Ulrich's POV
I couldn't say I was happy to be back near Kadic. There were some real awful memories lurking there. A lot of things I really didn't want to revisit. But I wasn't the one driving the car, and everyone else wanted that reward. The closer we got to Paris, the more I had this creeping feeling in the back of my head. I didn't want to see my parents. I didn't want to see the places we used to live normally. I didn't want to see my good buddies. Well, no, I did, but...
I left them. When John and I escaped...I didn't even try to look for them. After murdering William and letting Yumi die...how could I? And then I also abandoned the others so how could I face them now? The longer I put off seeing them, the more I had to be guilty for, the more reason to just stay away.
"It's the next exit after this one." I said.
"So turn now?" Margret asked.
"No, pass this exit, turn off on the next one." I said.
"And watch out, the rad's pretty broken up, here." John added.
As we got closer and closer to Paris, there was more and more remnants of destruction. It wasn't surprising. This place was ground zero for Morgan's attacks on humanity. This was where the monsters had been most concentrated at first. They spread out from here. There was probably some sort of factory or spawn point she was using somewhere in this city. Hell, I wouldn't have been surprised if she was making the monsters with the Renault Factory itself. The upside to being in...what I assumed was still Morgan's home territory, was that there were no rolling blackouts here. Or, at least, it didn't look like it. By the time we got into town it was night, and all of the lights were on at full power. We hadn't seen that...pretty much anywhere else.
The downside was that just about all the buildings were in ruins. Plus there was knowing we were way too close to Morgan for comfort. As I looked out at all the destruction, my grip on my katana tightened.
"You ok?" Syd asked. Apparently my whole body tightened. God, I could go for a hot bath... "If you really want...we don't have to go." They were nice to offer...and it took just about everything in me to decline.
"I'll be fine." I said. "Here, turn here." I told Margret. This was our exit. Now we would be off the highway and on our way into town.
"And we'll be here to back you up if things go south." John added. There was just something about the apocalypse that could bind people so tightly together...or drive people apart, depending on the situation. It was a time of extremes. Nothing less would do.
"Guys, before we go to Kadic, there's one place I want to check. It's where me and my friends hid from Morgan before the attacks. They might still be there. if not, there was a ton of supplies in it. It was an apocalypse bunker...Uh, still is. That ok with everyone?"
"Yep." They sounded off in turn.
I gave Margret the directions...as best as I could remember them, to the bunker. We ended up wandering around some, and probably used up more gas than we should have. We finally stopped as close as we could get to it without getting out of the car, about half a mile. As Margret parked the car, she took a look at the fuel gage.
"We have to refuel." She said, a frown on her face.
"This haul better be worth it, Ulrich." John said.
"It is." I assured him. "Who wants to stay in the car?"
I knew who was going to answer before they did.
"Yo." Syd said, raining a their finger. They always stayed in the car, if there was a choice. If there was a choice between sitting in a car, and walking long distances with heavy stuff to carry, Syd picked the lookout job every time. Couldn't say i blamed them.
And so John, Margret, and I got out of the car. Syd waved us goodbye and we were off. The forest was nearly unrecognizable...so was the city. Although, what we saw of the city had a ton of the wanted posters. My face plastered across Paris...I'm sure that didn't make me an easy target for a kidnapping or anything. There was a little smoke hanging in the air. So much of this city had burned that the wind couldn't get rid of it all? I didn't know the science of all that, it was just a guess.
"I can't hear anything. It's empty." Margret said. We learned to trust Margret's hearing. I nodded. I held onto the door and pulled. It was locked, or else stuck shut. I frowned at it and kicked it open. That worked! That usually worked. The lights were on.
"A gun!" Margret called out. I immediately flattened myself against the wall next to the entrance way. Just as I did, bullets came flying out of the door from inside. I unsheathed my sword and held it at the ready.
"Who's there!" A voice from inside called. It was deep and biting...a voice I would recognize anywhere. My dad's voice.
"Dad?!" I called out. There was a pause for a second, like he was trying to process what was happening.
"...Ulrich?" he asked. I came through the door way, katana still at the ready. He was behind a couch, standing with a gun held loosely in his hand. "Ulrich...What are you doing with a sword?"
"The same thing you're doing with a gun." I said. It was still really tense in here.
"How about you both put down your weapons at the same time, and we can talk?" Margret said, trying to calm things down. She was good like that.
"Who's this?" He asked.
"A friend. I'm traveling in a group. We saw the posters." I said. I didn't like this man. He was an abusive asshole to both me and my mom. I didn't care if it was the end times. I wasn't about to hug and make up with this guy. "Aren't you supposed to be at Kadic?"
"Ok, that's good, but you both still have your weapons...may we come and sit?" Margret asked, her teeth shining brightly in contrast with her mocha shin.
"...Yes, of course." He said. So we all slowly filed in, closed the door, and took a seat on the coach.
"Where were we?" dad asked.
"You're supposed to be at Kadic." John said, jogging his memory.
"Ah, yes..." He took a sip from bottled water. Didn't offer any, not that I expected that. "I was at Kadic, after I heard about the disaster. I called you, Ulrich. To make sure you were alright. I didn't get an answer." I nodded. I didn't have my phone at the time because I was in a prison cell...but he didn't need to know that. "But there were a lot of reports of a loss of phone service, so we came to get you in person."
We...he kept saying "we."
"Dad...where's mom?"
"I wasn't strong enough..."
"Shit."
"I loved that woman, I tried to save her-"
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"Ulrich! Watch your language!" He yelled at me. What, seriously, seriously, now?! I was suddenly seething. Margret put a calming hand on my shoulder while John spoke what was on my mind.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir, but with all due respect, I don't think now is the time to be worried about language." I sighed.
"So you came to Kadic, found I wasn't there, and put up those posters. Well, we're here for the reward. 500 Euro." I said, holding my hand out. He looked at me, his eyes looked older, but then again, so did everyone's.
"I suppose that's only fair." He said, walking over to a bag. We watched him closely, or at least I did. I wasn't convinced he wouldn't still attack us. He didn't. He just gave me 5 100 Euro bills. "I'm glad to see you alive, son."
"Yeah, right. It was probably all mom's idea to find me." I spat, bitter.
"The posters were all me. We lost your mother...I don't want to lose the only other family I have..." Dad seemed to plead. Why was he putting on this show? Wait...was this a polymorph? I looked into his eyes...and saw nothing. He was real.
"Hey, you've been in the area, right? Have you seen my friends from school?" I asked. A look of disgust crossed his face.
"Oh, them. I thought if I found you, you would be with them. I'm glad you finally got some sense. I always told you they were a bad influence on you." How did he have the energy and the goddamn nerve to do this now!
"Bad influence on me?! I'm the bad influence on them!" I seethed. "I killed one of them and let another die! Before the attacks!" I was screaming, now. Margret and John had backed up. They knew better than to get in between us now. For once in his life, my dad had nothing to say. I shoved the money in my pocket and turned towards the door. "Goodbye, dad. Come on, guys. We're checking Kadic."
"You can't-" Dad interrupted.
"What?" My words spit out like poison as I turned to face him. I'd like to say I'd never been this angry before, but that wasn't true. He'd pissed me off this bad, and worse, more times than I could count.
"Kadic's been destroyed by the robots. That's why I came here..." He said.
And then there was a crashing noise as a Krabbe leg pierced through the ceiling and crashed down onto the floor, narrowly missing John. As quickly as I could, before anyone else could react, i pulled the sword from my hilt and sliced through it. i heard a crashing outside as the Krabbe outside lost balance and fell on the ground.
"Shit!" I exclaimed. I grabbed my dad's arm and pulled him outside...there was an army of Krabbes and Megatanks...It had to be Megatanks. John had guns, but he wasn't that good with them. Megatank combat favored the sharpshooter. Dad had a gun too, but I didn't know how many bullets it had. It was just like a handgun. There were...at least 30 of each...60 monsters...on Earth...all attacking at once
Dad gripped my arm tight. I looked back at him. He was terrified.
"I'll protect you." I said.
The lasers started to fly. I jumped up on top of a Krabbe's leg and scrambled up to the shell and drove the sword down into the eye of Xana. Before if collapsed, I made a running start and jumped off of it and onto another.
"Peirce the targets! Try not to get hit! Watch out for the circle lasers!" I called out. I wasn't sure if my dad knew how to fight these things. The sound of bullets and lasers flew through the air. I was pretty good at dodging lasers...not as good as Lyoko, and, you know, getting tired was a thing, here. The crew and I had regular training sessions, but that only took you so far. Plus, the easiest way to take down a Megatank for me was to get it to try to roll over me, and then quickly get out of the way so that it fell into the digital sea. There was no digital sea, here. There also weren't any cliffs nearby that we could try and get them to fall off. Still, I was the most experienced here, I had 2 years on everyone else in the world, fighting the monsters.
I heard the charging up of a Megatank laser and I locked eyes on it, jumped down from the Krabbe and stabbed the Megatank. It suddenly just died. I sorta missed the explosions on Lyoko. There was something just so satisfying about monsters exploding when you got them.
The first scream I heard was Margret. I whipped my head around and saw Margret lying on the ground...bisected across her stomach.
"Margret!" John called out. Margret just kept screaming, screaming and screaming, until a Megatank rolled over her, breaking every single bone in he body, killing her instantly...and she was silent.
"RETREAT!" I ordered. This was not the hill to die on. We ran in the direction where there were the least amount of monsters. Krabbes shot after us. I think my dad got hit, he groaned. I looked back real quick. He was hit, but still running. Good. We kept going.
The Megatanks rolled in front of us and made a impassible barrier, which turned into a circle as they surrounded us completely. They all started to charge up...We didn't have much time...
"ATTACK!" I screamed. I went to one and stabbed it, and there were a lot of gunshots...and I looked around.
"Looks like all of them are-" John started to say, but one of the Megatanks shot right at John. He jumped out of the way, but it still got his leg...which came off like butter...He fell to the ground, and a Krabbe nearby quickly stepped on his head, crushing his skull and piercing his brain.
I saw red, and I heard more screaming. It took me a second to realize it was coming from my own mouth. I jumped up. I killed a Krabbe. And another. And another. I wasn't even really aware of what I was doing. I just knew these things needed to die!
"I'm proud of you, son!" I heard. That broke my concentration...and in that moment I saw my dad on the ground, burn marks all over his body. And in that moment, a laser hit me in the back, and I fell from midair.
I fell, and a Krabbe leg met me on the way down, kicking me back up, and I was shot up with a laser, and fell back down, and was kicked back and forth by various Krabbes. They were swarming around me, they were overwhelming me. I couldn't get up or anything. They wouldn't let me get my bearings, they just kept tossing my body around. And somewhere in that...I lost consciousness. And somewhere in that...I lost my life.
I must have killed 30 of those fuckers, though.
Thank you to everyone still reading this and going with me through this tragedy. The next thing I publish will be Code Betrayal.