Oh my god, you guys. Shit is going to get real.
I wanna let you know that this story is almost over. But, I've already started with the follow up.
It will be a new story on the site, but it will continue the storyline from Waiting For The End. Also with the same characters. And new one's!
I just wanted to start something new and that's why I am taking drastic measures. I can only hope you guys are okay with this.
Chapter thirty one
That night, the whole group sat together in the cafeteria. Vinnie insisted to go with Violet, even the nurses didn't allow it. But Vinnie wouldn't be Vinnie if he just did what he was told. So, he took some extra painkillers and left his room anyway. And there he was, sitting next to Violet, holding her hand like nothing had happened.
Modo and Gaya were by the looks of things finally a item. They were sitting next to each other and had both the same happy expression on their face. They couldn't keep their eyes off each other and were both smiling like they knew something nobody else knew. Ahhh, fresh love.
Throttle and Carbine weren't that physical touchy in public, but there was something different in how they acted around each other. More relaxed. Carbine even smiled from time to time. Stoker and Jake were sitting between all those lovebirds. They didn't care though. They were happy for them.
Throttle cleared his throat.
"Before we start dinner, I want to tell you guys something." His voice sounded different. A little shaky. Vinnie and Modo exchanged looks and Vinnie's lips were curling into a smile. He didn't had a clue what Throttle was about to say, but he knew this was going to be good. Modo gave him a warning gaze. He knew Vinnie. Always took any opportunity to crack jokes and make people feeling embarrassed. Vinnie wiggled his eyebrows (well, his left eyebrow, since his face was still covered in the bandage) but said nothing.
Throttle looked nervous around the group. "Ahum… yeah… well… actually… WE need to tell you something." He grabbed Carbine's hand.
"Oh puhlease, don't tell me your preg…" Vinnie started, but Violet slammed her hand over his mouth, smiling innocently.
"Please, continue!", she said. Vinnie glared at her.
"Well, we wanted to let you know that we are engaged!", Throttle said, smiling at Carbine who smiled back.
Everybody cheered and whooped and congratulated the happy couple.
"About time!", Modo rumbled.
Vinnie smiled. "Oooh, I have such a great story to tell on your wedding! Something about what happened in Carbine's office when I walked in…" and he laughed out loud.
Normally, Throttle would punch him, but because of his wounds, he didn't. He noticed he didn't even care that Vinnie was being Vinnie. He was just happy Vinnie was here, alive and well.
Carbine growled. "Don't you dare, Vincent!"
Vinnie laughed. "Congrats you two lovebirds. Like Modo said, it's about time. And I am always ready to party!"
The girls wanted all the mushy details.
"So tell us Carbine, how did he pop the question? Was it romantic?", Violet asked.
Carbine smiled. "Well, not really. But that's okay, because I am not that romance type of girl. So, he asked this morning in bed. Even gave me a ring!" and she waved with her hand. It was a simple, but beautiful ring with a small, red diamond in it.
"Wow, it's beautiful", Violet purred. Gaya agreed. The men nodded and mumbled something. Carbine smiled. Men…
The rest of the evening went on quit. Throttle took Modo and Vinnie aside and informed them about Flint. Vinnie couldn't believe his oversized ears.
"So you are saying this was all his fault?", he asked, pointing at his body and face. Throttle nodded.
"Where is he? I'm going to kill him!", Vinnie said, standing up. But then his face twisted. He sat down again.
"Okay, okay. I know. Wounded, need rest, blablabla…"
Modo laughed. "Oh momma, you are finally learning!"
Vinnie glared at him. "Just wait till I'm healed."
Throttle stopped them before things were getting out of hand. It always ended with broken furniture.
"Bro's, come on. Listen. We have Flint on our side now. We forced him to it. So maybe we can get a hold on their plans."
Vinnie slammed his fist in his hand. "Ah men, I can't wait to be back on my feet again. Then it's payback time!"
Modo and Throttle smiled. Yep. Their bro was back. Thanks to Violet. She had told them what had happened this morning. They all had faith that their youngest bro will bounce back on his feet again.
"Yo, Modo! When were you gonna tell us that you have find yourself a nice girl, heah?", Vinnie asked. It immediately had the effect Vinnie was hoping for. Modo's blush was clearly visible under his grey fur.
"Yeah well… A lot of things were happening at the same time. But yeah, I did have found myself a nice girl." He smiled while looking at Gaya.
Vinnie snickered. "I'm happy for you, bro."
"Well thanks Vinnie, that's really nice of you to say."
They chatted for a while about their glory days on Earth and other stuff. They were interrupted when Violet walked over to them.
"Vinnie, let's get you to bed. The nurses are gonna kill me if you come back after midnight."
Vinnie smiled. "That's my que. Later bro's!" And he walked with Violet back to the medic room. The rest of the group followed them a few minutes later, all tired from all the stress of the events from the last days.
The next day, Throttle and Carbine were sitting opposite Flint again. Flint looked like shit, after two days without water and food. They had gave him some water, otherwise his voice could maybe give away that there was something wrong. Throttle wanted to avoid that this Hercules guy was gonna suspect something.
"Okay, Flint. Listen carefully. You are gonna tell the Plutarkians that we have destroyed the virus. Then we will see what they got to say about that. If you tell them something, or give them some sort of sign to let them know we got you, you're dead. You got that?"
Flint looked very unhappy, but nodded. "Yes, I understand…"
Carbine gave him the radio that they had found in his pocket the day they had captured him. "Go ahead, do your thing."
Flint took the radio with shaking hands. He glared one more time at Throttle and Carbine and cleared his throat. He brought the radio to his mouth.
"Blackshadow for Hercules, over."
There was a silence, then the radio crackled.
"Hercules for Blackshadow. Have you find anything? Over."
Flint swallowed. It was important that his voice was gonna sound confident.
"Yeah, bad news. The mice have destroyed the virus. It's gone, sir. Over."
Throttle nodded. Flint did a good job so far. There was a long silence. Throttle could understand that this Hercules clown wasn't very happy with them. But what was gonna be his next move?
Finally, the radio came back to life.
"We're done with this planet. Those fucking rodents are always one step ahead of us. This war cost more than it yields. We're done. We're gonna start project Exitium. Over."
Flint looked confused. Throttle leaned closer to him.
"And what is this project Exitium?", he asked with urgence in his voice. Flint shook his head.
"I… I don't know…"
"Well, ask him!", Carbine demanded.
"What do you mean with project Exitium, sir? Over."
"That means we are going to blow up this whole planet. If we can't have it, nobody will! So, you better get out of there. You have two hours. Over and out."
Flint stared at the radio.
"You don't come to pick me up? And what about my sister?" he asked in the radio.
No answer.
"Hello? Hello?"
Silence.
"You've promised me to treat me as one of your own! YOU'VE PROMISED!"
Still no answer.
"GOD DAMMIT! That FUCKING, LYING slimeface!", Flint screamed and he threw the radio against the wall. It exploded into thousand tiny pieces.
He grabbed his head and started crying.
Carbine and Throttle looked at each other, pure shock on their faces.
"Oh my god, Throttle…. What are we going to do now?", Carbine asked, her voice shaky. Throttle could only stare at her, completely loss at words.
They were doomed.
Throttle ran to Modo's room and burst in. Modo and Gaya looked up.
"What the… Throttle?", Modo asked, but when he saw the expression on Throttle's face, he knew something was very, very wrong. He jumped up. Throttle looked at him.
"We have huge problems. Go get Stoker and Jake and come to Carbine's office. I'll go get Vincent and Violet."
"Throttle, what's…" Modo started, but Throttle was already gone.
"Come on, Gaya. Let's do as he say." Modo grabbed Gaya's hand and they ran out of the room.
Meanwhile, Vinnie was lying on his back in bed, looking very satisfied. Violet was under the sheet doing something I'm not gonna call by it's name (use your imagination :D ). She just had changed his bandages and cleaned his wounds and well… things heated up quickly after that. Suddenly, the door flew open and Throttle ran inside. Vinnie looked at him and Violet jerked up. The sheet fell on the floor.
"Throttle!", Violet yelled, quickly picking the sheet from the floor to cover her naked body.
"Yo bro! Not really a good timing!", Vinnie said, apparently not ashamed that he was lying naked on the bed. But Throttle hardly noticed.
"Big problems, Vincent! Get dressed and come to Carbine's office, PRONTO!" and he left the room. Vinnie and Violet stared at the door.
"Apparently I've missed the weather report about Tornado Throttle this morning…", Vinnie said, while shaking his head. Violet couldn't help herself and burst out into laughing. She couldn't stop. Tears were streaming over her face.
"Oh my god, I can't believe that just happened!", she said between laughing.
Vinnie smiled too. "I know, right?" but he had seen the look on Throttle's face. Shit was going to get down.
"Come on, pretty lady. Cover that beautiful body of yours. We need to go."
When they entered Carbine's office, everybody was already there. Violet closed the door, feeling nervous. What the hell was going on? She took her seat next to Vinnie.
Carbine looked around the group. Violet had never seen her so distressed.
"I really don't know how to say this… oh god... "
Violet's worry grew, just like the others. Vinnie looked impatient.
"Well, just throw it out already!"
Carbine gave him a dark look, but didn't respond. She took a deep breath.
"You all have heard about Flint, right?" Everybody nodded.
"Today he reached out to his contact person from the Plutarkian Army. Throttle and I had told him that he needed to tell this person that we have destroyed the virus. And that didn't fell good at all... They ehm… They are going to blow up Mars. We have about…" she looked at her watch "one and a half hour before that happens."
There was a deadly silence. Nobody knew what to say. Was this even real? Even Vinnie was silent for a moment.
"Well… That escalated quickly…", he finally managed to say. Nobody responded.
Stoker cleared his throat. "But we didn't destroy the virus, right?"
Carbine shook her head. "No, but that doesn't change anything. We can't just give it to them. It's the same thing. It will wipe us out."
Another silence.
"How are they gonna blow up a whole planet?", Modo wondered. Throttle shrugged.
"We have no idea… But we know that the Plutarkians are going to leave this planet, probably are already gone by now. This guy said that if they can't have Mars, no one can. We have no other choice then to believe they are very serious about this."
Vinnie cracked his knuckles. "We need to find out how they are gonna do this and stop them!" He expected that everybody would support this idea, but nobody said something.
"Guys?"
Still no response.
Vinnie was stunned. "Bro's! Come on! We are not gonna let them actually do this, right?"
Throttle sighed. "We can't stop them, Vinnie. There is not enough time. We don't even know where to start looking."
Vinnie jumped of his seat, his face twisting in pain because of the pain in his back.
"You mean we are gonna let them blow up Mars? That we're not even going to TRY to stop them? You've gotta be kidding me!"
Carbine looked at him. "Vinnie, I hate it as much as you do. But like Throttle said, there is simply not enough time. We lost. We are doomed. The only thing we can do right now, is getting the hell out of here!"
Vinnie slammed his fist on the table.
"NO! Now way I'm going to run away like some sort of coward. If you guys want to, FINE! But I am going to stop them, or I'll die trying. But at least I've tried!" and he marched at the door. Violet jumped out of her seat to stop him, but Throttle was quicker. He reached the door before Vinnie did.
"You are not going anywhere, Vincent! Are you crazy? You are wounded, for FUCK sake! And being selfish! You really wanna go on some kind of suicide mission and leave Violet behind? Because your ego is standing in the way to make a responsible decision? Come on! You know better than that!"
Vinnie fighted the urge to punch Throttle in the face. He felt so frustrated. So angry. Deep down, he knew that Throttle was right, but come on! Giving up your homeplanet is a big deal! He clenched his fist and slammed it against the wall, leaving a hole behind. He gritted his teeth, his broken tail slashing through the air.
"FINE!", he growled. Throttle nodded. "Good."
They took back their seat. Vinnie crossed his arms before his chest, still looking very upset. But he kept his mouth shut. Carbine took the word.
"We need to leave as soon as possible. Luckily, we have a few good working spaceships. We need to gather all the food and water we have on the base. And other stuff, like weapons etcetera. Everything what we need to build up a new live."
Gaya hesitated. "Ehm… What about all the mice there are left on Mars right now?"
Carbine sighed and studied her hands. "We can't save them…"
Violet stared at her. "What? We are just gonna leave them behind?"
Carbine had enough. "What choice do we have? If we stay, try to save everyone, we ALL die! And that means, no more Martian Mice! If we escape, start over again somewhere else…" her voice broke. "If we all die today, everything was for NOTHING! Every life that's gone lost in this war, all the pain, all the sorrow… It will be all for nothing! I don't want that…"
Everybody felt silent. She did have a point. But it just felt so wrong…
"Believe me guys, this is a decision I wish I never had to make. But I did. In sake for our species. And it kills me to leave people behind. It's against everything who I am. But I think we don't have a choice!"
Violet slowly nodded. "I'm with you, Carbine. I don't want that my parents died for nothing. I don't want that Vinnie was tortured for nothing. I don't want that all the sorrow, all the pain everybody has experienced because of this war, was for nothing."
Gaya agreed and so did Modo. Stoker and Jake nodded too. They all looked at Vinnie, who was awfully quiet. He was still in fight with himself, but he nodded.
"Fine. I'm with you guys. But only because I don't want you guys to live without my great presence."
Violet punched him on the arm.
"What?", Vinnie asked innocently. She rolled her eyes and Vinnie winked at her. But then he grew serious again.
"How many ships do we have?", he asked.
"Four ships. We have room for about 40 people."
"And how are we going to decide who lives and dies?", Modo asked.
"I will take care of that. Don't you worry about that. You guys grab your stuff, your bikes and all the supplies. We'll meet at the ships." Carbine left the room.
"Oh momma…", Modo sighed. The others couldn't agree more.
Please review! :) It's okay if you don't like it, but please be nice. :)
The next chapter will be the last one from Waiting For The End.
The new story is called Battle Symphony and will be posted online after the last chapter from this story.