Chapter 4
The hours following the event all seemed to blur together. Dizzy was walked home by Gary. When the duo arrived, Henny asked what happened. Gary took him into another room and told him. Everything after was clear as day. Dizzy walked to the girls room and peered in through the crack in the door. They where both sound asleep. Dizzy pushed open the door slowly as not to wake then.
Their faces were calm and peaceful, as if nothing had happened. The room was small, two beds lined close to each other. The twins where covered in rags and old clothes to stay warm. They had the same scarlet hair as their mother, tied back into a ponytail. Maralin had always kept hers longer than Teresa.
Dizzy sat down on a chest in the corner of the dark room and started crying.
Waiting gives a man time to think. Time to put everything into perspective. A lot of questions fill a man's mind afterwards. How would he handle the girls asking the inevitable question? How would he tell them? How would they cope?
Hours later the sun creeped in through the small window, and rested onto Dizzy's face. He awoke, still sitting on the chest. He hoped, prayed that last nights ordeal was just a horrible nightmare. That, sadly, was not the case. Jasmine was still dead at the hands of the Locust horde, and there was nothing Dizzy could do about it. He shouldn't have let her out of his sight.
Movement caught Dizzy's eye. One of the girls, Teresa, had stirred for a moment. She pushed herself up and put her hand to her mouth to yawn. She opened her eyes and saw her father. Her green eyes looked identical to her mothers.
"Daddy?" she asked in her sweet voice, still full of the innocence of a child. A wave of emotions washed over Dizzy like a flash flood. He pushed himself up and walked over to her bed. Dizzy dropped down to his knees. She had pushed herself out of the bed at the same time.
"Sweety," said Dizzy said with his voice breaking and tears rolling down his face again, "Sweety come here."
She took a step foreword and hesitated for a second.
"Dad?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face. She took another step foreword. Dizzy brought his arms around her in a loving embrace. Teresa put her arms on Dizzy's back, still confused. "Daddy, what's going on?" she inquired. She tried shaking Dizzy to get his attention.
"Baby," Dizzy forced out his baseball sized lump in his throat. "Baby, your momma loves you."
The loud creek of the door broke Henny out of his trance. He looked up from the small kitchen table to see Gary walk in the doorway.
"How's he doing?" asked Gary. He looked exhausted with dark purple bags under his eyes.
"Don't know. Hasn't been out all night," Henny responded, "Can I get you some coffee?"
"Yes, please," said Gary as he sat down at the table.
Coffee was a small luxury that Stranded rarely got. The Locust attacked a COG supply convoy last month. The Grubs left the supplies untouched and the Stranded didn't let it all go to waste.
Henny grabbed a small bag of coffee grounds and a bottle of water from the cupboard.
"How many casualties?" Henny asked in a somber voice as he started the crude, old coffee maker.
"Forty-six," replied Gary, "17 unaccounted for. Probably in the rubble of the building the Corpser destroyed, or unrecognizable.
Henny felt his heart sink into his stomach at the realization of that fact.
"Sh*t," Henny whispered.
"I know. We spent all night getting bodies into the light so the Kryll wouldn't get to 'em. Ten years in hell and you never get used to seeing corpses. Friends, loved ones, sh*t even kids."
Henny looked over to Gary. He had his eyes screwed shut, as if trying to fight back all the repulsive images in his head. Henny poured the coffee into the cups and walked back to the table. He put one cup in front of Gary.
"We're going to have to do a full count later today to find out who exactly didn't make it," Gary said. He looked as if he was off in another world.
Gary was an average sized man. Short brown hair, graying in places. Hairline receding at the temples. A short stubble beard indicated he hadn't shaved in a couple days. The man looked ten years older than he really was.
Gary was barely able to take one sip of his coffee when a knock sounded at the door. In walked a man named Grant.
"There's some people outside the gates asking for you, Gary. They look like some of Thor's men," Grant said in a strangely calm voice.
"Sh*t," Gary muttered, "What the hell do they want?"
"I don't know sir," replied Grant.
Gary sighed, "I'll take care of it." He got up from the table, took another drink of his coffee, then headed out.
"You want me to come wicha," asked Henny.
"No man, stay here. Dizzy needs a friend now and that's you," replied Gary, "I'll be back after I see what these assholes want."
Gary followed Grant toward the south western gate of the camp. Along the way they passed a large pile of dead Locust. Gary knew that if the Gears hadn't of shown up, they'd all be dead. He resented the thought. Gary hated the COG, but not for the same reasons as others. In fact it wasn't the COG he hated, just one man in it.
Gary's father served in the Pendulum Wars. He was a damned hero. But one day, while on leave he got in an argument with his wife and in a drunken rage, killed her. He was sent to Jacinto Maximum Security Prison to serve a life sentence. Gary never forgave him for his actions, but at least he thought he'd never see that bastard again. Then came E-Day. Shortly afterward, Col. Hoffman pardoned all inmates, and put them in uniform. That's why Gary hated them, Every time Gary saw a dead Gear, he hoped it was his father who suffered a horrible death at the hands of the Locust horde.
Gary and Grant arrived at the open gate. About a hundred feet down the road was a truck with three men standing next to it. One man he recognized as one of his own men. He seemed to be getting the raw end of an argument with the other two. After another verbal assault from them, he turned and ran back to the gate.
"What do they want?" Gary asked him as he finally made it back. Up close Gary recognized the kid as Bob.
"The one in charge is looking for you," replied Bob, "Said his name was Mad Dog."
Gary cursed under his breath. If their was anyone he hated more than his father, it was Mad Dog. Mad Dog was a sly, conniving, little sh*t, and just happened to be Thor's second in command. Thor is a leader of a two bit Stranded gang, always threatening Gary for supplies.
"Lets go see what those bastards want. Joseph," Gary pointed to one of the men stationed at the gate with a sniper rifle in hand, "Keep me covered. If this goes to sh*t, pop one of them. Grant, Bob, you're with me."
Gary set off to confront the gang members. He counted four of them. One man standing by the front of the truck, another standing in the back, and two more standing at the back end, closest to Gary. The short one was Mad Dog. While he wasn't a small guy, he looked like an ant compared to the mountain of a man standing next to him. The man standing in the back of the truck was skinny and short, and looked very malnourished. He was standing next to a large crate covered in a large white tarp.
"Hey, Gary. What's up man. How are things in your little slice of heaven, huh?" Mad Dog asked with an infuriating smirk on his face.
"F*ck off Mad Dog. What do you want?"
"Hey now, that's no way to speak to the messenger."
"I don't have time for your games. In case you hadn't noticed, Locust attacked yesterday, and we are trying to clean up. If you're not going to help, get your ass out of here."
"Oh, see, now we're getting somewhere. Thor knows of the attack. He also knows that the Gears saved your ass. Now when a sh*t load of Locust attack and Gears kill 'em all, there's a sh*t load of dead Locust. And When there's a sh*t load of dead Locust, there's a sh*t of weapons. We're here to take 'em off your hands for you."
"What the f*ck makes you think I'll just give them to you?"
"See, Gary, that wasn't a request. You either give them to us, or we take 'em."
"With what? Four against my entire camp? I'd like to see you try Mad Dog.
The man who was standing in front of the truck, walked up to Mad Dog's left side. Mad must of thought he looked tough with two big guys next to him. Mad Dog took a step forward and got right up in Gary's face.
"The only reason I don't cap you right now, is cuz I love to watch you squirm Gary," His dreadful smirk widening.
"The only reason I don't shoot you is because I don't waste the ammo on a piss-pore excuse of a human being like yourself."
Mad Dog took a step back, "With all pleasantries aside, lets get back to business. Rat!"
"Yes Boss," said the skinny man in the truck bed.
"Show these nice people our little pet."
The man called 'Rat' reached around and picked up the giant crate and hefted it out of the truck bed, and set it down in-between Gary and Mad Dog. Suddenly a high pitched scream sounded from the crate.
"Take the tarp off," Mad Dog ordered Rat.
As Rat pulled the white tarp off the snarling from inside only got louder. The Tarp slid off revealing a Locust Wretch inside a steel cage. Gary jumped back in surprise. Grant and Bob leveled their shotguns at the beast.
"Are you f*cking insane?" Gary shouted while Mad Dog broke out laughing.
"You see, if we don't get our weapons, I'm going to let this little guy loose and watch him rip you to bloody ribbons."
Gary looked at the savage animal. It had grey skin, just like its Locust masters. It had small beady red eyes full of bloodlust. The Wretch grabbed one of the bars on its cage and reached its monkey like hand out, in a feeble attempt to maim anything it could.
"I don't even want to know how the f*ck you caught that thing," said Gary, "Grant, shoot it!"
Grant raised his Gnasher , but before he could fire, the Stranded next to Mad Dog blasted Grant with his Double Barrel Shotgun. Grant was dead before he hit the ground, his body littered with buck shot.
"We have a deal or what?" chuckled Mad Dog.
You're f*cking crazy," Gary said as he walked over to Grants corpse. He ran his hand over Grant's face to close his eyes, then grabbed his shotgun. Gary motioned to Bob, telling him that there leaving.
"You can tell Thor to shove it where the sun don't shine," Gary said. He and Bob started walking back to the gate.
"You're making a huge mistake Gary!" Mad Dog shouted, "Rat! Release our little friend."
Gary spun around and raised his shotgun. Rat stood up on top of the cage, pulled a lever, and unlatched the lock on the cage. He pulled the front of the cage up, releasing its prisoner. The Wretch, now free of its cage, charged at Gary all while screaming its small head off. Gary aimed his Gnasher and fired. The beast fell back from the force of the shot. Mad Dog's face contorted in anger.
"Your gonna pay for that!" he screamed. He and his gang walked up to Gary, obviously ready for a fight. "Big Larry, show then who there dealing with," Mad Dog ordered the hulking giant. Suddenly a sniper rifle round rang out. The top half of Larry's head exploded, and his lumbering frame fell backward. Mad Dog looked at his corpse in shock and when he turned back to Gary he received a heavy punch to the face. The other two men turned and ran back to the truck. Mad Dog was still trying to pick himself up from Gary's massive blow to the face.
"This is a mistake! You hear me!" Mad Dog screamed as he stumbled to his feet and took off for the truck. "When Thor hears of this, your all dead!" he shouted as he climbed into the truck, "You haven't seen the last of me asshole!" With that, the truck drove off.
"Good shot Joseph," said Gary as he reached the gate, "If those bastards come back, shoot on sight." Gary knew that if they even tried coming back, his men would be ready for them.