tell, which greatly troubled him already, but what was even more disturbing was what the Sergeant was asking of him now, which was completely against regulations.
The door to the Detention Room was always immediately locked when someone entered the room for safety reasons so that obviously if the prisoner should break free, there would be no way for him to escape.
Leaving the door unlocked intentionally, was a serious security risk, and was considered unthinkable under normal circumstances.
However, the Police Chief reasoned, the prisoner SAS or not, had been thoroughly searched, and as an extra precaution, had also been handcuffed to the chair.
And seeing as how they were running out of time with the Infected turning up around every corner, as much as he was dead set against the idea, Nagano reluctantly agreed.
"Fine." He growled, as he placed his hand over his forehead and massaged his temples. "Just get it done."
Rika and Tajima once again passed nervous glances at each other, and then nodded as they both took a deep breath, steeling themselves for what was to come as they turned away from Chief Nagano and after turning on the lights inside the detention room and unlocking the door, then opened the door and walked quietly through the doorway into the detention room.
The Police Chief frowned as the two SAT snipers disappeared through the doorway and closed the door behind them as he shook his head in frustration again and then focused his attention down the hallway towards the rest of his staff who were busy moving weapons and equipment to the upper levels.
It had already been determined that the Infected had been coming from the Mainland through the maintenance tunnels running underneath the bay to the Airport.
And despite their best efforts, the Airport Police were steadily losing ground against the sheer numbers of Infected still roaming around the tarmac and popping up in some parts of the Main Terminal, despite their efforts to contain the spread.
Despite the fact that one of the entranceways of the tunnel had been closed by the SAS commando setting off an explosion and sealing the tunnel on their end, there were still too many other access ways and far too few officers left to try to seal them all, and the situation was growing more desperate by the hour
And unless help came and the tide could be turned, it was only a matter of time before the Main Terminal itself fell, Nagano thought as he watched his men at work.
"This scheme of theirs had better work." He thought to himself. "Otherwise this man is no use to us and is going to be left behind if this section is breached."
"Wait a minute." Nagano suddenly thought to himself. "The man is handcuffed to a chair. Why the hell did Minami say they might need to exit the room fast?"
And then as if to answer his question, an extremely loud roar erupted from the supposedly sound-proofed room, startling the Police Chief.
The roar was then followed by a succession of loud thuds as if something were striking against the walls of the detention room, which was then followed by the sounds of muffled yells and a woman's scream.
Shocked at the apparent violence going on in the detention room, Chief Nagano spun around and was reaching for the door handle when the door suddenly burst open and the two SAT snipers dove through the doorway, followed by the chair that the prisoner had been seated in, flying over their heads and crashing against the far wall.
"I"M GOING TO KILL YOU BAST_...!" The Police Chief heard the prisoner roar, as Tajima kicked the door shut preventing Nagano from hearing the rest of the prisoner's angry tirade as Tajima and Rika then slammed their bodies against the door.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Nagano shouted as something very powerful then crashed against the other side of the door shoving the two officers forward, as they then slammed their bodies against the door once again, forcing it closed with the weight of their bodies.
"CHIEF! LOCK THE DOOR! HURRY!" Rika shrieked, the panic in her voice unmistakable.
Nagano hesitated for a split second before he then snapped out of his shock and then tried to fumble for the door keys in his pocket.
And just as he found them, the door was once again struck by a terrifyingly strong force on the other side, jolting the two SAT officers forward from the force of the impact before they slammed their bodies against the door once more.
"CHIEF! HURRY!" The two snipers screamed in fear, as the Nagano finally managed to fumble the keys out of his pocket and hurriedly locked the door as it was repeatedly being pounded on from the other side but surprisingly did not give, as the three officers breathed a sigh of relief as they scrambled away from the door.
Nagano then gazed down upon his two officers and then shook his head in frustration as he observed his two officers who looked like they'd been ravaged by an angry lion.
Tajima's face was already swelling up, with blood coming out of the corner of his mouth from a broken lip, while Rika had suffered a bloody nose, with her hair which was usually neatly tied in a pony-tail, was now disheveled and a complete mess.
"Sorry about "Mr. Cuddles", Tajima-kun." Rika said gasping for air as she looked over at her partner and patted his shoulder.
Tajima didn't reply to Rika however, as it seemed to Chief Nagano that the man was about to faint.
"So,….I'm assuming that whatever it was you two tried to do didn't work, am I correct?" Nagano sighed in resignation again, staring at his two badly beaten officers.
"On the contrary, sir." Rika replied, between gasps of air.
"It worked perfectly." Rika added as Nagano watched Tajima finally pass out and his head hit the floor with a thud, as something big once again slammed against the door with a crash.
"He knows exactly who we are, now." Rika said with a weak smile.
Author's Notes:
Finished this chapter early, and since everyone here in America is killing themselves to go to the grocery store or prepare for "Black Friday", I went ahead and posted this chapter today instead of the 27th.
You may have noticed that this is a smaller chapter than most of the other chapters I've posted, well this chapter was originally part of Chapter 32 written by Poynton90 with the "Mr. Cuddles" scene written by me.
Because Chapter 32 was a pretty big enough chapter as it was, I decided to hold this part over till now.
I also did it mostly because after all the drama that has happened in most of the chapters all of you have read already, I wanted to make this part a little more "upbeat", hence the wacky way Andrew's memory was restored as well as the silly title to this chapter which sounded a lot better to me than "Ghosts of the Past-Part Two."
As we were discussing the Airport arc and the battles that were to follow for Andrew, Rika, and the survivors at "The Floating Airport", I had discussed with Poynton90, that instead of Andrew's memory lapse becoming too much of a serious issue during the chaos that's about to happen as The Infected overrun the Main Terminal, I suggested that perhaps Rika should make Andrew go through a type of "shock therapy" instead of dragging out his amnesia for several chapters.
Also, I suggested that perhaps when the time came for Rika to make that attempt to jog Andrew's memory of her, that perhaps something more hilarious could be done instead of a dramatic one, which would be a nice change from the norm.
Hence, we came up with, "The Mr. Cuddles" scene based on "Andrew's" fear of spiders.
Like I've said before, I poke fun at myself all the time in my fanfic, and despite how courageous we all try to be under fire, all of us in Police, Fire and the Military, including myself, all have our own phobias.
(Mine is heights actually, which is why I'm glad I'm not on a Ladder Company)
And that being the case, I figured having Andrew, a former SAS commando, freaking out about spiders wasn't that far off the wall.
The actual idea for the "Mr. Cuddles" scene was based on an experience I had as I sat in a Paramedic Class at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio to get the required hours I needed for recertification as a Paramedic.
As a Paramedic, we are required to renew our certification every four years, and the only way to do it back then was to attend actual classes, which obviously, was way before the days of online classes.
Anyway, the class I attended to get my hours was the daytime Paramedic class, which at the time, was being attended by a large group of Green Berets that were also being trained in combat medical techniques at nearby Fort Sam Houston.
One thing I had noticed about those young men back then, was that although they were extremely professional when it came time to get down to business, during their free time those guys were just as bad as we firemen when it came to practical jokes.
Having Andrew being pranked upon by Rika and Tajima, and then having the both of them trying to jog Andrew's memory by pulling the same prank again was inspired by that experience I had sitting in the class with that crazy bunch of "Green Beanies."
The character of "Mr. Cuddles" himself however, is a nod towards a certain online comic a friend steered me towards a couple years back. And to this day, I still find it quite hilarious.
While I was never all that big a fan of the anthromorphic comic world, I did really get a kick out of this particular series, although I wish that the creators of it would hurry and update soon.
Formerly called "Catena Manor" by DeBray and Tracy Bailey, the character of "Mr. Cuddles" was a pet tarantula owned by one of the tenants of "Catena Manor" named Buddy.
What made the character hilarious besides his name, was the fact that "Mr. Cuddles" was always plotting something towards world domination, even though in the hands of the female tenants he was,…..for lack of a better term,… "a pussycat".
Anyway, the newly re-named comic "Catena Café" still has the character of "Mr. Cuddles", although he is now a stuffed doll instead of a real tarantula owned by a female tenant named Treiss.
So now you know who "Mr. Cuddles" is, or in the case of my fanfic,…..was.
Then again, I have a feeling "Mr. Cuddles", is a lot more resilient than Rika gives him credit for.
And I don't think Andrew's encounter with him is quite over yet, regardless of the title of this chapter.
Anyway, please check out "Catena Café" when you get a chance, you'll get a kick out of it.
And for all of you fans out there of my fanfic,….
Thanks again as always for your support!