Chapter 2: To fear, or not to fear? That isn't the question.

"You know, I've been thinkin'. If we have the power to cause pretty explosions that destroy cities like this, why haven't we found a way to make that a little more... you know... portable?" Asked Haggard as we were climbing through some rubble.

"Are you totally insane? That was a NUKE, Haggard! That's not something we can just use willy-nilly!" Exclaimed Sweetwater.

"That's why I should have joined the Airforce! They get to blow stuff up ALL the time!"

"Didn't I tell you two to shut up? You'll give away our position!" Said Sarge as he stopped walking and turned around to yell at the two soldiers.

"Sarge, think of it this way: This Alma girl is psychic right? She can probably hear our thoughts a mile away from here. We don't have to verbally say anything to give away our position," said Sweetwater.

"Maybe so, but we should at least try to keep our presence here relatively unnoticed."

"Unnoticed by what? All that's here is a bunch of rubble. I'm positive that Alma is nowhere to be found," said Haggard.

"Oh? And what makes you such an expert, Mr. Haggard the Pyromaniac Scientist?" Asked Sweetwater.

"I've got a REAL strong 6th sense."

"Riiight, and Sarge doesn't like fishing."

"Just shut up you two, we need to keep moving!" Exclaimed Sarge. As we approached a door, Sarge tried to open it. "Locked." Sarge kicked the door. "Won't even budge. We'll have to find another way around."

"Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that if we go back and take a right there is a small pathway through some of the rubble which should..." Just as I was about to point us in another direction, Haggard decided to interrupt.

"Or we could make our own door!" Exclaimed Haggard as he threw a grenade at a nearby wall, creating a giant hole in said wall. "Woooo HOOOOO!!!! I just LOVE blowing stuff up!"

"Well... that works too," I said as I swept some pebbles of debris off of my helmet. Sarge let out a sigh and shook his head.

"Why do I even bother sometimes?" He asked. Sweetwater approached the hole in the wall and walked through it. He looked around at the inside. It had been some sort of warehouse before that explosion judging by it's appearance.

"I can't believe that this place is still intact. A lot of buildings in the area have nearly been blown to tiny... AH!" Screamed Sweetwater as he suddenly started firing at something. We all jumped into the warehouse to assist him... but we didn't see anything.

"What the hell are you shooting at Sweetwater?" Asked Sarge.

"For a brief second I could have sworn that I saw Alma! She was standing right there!"

"You thought you saw Alma? I think you are just seeing things that aren't there," said Haggard.

"No! I swear! She was standing right over there!" Said Sweetwater as he gestured over to the right with his gun.

"Didn't I tell you that all that geek stuff you do would make you go crazy?"

"What? Being good with computers has nothing to do with..."

"We're never going to get to the school at this rate if you two don't shut up!" Said Sarge.

Alma Wade stood on what was left of the rooftop of the warehouse, looking down at the group of four soldiers. Two of them were arguing while the one who looked like the leader was yelling at them to shut up. She was puzzled, their telesthetic signatures were unusually high, and yet they didn't seem like they were capable of using any form of psychic power. She could partially see into their minds and what she saw troubled the young woman. They were on a mission to destroy her. She started to chuckle at the thought of it. There was no way these two would be able to kill her, especially since they don't have any apparent psychic powers. But if that was the case, why would her enemies only send four soldiers after her?

"No matter. I'll simply kill them and move on with my plans. It'll be just like all those other soldiers I killed when I was sealed away in the fault... only much easier now," she said in her thoughts. Though she paused as she remembered the various soldiers she had slaughtered. These four seemed unusually different from most soldiers. They didn't even seem like much of a threat, the kind of people who would be more likely of shooting themselves in the foot than actually killing an enemy. So maybe there isn't any need to kill them... yet. "Alright, but that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun with these four," thought Alma as she smirked.

As I followed my squad, that painful headache returned. I did my best to ignore it and kept on walking. I stopped and looked around at the rubble piled all over the street we were on.

"Hey how much further is the school?" I asked. Sweetwater turned around and looked over at me.

"We still have a ways to... hey Pres, what happened to your helmet?" Asked Sweetwater.

"What?" I placed my hands where my helmet was... only to find that it wasn't there at all. I let out a grunt of surprise and started looking around on the ground for my helmet. "I didn't even know that I had lost it!" As I was looking around, I felt something hit my shin, causing me to fall to the ground.

"Hey, my rocket launcher!" Exclaimed Haggard as his beloved weapon floated in the air above him. "That's my favorite weapon!" Suddenly all four of us were picked up and thrown down to the ground... in my case I was back on the ground again.

"Look!" Pointed Sweetwater as he got up and pointed at something behind me. I turned around just in time to end up being almost face to face with Alma Wade herself. She was wearing my helmet and was smirking as if she was enjoying all this. It was being this close to Alma that made me see just how scary looking she is. Alma looked like she was malnourished. She was stick thin and I could see her ribs. Her face was sunken in and her eyes looked like they were oozing out black blood. "It's her! It's her! Oh God, we're all going to die!"

"Shut the hell up Sweetwater! Marlowe, what are you waiting for? Take her out!" I looked over at Sarge with an expression of surprise.

"What about you guys? I can't take her on my own!" I exclaimed.

"Hey don't worry 'bout it! You kicked the Legionnaire's ass without any trouble!" Said Haggard.

"That was different! He only had a helicopter... he didn't have psychic powers!"

"Well you are closest to her, we think you should deal with this," said Sweetwater.

"Yeah, exactly!" Said Sarge. I sighed. I turned around and faced Alma, she still had that grin on her face. I cleared my throat.

"Excuse me, ma'am? First off, I want my helmet back," I said. Alma promptly took my helmet off and dropped it at my feet. "Oh, uh... thanks." I straightened up and tried to make myself look official. "Ma'am, we request that you cease and desist all paranormal freaky crap that you might be causing in this city. We have been authorized to use force if necessary so don't try anything. Comply with our demands or else..." Suddenly Alma's appearance changed. She went from malnourished and dead looking to healthy and drop-dead beautiful.

"Or else what?" She asked in an almost musical tone of voice. I paused as my mouth gaped wide open.

"Um, uh... or else we will... uh... that is... umm... well..." Suddenly Alma lunged forward at me while letting out a strange scream. I yelped and fell onto the ground. Alma started laughing and then vanished in a cloud of ashes. There was a moment of silence before anyone said anything.

"Good work, Pres. You really showed her!" Said Haggard.

"She'll probably be back before you know it," stated Sweetwater.

"Then Marlowe can deal with her once and for all," said Sarge. I sighed, picked up my helmet, and put it back on. We started walking through the ruined city again. Just as we began to make some progress, Sarge stopped, backed up against the wall, and motioned for us to do the same. "Stack up and stay low!" Whispered Sarge.

"What is it, Sarge?" I whispered as I took cover behind the same wall.

"Somebody is coming. Sounds like an APC or some sort of vehicle."

"Why do we gotta hide? Can't we just blow 'em up or somethin'?" Asked Haggard.

"Not without knowing who it is no! It could be one of ours for all we know!" Said Sarge. The sound of vehicle coming grew louder. Then there was the sound of a vehicle stopping and opening up.

"You were right, Sarge. It's an APC alright. It looks like it belongs to Armacham," whispered Sweetwater.

"Why doesn't anybody use a Truckasaurus Rex these days?" Asked Haggard rather loudly.

"Try saying that a little louder next time, I don't think they heard you!"

"Armacham? What are they doing out here?" I asked.

"I don't know. But I got a bad feeling about this," said Sarge. We all looked over whatever we had taken cover behind to take another look. There were two men dressed in fatigues that had a mix of blue and black colors and had the Armacham symbol on their chests. Standing next to them was an older man with short gray hair and blue eyes. He also wore similar armor. "Ah shit, I knew it!" Grunted Sarge.

"What's wrong?"

"That guy those two soldiers are talking to is Colonel Richard Vanek. He used to be a Marine, my commanding officer at one point. He is infamous for being a cold blooded killer, more psychotic murderer than a soldier. Apparently he is the head of Armacham's Security Force. Who the hell would assign that man a position of power..." Vanek and the two soldiers got into the APC and it drove off down the road. Sarge got up and looked in the direction that the APC went in. "Mike-one-Juliet, this is Bravo-one-Charlie, over."

"This is Mike-one-Juliet, over," responded Miss July.

"Any idea what ATC Security is doing here in the city, over?"

"According to intel, Armacham sent in it's security force to contain the situation and eliminate all information linking the company with Project Origin and Alma Wade. I'm guessing you had a run in with them, over."

"Yeah, we did. They didn't notice us though. Are they with us?"

"Hard to say. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they attacked you."

"What? Are you kidding? We're here to destroy Alma! Wouldn't that mean that we're on the same side?" Exclaimed Sweetwater.

"It would seem that Armacham is willing to do anything it takes to contain this situation. It goes without saying that they would doubtlessly have no hesitation to order their security force to attack the military if needed."

"Then let's go kill 'em to teeny tiny pieces!" Exclaimed Haggard.

"If they try to get in our way we may have to do just that," said Sarge.

"Sarge is agreeing with Haggard. The end of the world is nigh," said Sweetwater. Of course that sparked another argument between Sarge, Haggard, and Sweetwater. I sighed and activated my on COM ear piece.

"Thanks for the intel, Miss July. We're gonna continue heading to the school. Over," I said.

"Your welcome, boys. Mike-One-Juliet out."

"Alright, let's keep on moving. We still have a ways to go before we reach the school," said Sarge. We proceeded onward through the ruins of the city. As we were walking we came across a rather strange sight. We found two life sized statues of people. They looked disturbingly life like and they were running from something. They looked like they were made of stone.

"Now why would someone leave their lawn gnomes right in the middle of a destroyed city? That seems kinda silly to me," said Haggard.

"I'm pretty sure people didn't just leave these here," stated Sweetwater as he took a step closer to the statues. "I almost get the feeling that these were once living, breathing, civilians before... whatever did this to them."

"People turning into statues? That's one of the many dumbest things I've ever heard you say!"

"That doesn't even make sense, Haggard..."

"In a mess like this, nothing is really going to surprise me. For all we know, Sweetwater could actually be right about this," said Sarge. I approached one of the statues.

"They really do look disturbingly like people made out of stone..." I said as I reached out to touch the statue. As I touched the statue it crumbled into dust. I jolted back in surprise and looked at my hand. "What?"

"Stone statues falling apart into a cloud of dust in a second, now I've seen everything," said Sarge.

"So if they get touched by something they fall apart..." Muttered Haggard.

"Haggard! No!" Exclaimed Sweetwater. Too late. Haggard had already thrown a grenade at the feet of another couple of statues further away from us. It blew up, taking the statues with it along with part of a wall.

"WOOO HOOOOO!"

"Don't ever do that again, Haggard..." Said Sarge.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I love blowin' stuff up!"

"Haggard, I'm not even going to respond to that," said Sweetwater.

"Blowing things up can be a lot fun," said a familiar, musical voice. We all shot around and saw Alma standing there in front of us. She appeared in her malnourished form, and looking as scary as always.

"You again..." I said.

"I'm a very big fan of watching something blow up," continued Alma. Suddenly she started pulsing with orange red energy. Black tentacles made of smoke shot up from the ground around her. "Perhaps you'd all like to see a demonstration?"

"No, we don't need to see anything! Really!" Exclaimed Sweetwater. Just as Alma was about to attack us, she suddenly turned around and looked off towards the east.

"What?" For once I could hear surprise in Alma's voice. Then all of a sudden she licked her lips and smiled. With that she vanished, leaving us alone once more.

"Hey come back here!" Shouted Haggard.

"I'll pass. I've detected something much more interesting," echoed Alma's voice.

"What do you think she meant by that?" I asked.

"No idea, but I feel sorry for whoever she's after now," said Sarge. "Let's keep moving before she decides to come back." No one said anything in response to that and we kept on walking. Though it wasn't long before Sweetwater started talking... again.

"Why were we not given a vehicle? We'd get there much faster if we had one!" Exclaimed Sweetwater.

"It's because they don't want to waste any resources on us, if at all possible. We are Bad Company after all. I doubt that there are any cars in this city that are even remotely usable after that explosion," said Sarge.

"Ugh, my feet are killing me."

"Just shut up and keep walking."

"By the way, where is the school located anyway?" I asked.

"No worries, Pres! I've got this map of the city right here," said Sweetwater.

"I'm not entirely sure we should trust you with trail blazin'..." Said Haggard.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Pyromaniac, I know what I'm doing. It should be a little ways down... that street," said Sweetwater as he pointed towards a street further down the road and to the right past a giant pile of rubble.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Sarge. As we started walking, I thought about Becket again. If he is involved in dealing with this mess somehow, I sure hope he doesn't end up having to deal with even half of the stuff we've already had to go through thanks to Alma. Though I couldn't help but get the feeling that we hadn't seen the worst of it yet... hardly.