【Chapter 3: Crates / Traces】
Robert's bullets were chaotic as he shot indiscriminately. The pure rage Marc could feel in every bulletーit was different from the Robert he knew until now.
"Hahahahaha!" Robert laughed as he continued shooting, sounding much more like the crazed Wild Dog than a VSSE agent.
"He's not giving us a chance to fight back!" Marc said to Keith, tense, barely squeezing in behind cover with him and the chief.
Robert's relentless bullets broke through the crates that some of the less fortunate agents used as cover, taking them out. "Whoa!" Luke cried out in panic as he hurriedly pushed Catherine behind the neighboring crates and shielded her. Robert was aiming for them next.
"Luke!" Marc called out with worry as one of the crates broke. Keith grit his teeth in anger, quickly forming a plan in his mind.
"Marc, give me your grenade gun!" He ordered.
"Huh?!" Before Marc could react, Keith grabbed the grenade gun off his belt and took off with it into the bullet rain.
"Keith!" Marc shouted in disbelief at the suicidal action. Spotting Keith, Robert directed his attention at him.
"KEITH!" Robert yelled at the top of his lungs, "I've always hated you for being in my way! Why won't you just DIE?!"
Maneuvering across the roof like the skilled professional he was, Keith dodged as many bullets as possible, but he could only do so much against the firing speed of a machine gun. Ignoring the piercing pain that spread through his arms and torso, he pushed on forward with abandon. Once close enough to Robert's chopper, Keith raised his arm and pointed his grenade gun at his ex-partner, glaring with all the pain he felt from Robert's betrayal.
'This is for Christy.'
"!" Robert gasped in surprise as Keith pulled the trigger, the grenade heading straight for him. Marc winced as the chopper exploded and came spinning down, before crashing on the roof of the neighboring building and exploding again. Keith dropped to the ground.
"Keith!" Catherine shouted, jumping out of her cover and running to him. Luke and Marc followed suit.
"Oh my god, no!" She exclaimed as she pulled the heavily breathing and bleeding Keith onto her lap. "Keith...! What should we do?!"
Luke and Marc, equally terrified, looked around as though one of the other agents might have an answer. Then the chief stepped in.
"We grabbed some first aid kits earlier while we were trying to escape the building. And some of us here are medics. We'll take care of him," he offered.
"OH! So grateful to hear that! Thanks, Chief!" Luke replied gladly.
"But what about Robert?" Marc asked, looking towards the burning chopper wreckage with Luke. It was then that they saw a figure climb out of the mess.
"Robert!" They exclaimed in unison.
Robert seemed to be wounded, but otherwise, he was alive and well. Noticing that the agents saw him, he hurriedly grabbed his rocket launcher and climbed out of the wreckage, running away towards the neighboring rooftop.
"He's getting away!" Luke ran after him by reflex.
"Luke!" Marc shouted, worried about his partner who just ran without thinking.
"We need to stop him quickly," the chief warned, "Or else he'll just call more of Wild Dog's men and ambush us again. Then we'll be finished!"
Luke grit his teeth and nodded. This was probably their last chance of stopping Robert. Leaving Keith in Catherine's care, he quickly ran after Luke.
As Luke and Marc chased Robert across New York's rooftops, several more of Wild Dog's men showed up on the way to stop them.
Luke and Marc quickly dispatched them and continued the chase. Known as the two fastest agents in the entire VSSE, they quickly closed the gap between themselves and Robert.
"You're not getting away this time, Robert!" Luke shouted, shooting at him once he was close enough.
"Tch!" Robert glared back at him. Having the rookies he fooled be the ones to kill himーfate must be trying to play some sick joke. Still, Robert knew how inhumanly fast these two could run, so he wasn't going to test his luck and try to outrun them with all his wounds. Arriving on the rooftop of a department store, he quickly busted the rooftop door open with his rocket launcher, before running into it.
Luke and Marc followed Robert inside, running down the stairs and arriving on the department store's top floorーthe furnitures section.
"Robert!" Luke yelled.
Marc looked around. There were no traces of the man, but a loud, monstrous growl was suddenly heard from behind the furnitures. A figure jumped out at Luke and Marc shot it down. More figures showed up from around the corner, attracted by the noise.
"Zombified civilians!" He exclaimed.
"Dammit!" Luke cursed as he helped Marc take them down.
The drug negating all pain and fear, the way the zombies attacked made it hard for Marc to think that these were just civilians. They all fought tooth and nail as though they were desperate soldiers defending their country on the brink of defeat. He felt even more unsettled at how there was nothing in their eyes aside from the wish to kill everything that moved, continuing to fight even after losing their limbs or having over ten bullets in their chests.
Luke and Marc panted in exhaustion after finally clearing the giant horde that came after them.
"You okay?" Marc asked Luke.
"Yeah," Luke said, "That was crazy, though! Sir Chief'd better pay us LOTS of bonuses for overworking us!"
Marc laughed. He was just glad that his friend was alright. He was just about to ask Luke to continue searching for Robert, when he saw the man himself standing a little behind Luke, pointing his rocket launcher at him. Marc's eyes widened in horror.
"LUKE! NO!" Marc shouted, but he was too late.
"Huh?!" Luke turned, just in time to see Robert shoot his rocket launcher right at him.
A huge explosion. The floor in front of Marc crumbled. A deafening crash shook the entire building as a giant puff of smoke and dust rose from the gaping hole.
"LUUUKE!" Marc shouted, looking down into the abyss, "Luke! Answer me!"
No response. He couldn't see anything down there with all the smoke. He began to panic. Robert laughed.
"There's no way he could have survived that one! Now, it's your turn!" He said, readying the rocket launcher again. However, Robert soon realized that he was out of ammunition.
"Tch!" He threw the now useless weapon aside, grabbing his handgun and shooting at Marc. Marc dodged the hail of bullets. Robert turned tail and ran away again, heading further into the building.
"Luke!" Marc called weakly one last time, hoping for any form of response.
None came.
"Luke..."
A heavy feeling built up in Marc's chest as he swallowed, trying his best to pull himself together. He shouldn't let everything go to waste. Tightening his grip on his gun, he ran after Robert.