There the Berserker was, running full speed at them. Her thunderous foot steps shook the ground with every step.
"Sh*t, get out of the way!" shouted Gary desperately. He was obviously panicking now.
The four of them turned and ran. One of the Stranded tripped and fell face first into the concrete. He tried to get up but it was too late. The Berserker gave him a massive right hook. He flew twenty feet and slammed into a brick wall. He was splattered against it like a bug on a windshield.
"F*ck this man," the other Stranded said. He ran to the left, trying to get away. Like waving a flag at a bull, it only grabbed the Berserker's attention. She charged at him and easily caught up. She swiped at him with the back of her gigantic hand, pinning him up against the wall. She then grabbed him by the shoulder and picked him up over her head. With her other hand she grabbed the Stranded by the waist and pulled him apart. He split in half with his intestines and other organs spilling out of him.
Dizzy and Gary opened fire on the Berserker in a futile attempt to kill her. Each bullet glanced off her armor, not even leaving a scratch. She turned and faced then.
"She looks angry," whispered Gary.
Somewhere in the distance, Dizzy could hear the sounds of rotor blades, the signature sound of the COG King Raven. The Stranded had to hold out just a little longer.
The Berserker charged Dizzy and Gary. Dizzy's instincts told him to get out of the way and he listened. He and Gary rolled away just in time. The Berserker kept going and slammed into a building behind them. She turned around seemingly unfazed by the fact that half of the building was coming down on her. She climbed out of the debris and charged in the direction she thought she thought the two Stranded where in.
Just before Dizzy could even think to move out of the way, a sudden explosive blast knocked him and Gary down. Dizzy felt like had been hit by a truck. His eardrums felt like knives where driving into them. His head felt like it was being pounded by a sledgehammer. His vision was still blurred, and he couldn't see the Berserker anywhere. Dizzy looked around for her. His head was pounding so hard that he felt like he might black out. His vision slowly focused. In the last place Dizzy saw the Berserker lay a smoldering creator. Movement caught his eyes. He saw the Berserker staggering to her feet. She had large chunks of her armor like skin missing, reveling grayish pink flesh underneath. She got up and charged again, but this time not at Dizzy. Her target was a Centaur tank about twenty meters down the road.
The massive tank fired again. The blast sent the Berserker flying back. The shell hit her dead on but somehow she got back up. She stumbled down to one knee but still screaming her head off. Dizzy couldn't understand how she could take two tank shells and still get back up.
"Whoo, she's feisty. Must be her time of the month," Dizzy said while trying to pull himself upright.
At that moment three King Ravens flew over head. One opened fire on the Berserker with its chain gun. With most of her armor gone, the bullets just ripped into her exposed flesh. Apparently that did it. She fell to the ground with a hard thud and this time she didn't get back up. Up the street one of the Ravens touched down and dispatched a Gear squad.
"Sh*t Dizzy, we'd be dead right now if I wasn't for those guys," Gary said in disgust. He didn't want anything to do with the COG and definitely didn't't want them near his camp.
"Ya, sh*t," replied Dizzy. The Centaur rolled passed them. Dizzy guessed that the Corpser was its next target.
Suddenly something pinged in Dizzy's mind. Jasmine. He had to find her, and make sure she was safe. Dizzy took off toward the distant fighting where she most likely was. He could hear Gary calling after him but Dizzy ignored him.
Dizzy ran through the streets at top speed. He came across the ruins of a building destroyed in the Corpser's rampage through the city. Dizzy could hear gunfire on the other side, and he could see one of the King Ravens circling over head. It would take too long and use up too much energy to go over the wreckage so Dizzy decided to go around.
Once Dizzy was about half way around the destroyed building, something hit him like a brick sh*t house. He hit the ground hard, losing his hat in the process. Dizzy turned around onto his back to face his attacker. It was a Locust Drone, weaponless and missing an arm. The Grub had been hiding behind some rubble, waiting to strike something that came into its line of sight. It had a look of bloodlust in its white eyes. The foul disgusting creature wanted to take out any human it could before succumbing to its wounds. Dizzy reached for his Hammerburst laying next to him. He grabbed it, aimed and fired. No bullets came out of the gun, instead a sharp clicking sound.
"Gat dang it, outa ammo," Dizzy said in a pissed off tone. He needed his Gnasher more than ever. Dizzy winced as he remembered he had dropped it when running away from the Berserker.
"Gaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" the Locust bellowed as it charged at Dizzy. Being on the ground, he was in a bad position. He rolled out of the way from a boot to the skull. Dizzy got up and shoulder rammed into the Grub. Knocking it down was tough, like hitting a brick wall, but the Grub fell. Dizzy bounced back a couple feet and caught his balance. Close quarters with the Grub sent a horrible scent up Dizzy's nose.
"Sh*t, you smell worse than rotten ass!" Dizzy exclaimed.
In one quick movement he upholstered his Boltak pistol and fired into the Grubs chest. It fell backward, but it was still alive. Dizzy ran up, spun his Boltak around and gripping it by the barrel, and brought the butt of the gun down on the Grubs head.
Explosions in the distance caught Dizzy's attention. He saw the Corpser perched on top of a building, swatting at two King Ravens circling it. They where firing their chain guns at it to no affect. Suddenly an explosion hit the Corpser. Obviously the Centaur had shot it. It staggered and slid a couple floors down the side of the building. The monster jumped into the air in an attempt to hit one of the Ravens. One of its eight claws hit a Raven and it spun out of control into the streets below. Dizzy heard the Centaur shoot again and the sounds the Corpser made stopped.
Dizzy picked up his hat and returned to his task of getting around the ruined building. Once he got around the rubble he could see the action.
The Gears where sure giving the Locust hell. The Grubs numbers where severely lowered. Only a handful of them left. Dizzy could see Jasmine kneeling over someone and trying to bandage his wound. Tom was next to her firing his shotgun at the Locust.
Dizzy started running over to them. He was amazed at how twenty Gears where able to completely decimate the Locust. Three more Grubs went down. Two Ravens where raining hell down on the enemies. An entire column of the damn Grubs dropped like rocks. Dizzy got behind a car twenty five feet away from Jasmine. He looked out and watched as even more Drones fell. Dizzy turned toward Jasmine. She glanced over to him and gave him a thumbs up. Somehow she knew that everything was going to be all right.
A shot rang out. Tom fell to the ground clutching his neck. Blood squirting out between his fingers.
"Sniper!" yelled one Gear.
Jasmine ran to Tom's aid. Dizzy screamed at her, telling her to get back into cover. She couldn't hear him over all the gunfire. Another shot rang out.
In that one split second, time stopped. What happened next appeared to Dizzy like a slow motion video. Jasmine was hit in the chest. The bullet exited her back with a large splatter of blood. That one second of time felt like hours. Dizzy's mind was blank. No emotions, no thoughts whatsoever. He was just watching, waiting for it to end. In an instant it all came back. The sounds, the sights, the situation. It all came back except the emotions. They seemed to filter back slowly. Dizzy just stood there staring at his wife laying in a pool of her own blood. Suddenly Dizzy was overcome with only one emotion. Rage.
Dizzy flung himself out of cover and ran at the Locust position. He saw the sniper easily identified by its orange goggles. It was one of the last Locust left standing. You could count all the Grubs still alive on one hand, but Dizzy didn't care about them. He had one target on mind. He had it in his sights and sprinted at it full speed. Dizzy bum rushed the bastard and before it could retaliate, Dizzy slammed it to the ground. He got on top of it and just unloaded with all he had, punching the sniper in the face over and over again. The thing couldn't even fight back because Dizzy had it pinned.
Dizzy just let out a long drawn out yell. Grunting with every strike to the Grubs head. Its skull started to crunch and shatter. Is was obviously dead but Dizzy kept wailing on it. Dizzy's hands where bruised and broken but that did not detour him. He kept punching it even after its head was nothing but mush and his fists started hitting the concrete underneath.
Just then two pairs of arms pulled him off.
"Let me go. I wanna kill em all!" Dizzy shouted.
"It's over Dizzy," said a familiar voice. It was Gary. "Dizzy, I'm…." his voice trailed off.
For the first time Dizzy could feel warm tears falling down his face and soaking his beard. The fight was over. Dizzy slumped next to a car. He could barely hear the voices in the background. The Gears had left. Their job was done. Dizzy could only make out a couple people talking. Something about getting the lights on, the kyrll would be out soon, and other bull sh*t.
Sure Dizzy survived that day but at what cost. His wife, his love, his entire world, was gone.