Hey guys, Nether Lord Hades here with the fourth chapter of Crimson Dawn! I don't really have anything to say so let's just get it started, shall we?
"You found this assault rile?"
I scratch my forehead as he pulls his arm back. "No, Ben, I bought it. Of course I freaking found it lah!"
My friend shakes his head. "You must be some kind of gun magician or something. What's next, you gonna pull a grenade launcher out your ass?"
"Haha, very funny. Matt, toss me one of those." Matt throws a pack of Oreos to me.
My fingers pull the wrapper apart and grab one of the chocolate sandwich cookies.
"What about that walkie-talkie thing? What's the point of having it if it doesn't work?" Ben asks.
"Ben, I'll say it again: it's a military handheld radio."
"Which isn't gonna do us shit, right?"
I shake my head and walk away towards the chairs. God, he's being so simple.
When we got back to the hotel, we weren't greeted by any more Infected in the lobby, but rather a small amount of food found by Catherine and the others on the second floor.
They had also managed to pull out a few chairs and a table from the empty rooms on the floor, creating a little sitting area, so I guess they managed to do something useful. Sitting down on the floor wouldn't have been comfortable anyway, seeing as the floor was hard tile.
"Can I take that or not?" Matt asks, pointing to the crowbar as I sit down on a chair.
"Take it lah." I nod to him, tossing an Oreo into my mouth.
While Matt helps himself to the crowbar, I snatch up the handheld military radio and turn it on. I don't really hear anything but static. Maybe Ben's right and I just picked up a useless walkie-talkie...
Dammit!
I sigh as I set the radio back on the table and pop another Oreo in my mouth. I guess we could just wait it out here until help arrives. But then again, that may never come.
The situation is weighing on my mind far too much. Where do we go? What do we do? How do we do it? Will we survive?
It's only been one day yet here I am, weighing this small world of six on my shoulders.
I sigh again and run my hands through my hair. We really can't just stay here the whole time. There could be other survivors out there that need help, maybe even military outposts we can take shelter in...
"Eh, stop looking so sian lah," Ben says, prodding at me with the butt of his M9.
I shrug the him off and stand, tossing the empty Oreo pack in the air. He's right, I should lighten up, but I just can't.
"Ben, the world's gone to shit." I remind him, keeping my head down.
I can imagine Ben rolling his eyes. "Wah, you really have no faith in our military one ah."
I look up. "The military's probably having issues too! You can't just rely on the fucking military for every goddamn thing!"
"You rely on your dad, don't you?"
I start walking away. Now he's just pissing me off. Just because my dad's in the SAF, he thinks he can use the basic concepts of algebra to make a valid counter-argument.
"Eh, don't be angry lah, I'm just kidding!" Ben calls after me.
Ya whatever. That doesn't matter right now.
I walk into my room and shut the door, sliding down it. I don't even know how my dad's doing. He could be overseas or on the homefront, leading a bunch of troops to their deaths or a glorious victory...
Standing up, I walk over to my bed allowing myself to fall onto the soft mattress.
I just want to clear my head for now... Maybe just lie here, get some sleep or something...
My eyes flutter shut, giving me the hope for sleep. Sleep certainly seems nice right now, with all of its mind-clearing abilities...
I toss and turn for... God, I don't know, fifteen minutes maybe? Either way, I can't sleep...
KNOCK KNOCK!
"Who's there?" I ask, looking up and wishing that there was a 'Do Not Disturb' sign that was universally understood right on my door.
The door opens and Catherine walks in.
"What do you want leh?" I ask, rubbing my eyes. "You looked damn sian just now, you okay or not?"
"Ya."
"Got something wrong?"
"No, go aw-"
"Ryan."
Catherine and I lock eyes. She knows me too well... Maybe I shouldn't have vented to her so much in the past. She should be a therapist or something. I don't know how many times I told her that.
I sigh and nod, prompting Catherine to sit on my bed while I cup the back of my head with my hands, leaning on the bed's headrest.
"Okay lah," Catherine says. I imagine her pulling out a pen and notepad. "What's wrong leh?"
A grunt escapes my mouth as my head turns toward her. "Besides Ben being stupid as usual?" Catherine nods. "This whole... shitstorm, I guess you could call it."
"And why is this shitstorm so troubling?"
I sigh again. She's just asking questions, not being ignorant of the situation. "You know what's wrong with this whole damn situation, but... I guess... I don't know lah..."
Catherine puts a hand on my shoulder. "Listen, I can tell you're pushing this all on yourself. You don't have to."
"But then who will?"
"We all will. We're your friends. It's our struggle, not just yours, okay? Ya, you might be our leader, but so what? That doesn't mean that everything's your problem. Anyway, one day's a bit too early to get stressed out, right?"
She has a valid point. "I guess you're right lah." I sit up and she stands.
"Maybe you should stress out in a week or so? Not right now." She seems restless. "I know Ben's being an asshole, but isn't that how he always is?
Again, she has a point. "Ya, pretty much." I agree, nodding.
Neither of us say anything for about a minute, though a plan slowly formulates in my head.
"Catherine, you wanna go somewhere?" I ask, hopping out of bed.
"Go where?"
"To the Army Museum of Singapore, the one our school went to last year when we were here."
"Why?" She questions.
"We are going to go get ourselves some epic firepower." I grin.
Catherine raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean leh?"
"We are going to see what that military museum has to offer, maybe we'll even take one of those restored tanks we saw last year."
"You're siao."
"Ya, I've been told." I open the door, grabbing my axe and slinging my new SAR-21. "Come on lah, let's move."
I walk out of my room, Catherine following closely behind.
"We're going now right?" Catherine questions.
"Going where?" Ben asks from the makeshift sitting area.
"To the middle of nowhere," I reply, walking over towards him.
"What are you doing leh?" Ben questions.
"Nothing lah." I'm totally nonchalant as I toss Catherine her sheathed combat knife before snatching up the M16 and a spare box of ammo for myself.
"What are you planning?" Matt asks more forcefully, standing up as we walk away from the chairs
"Nothing lah. We're just going KLKK outside." Catherine backs me up.
Ben starts walking towards us, but we're already power-walking down the hall. Talk about a smooth escape. I doubt we'll run into any real trouble, especially if we get a tank.
"How exactly are we going to take a tank leh?" Catherine asks, pressing the down button on the elevator control panel. "You don't know how to drive one."
"Come on lah, it can't be that hard."
The two of us step inside of the elevator and I press the G button.
"Why two guns?" Catherine suddenly asks.
"Just in case one runs out," I reply.
My eyes wander up to the floor indicator. Ground floor, alright then.
The elevator dings open, revealing a group of guys that look to be in their early twenties, standing in the lobby. Five are angmoh, one Chinese like us.
"This could be a good- what the fuck was that?" one man spins around and looks directly at us. He's wearing a gold chain around his neck, it seems
"Who are you?" The Chinese guy asks.
Are they a gang or something? Their clothes suggest it, since they're all similar. Black shirts and baggy pants. In all honesty, I don't know how a Chinese guy got affiliated with an angmoh gang.
I raise my hands. "We want no trouble lah," I calmly say.
"Shut the hell up!" one of the other six guys say. He's wearing a black baseball cap backwards
He raises his arm and- shit, I should've expected a gun! He fires a round, but it misses widely. I quickly shoulder the M16 and aim, hitting the safety off. They want to threaten my friend's life and mine? I'll end theirs before they can try
"I suggest you all calm down lah," Catherine says, possibly muttering a swear word in Hokkien under her breath.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she has unsheathed her combat knife and was pointing it at the hostile group.
"Attack us and what little brain matter you have will be splattered that wall." I warn, my finger itching to squeeze the trigger.
"Bitch, please!" a third member of the group says, this one with a small afro. "You're probably too scared to tell that bitch-ass ho there you wanna slide inside her." He gestures to Catherine who fixes him a death glare, looking like she wanted to kill him.
He inches forward as his friends laugh at the poorly-made sick joke. God, I want to kill this ass as well.
"Don't tempt me, asshole." I glare at the guy with the afro.
He laughs. "'Hey guys, you checking out this dick? He thinks he's Mr. Big Shit, waving his rifle around." He raises his arm, a FN P90 machine pistol in his hand. "No one can save you now, kid. I'm gonna bust a bullet in your ass, then wipe my nutsack across your sad bitch-"
BANG!
The smoke dissipates from the barrel of the M16 as I rack the slide, revealing a rather gruesome sight. The man's face is now a grotesque red pudding, with some chunks of the mix on the wall, meshed together with some gray matter and pieces of drywall.
I just killed a man. And it wasn't a mercy killing...
"That bitch killed Will!" the backwards cap guy shouts. "Waste their asses!"
I duck next to a table and flip it on its side, narrowly avoiding a bullet to the stomach. I raise the M16 over the table, aim it roughly at their position, and pull the trigger again.
"Argh! Damn!" I hear someone shout. Guess I got him.
Pulling the M16 back down and racking the slide, my eyes immediately shoot to where Catherine was fighting one of the angmoh guys, seeing her stab him right through the stomach. The gangster dies before his body even hits the ground, blood pouring from the wound.
I set the M16 down and unsling the SAR-21. The M16 may be useful for close range destruction, but the SAR-21 can hit targets further away and fire more accurately. Flicking the safety off and the fire selector to full-auto, I jump up and spin, pulling up the rifle quickly. Closing one eye and taking aim, the trigger stays pulled back as I fire in an arc.
Bullets fly out of the barrel, smacking into the man with the gold chain, penetrating deep into his chest and shoulder. A small amount of blood sprays out from each wound when the bullets enter and exit the man.
I'm assuming he's gonna die soon.
Some of the bullets hit the Chinese guy, but only in the areas around the knees somehow. Blood sprays out of the back of the baseball cap-wearing man's neck, having been stabbed by Catherine from behind.
I press the trigger again, but nothing happens. Frantically, I duck back down behind the table and hit the mag release, quickly sliding out the empty magazine and slapping a new one in. I put the empty magazine in my pocket and stand, taking aim at the last 'standing' people.
The last two men, the Chinese guy on the ground and an angmoh man with nothing defining about him, frantically aim their guns at us, their arms shaking violently. There are several bullet holes in the angmoh guy's lower torso. He's the one I shot with the M16...
"You sons of bitches laid out Dan, Will and Shawn!" the Chinese guy says. He's getting pale and groans in pain with every movement.
Catherine moves past me and kicks the gun out of Chinese guy's hand while I knock the angmoh's away.
The men just glare at us, coughing up blood. Should I kill them now? Yeah, I should, put a end to their pain. Raising the barrel of the SAR-21 into the Chinese man's face, I prepare to squeeze the trigger
"Ryan!" Catherine forcefully knocks the barrel down and shakes her head before bending down.
"Catherine, what are you doing leh?" I ask.
She ignores me. "Who are you with?"
The man spits in Catherine's face. "Fuck you bitch."
That earns him a hard kick in the stomach from Catherine. I know what she's doing.
"What gang lah, you chee bai?" Catherine asks again
While she's doing that, I bend down and pick up one of the FN P90s lying on the ground, the safety's off. Good.
I raise the pistol and aim for the man's arm, pulling the trigger when my aim is on the elbow. The man howls in pain as the bullet penetrates and destroys his elbow joint, blood spraying from the wound. The man rolls in pain and his comrade looks on with worry on his face.
I pull the trigger again after aiming the barrel of the
machine pistol at his head.
"What the hell leh?!" Catherine exclaims as a small amount of blood hits her face.
"It's not like we were going to provide him with medical treatment!" I counter. "Regardless, he was going to die anyway lah!"
"You're both going to regret this," the sole survivor of the group calls.
"Says who leh?" I ask, aiming both the SAR-21 and FN P90 at him. "I'll paint the floor red with your blood just as easily as I did with your friends'."
"Then do it already. I'm gonna die anyway, so why not?" He sneers, seemingly mocking me. He wants me to kill him...
I glare back and lower the gun. "No. I should just split both of your kneecaps, throw you into the street and leave you for dead." These are dark and disturbing actions, yet I'm actually contemplating them.
"So be it," the man spits. "I'm not afraid of some asshole like you."
"Ryan, what the fuck is wrong with you leh?" Catherine asks.
"Nothing at all." I reply.
Catherine walks over and kicks the man hard in the side. "We wanted no trouble, but you idiots started shooting lah!"
"That's survival," the wounded gang member mutters, spitting up blood. "It's just how it is on the streets. Can't trust anyone but your friends."
"And that's what gets people like you killed."
"We're not so different, you guys and I." He coughs up some more blood. "I've killed people, you guys killed people...Doing what we can to survive..."
This is something more suited to the death of the main antagonist in some game
"At least we don't attack people not willing to fight lah." Catherine fixes him one of her infamous death glares.
He laughs, some more blood coming out of his mouth and running down his chin. "You will soon enough. Just you watch. Not everyone can be trusted..."
"Can I kill him or not? He's getting on my nerves." I say, turning to Catherine.
She cocks an eyebrow. "Why are you asking now leh? You killed three people without permission before. I'm surprised he's not dead already."
Catherine and I killed five people, she killed two and I killed three.
I don't know why I'm not disturbed by this like I should be. They threatened our lives, yes, but it shouldn't feel this normal. Shouldn't I be feeling troubled, guilty, or something?
"Hey, you asshole! Kill me already!" the man demands. "You fucking dick!"
I don't know why, but I'm beyond irritated now. Pulling up the FN P90, I fire a round into his head. Blood sprays out into my t-shirt, staining it red. Make that six kills, four for me.
I turn to Catherine. "You okay or not? Are you hurt?" I ask, pocketing the FN P90.
"I'm fine lah," Catherine reassures me. "Come on lah, let's go."
The two of us step outside and look around. I can't really remember the way to the museum from here, but Catherine seems to. She's already walking down the street, meaning I should follow.
We keep our weapons at the ready as we walk through the streets in case some Infected decide they want to have a go at us.
The Infected are scattered about, having barely moved since Matt, Cerina and I last passed through this area a couple hours ago, so there's nothing to worry about.
I wonder what everyone would think of me now if they'd seen what happened. Once they find out I shot and killed four guys they're bound to think I'm really siao. In my defense, the whole conflict started because we were being threatened.
Knowing her, Catherine's probably deeply disturbed now about how that whole thing went down. I don't know how she feels after killing two guys, but I know I don't feel the least bit disgusted with myself after killing four, and it's disturbing. I'm stressing too much on this. I need to just calm down and relax when we get back.
Thirty minutes or so pass, though all I'm doing is following Catherine. We kill our way through the hordes of Infected, evading Them whenever possible until we finally reach the museum. About fifteen Infected milled around in front of the double glass doors, which isn't helping at all. They're clustered together, which isn't going to make bashing them easy.
Raising my new SAR-21, I pull the trigger four times, downing about four Infected. The remaining turn toward us and start sprinting in our direction.
Shit, I forgot this didn't have a silencer! What to do? What to do? This was definitely the worst and stupidest idea I've had. Wait...is there anything I can use to distract Them?
My eyes shoot over to the other side of the street, where a series of metal rubbish bins stood. This is such a cliché coincidence, but it's one I'm going to take full advantage of.
Raising the SAR-21 once more, I aim at the first bin and shoot at an angle. The gunshot rings out, but the bullet smacking into the trash can and creates a louder sound. The force of the bullet denting the metal causes the first rubbish bin to topple over, knocking down the second. The third and fourth are left standing, but the noise made by the two bins falling causes Them to turn away from us and start towards the bins. The bins are on their sides now, and I expect some of the Infected to kick them around or trip over them. Regardless, that will keep Them occupied for now.
The two of us sprint to the now vacant doorway and Catherine throws the door open.
Surprisingly, the place is quiet, no sign of any Infected anywhere.
I turn to Catherine, "I'll get the tank, you take whatever you want and I'll meet you where the tanks are, okay?"
"Okay lah." She turns and walks off, heading towards the 'Weapons of the Ancient World' exhibit off to the right.
I walk in the opposite direction, heading for the 'Restored Armoured Vehicles' exhibit.
Upon entering the exhibition area, my eyes immediately fell on a Tempest main battle tank armed with a 155mm antitank gun.
Walking over to the vehicle, my hands pull open the driver-side door and I peer inside before climbing in, getting myself comfortable on the fabric seat. I then begin flicking various levers until the engine splutters to life. With that done, I proceed to check the gun's ammo, which is somehow full.
"Done already?" I look up to see Catherine standing in the exhibition entrance, her sheathed combat knife hung at her waist while she held a chain-whip in her right hand, the dart tip covered in fresh blood. Guess there were Infected in this place after all.
"Ready to go?" I ask.
"Ya." She walks around the main battle tank and gets in, shutting the door behind her.
"Where now?" Catherine asks.
"We can probably go back to the hotel lah." I reply, slowly pushing down on the accelerator, carefully easing the Tempest past a World War 2 American M18 tank destroyer. "But there's another place I want to go to first."
"Where?"
"The Humvee, there's something there that might help us." I cautiously manoeuvre the tank destroyer out of the exhibition area, taking extra care not to scratch the sides of the tank against the walls.
"Why you didn't take the M18 leh?" Catherine asks. "It's faster you know?"
"Ya, but we don't need speed; we need firepower," I reply, slowly driving the Tempest through the narrow doorway and out onto the main road.
Since the road's unobstructed I guess I'll try this.
I push the accelerator as far down as it would go, feeling the sheer power of the 642-horsepower V-12 diesel engine as the Tempest reaches its top speed of 40km/h, quickly closing the gap between us and the Humvee.
The Serviceman's body hasn't moved a millimetre since we were last here a couple hours ago, but Infected aren't just crowded around one place anymore, they're considerably spread out and some are not too far away from the Humvee, which is unsettling.
Pulling up in front of the Humvee, I kill the engine before carefully getting out of the tank. I'm surprised that They didn't come running to our position when They heard the Tempest since all They are doing now is aimlessly wandering about and occasionally bumping into one another.
Catherine cautiously double-checks the surrounding area for any of Them before getting out as well, shutting the door and unsheathing her new parang
"Okay lah," I say, opening the Tempest's rear side door. "Let's load this guy up." My foot kicks the dead Serviceman.
"What the hell leh? Why?" Catherine asks, visibly disgusted.
"Because, his uniform is perfectly intact. Let's say, if we find a military base and need to get in, one of us can be disguised and get us in."
"What makes you think they will do that, only let the military in?"
"It's just in case lah. Come on, I'll take the arms."
Catherine sighs and walks over, picking up the dead man's legs while I grab the arms. Spinning around, I climb up into the Tempest and pull the body onto the seat while Catherine pushes. I hop out of the other door and shut it, Catherine doing the same to the door I climbed through. Walking back to the driver-side door, all of the doors are shut so we should be safe from Them regardless... unless They somehow break through all the armour, which was probably impossible. Catherine walks around to the other side as I climb in, getting into the tank as well.
"Anywhere else you want to go?" Catherine questions as I close the door.
I shake my head and flick the start lever. The Tempest splutters to life once more and we pull out, heading back to the hotel.