Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X, Square owns that. I do not own anything Resident Evil Capcom, Sony Pictures, and Screen Gems owns that. I did however own my sanity, before it left me for someone more, eh sane.
Future Horrors Chapter 8:
Trust
"Eh, never mind. Anyway what's next?"
"We leave here in the morning."
We left the cabin early that morning with the Auron-look-alike leading the way. Every hour or so he would stop and hand me a bottle of those pills. I would take two and hand the bottle back to him. Other than that we walked. It was kind of weird at that time, not knowing whether I could trust him or not, but being forced to. He seemed to sense that I was afraid to trust him but he never pushed me to trust him.
About three hours after we left the cabin we met some resistance. The Auron-look-alike slaughtered them before they could even move out of his way. He took their bodies into the edge of the mountains and dropped them. Then he returned and we walked on.
Several hours later he had told me he needed to check in with his superiors so they would not become suspicious this early, and he left. I walked on in the direction he had instructed me to go. About an hour later a group of villagers were blocking my path. Then one started yelling and they all started making their way towards me. I aimed at the closest and pulled the trigger, a stream of bullets smacked into the villagers head and he fell down. I aimed at the next and then the next. I hadn't finished the first clip of bullets before all the villagers were down. Then I heard an engine revving up. Seconds later a man holding a big saw was running towards me. I emptied the clip into him and ran. As soon as I was far enough away from him I dropped the old clip and grabbed my bag, then I reloaded. I turned and fired at the man with the saw. But he just kept coming.
Suddenly an idea occurred to me. So I aimed at his legs and fired. After several seconds he fell. Then he got back up and came towards me slower. I took aim at his knees and fired. After several minutes he fell. Then he got back up. One of his legs was torn off at the knee now but still he came towards me hopping on one leg. I thought about running passed him, he is slower now. But anything at all could be in that direction. So I turned and ran back in the direction I came from. After about three hours of running I was back at the cabin we had left this morning. I stood outside of it and reloaded the submachine gun, then I waited. I could still hear the engine and it WAS getting closer. After maybe ten minutes I could see the man holding the saw still hopping towards me. I shot at him again, knocking him off of his one leg. Then I waited and did it again. After a while he fell and didn't get back up.
I jogged passed him and back down the path. Several hours later I was back to where I had first encountered the man with the saw. I checked to make sure I didn't need to reload and walked on. Moments later several more villagers appeared out of the mountain. I shot several of them down before feeling something pierce through my back. I turned around and took out the ones behind me before something got me from the side. Then something else got me in the back. I tried to run but I was in too much pain and ended up on the ground crawling away from them.
Sometime later I was waking up back at the cabin. The Auron-look-alike was sitting in a chair beside of the bed. His eyes were open. I pulled the brown cloth up over my bare shoulders before sitting up. The pain in my sides, chest, back, arms, legs, and stomach is almost overwhelming and I lie back.
"What happened back there?" I ask
"The villagers ambushed you." He says matter-of-factly.
"I know that. How did you get…
"I heard gunshots. By the time I made it to your location you had taken out one group of villagers, a man with a saw, and another group was ambushing you. You were down, and they seemed to be enjoying hacking away at you with their axes and swords. I took care of them and brought you back here." He says.
"Why do I feel like someone tried to set me on fire?"
"The wounds." He says. "Rikku, how did they get the jump on you like that?"
"Several came at me from the front, I shot them down, one wounded me from the back I turned on them, some got me from the sides…
"You should have been paying closer attention to everything that was around you." He says
"Gee, ya think. I thought those things only had basic thought patterns...
"The villagers do only have basic thought patterns, but it doesn't take very much intelligence to pull of a successful ambush."
"What about the man with the saw? I shot one of his legs off and he kept coming. Explain that."
"Did you notice how the drones back at Luca never seemed to notice pain?"
"Yes. Why is that?"
"The drones only have one purpose, which is to eat. Eating is the way they spread the drone parasites, creating more drones or workers. They do notice pain, but they don't have the intelligence to know why they are feeling the pain, or know to move away from the source that is causing their pain. Now the villagers, they are level 2 workers. Their only purpose is to protect this area from intruders. They notice pain, but they don't care about it, the only thing they actually care about is their purpose. Now the man with the saw, he is a Guardian. Anywhere you see more than 12 villagers you will see a Guardian. Guardians are villagers wearing a lot of armor. But whether they feel pain or not no one knows."
"What about the Novistador?"
"Novistadors are Bite Bugs that were infected by the parasite, I don't know much else about them." He says and leans back. "You do know that the villagers and the Guardian are nothing compared to what we will be fighting?"
"I was so hoping you wouldn't say that." I say, "Tell me everything you can."
"Once we make it back to where you were ambushed and on down the path there is a gate. Once passed the gate we'll be passing another village. Passed that is a gate that leads to the ruins. There will be level 3 and level 4 workers inside the ruins. They are villagers as well, just smarter. Then passed the ruins is the mines, there will be level 5, 6, and 7 workers in there. Passed the mines is the mansion. Inside the mansion is where the level 1, 2, and 3 soldiers are. Passed the mansion is the research base, and that is where we need to get you to before your parasite matures."
"We have to go through all of those places?"
"If you want I can just fly you to the base, we could fight our way through, remove your parasite and then I could fly you out of the compound."
"You can fly?"
"No I cannot fly, but I can run faster than any human can, and I can jump higher than any human can." He says.
"What are you?"
"I am a level 22 soldier." He says.
"Aren't there any cool names for you like there was for the Novistador?"
"Yes. Regenerator." He says.
"And what does that mean."
"It means I regenerate body parts at extreme speeds."
"So that's why when you were attacking us at Luca nothing we did really hurt you."
"Well it did really hurt, but yes that's why all your fighting wouldn't kill me. Actually it would take blowing my arms, legs, head, and torso, into pieces to kill me, but it can be done."
"Okay. How many regenerators are there?"
"Around thirty." He says
"Damn. Can we get some better weapons sometime?"
"Yeah if you would like, I can take you to the armory in the mansion before we get to the research base."
"What is your name?"
"Almost everyone I know calls me Auron." He says. "Before they started calling me Auron they called me 19. And before that I was known as Frost."
"Frost huh?"
"Yeah."
"Has anyone like ever called you Frosty?"
"No." he says looking puzzled.
"Has anyone ever sung, Frosty the…
"Rikku don't." he says and walks out of the cabin.
"Gee ya don't have much of a sense of humor do ya?"
"Rikku, you have a slowly maturing parasite inside of your body, you are stuck on an island full of things that probably want to kill you, your only help is from something that tried to kill you back at Luca, you got into a game of "slice and dice" with some of the villagers and lost, and you are worried because I don't have a sense of humor." He says giving her that annoyed look.
"Hey don't give me that look, I get that look enough from everyone."
"I can see why." He says.
"HEY!" I say, "Don't be mean."
"Why not its fun?" he says and walks back inside of the cabin. I follow him exasperated. Why do all red-coated meanies have to be mean? Of course there is one and only one Legendary Red-Coated Meanie, and I am seriously beginning to miss him, again. I guess that's why I am acting like this with Frost, I mean after all he does look exactly like Auron.
"Frost."
"What is it?" he says.
"I am sorry if I am annoying you. I just miss Auron, and since you look exactly like him I guess I am picking on you."
"That's okay Rikku." He says grinning. "After being cooped up in a cave for a couple thousand years its nice to see someone as cheerful as you."
"I try." I say grinning.
"Rikku, once we get you off of this island can you help me get to Besaid?"
"I guess. I'll talk to Pops about letting you ride the airship okay?"
"Okay." He says grinning.
"Why do you want to go to Besaid?"
"There is someone I have to meet on Besaid."
"Who?"
"I'd rather not discuss it here."
A while later I talk him into us continuing our journey. We go outside and I climb onto his back. Then we are moving fast. In less than an hour he is pushing me through a window up high on a big building. I climb in and wait for him. He pulls himself through and begins walking down a small hall. Seconds later he is opening a door and I am following him inside. He closes the door and lights up the room using a lamp.
We are standing inside an armory. Frost grabs several bags and throws one to me. "Take what you want."
"Thanks." I say. I stare at the walls covered in weapons before deciding on an assault rifle.
"I would suggest a different rifle." Frost says looking at the wall. He grabs one almost like the one I took. "This one here is equipped with a grenade launcher."
"Okay." I say as I take the one he is handing me. I scan the wall again and decide on a handgun. I reach up and grab it.
"Rikku I would suggest a different handgun." He says. He reaches up and grabs one that looks a lot like the one I took. "This one doesn't have too bad of a recoil."
"Okay." I say and take the one he is holding. He looks at me and then grabs a belt with hip holsters and hands it to me. I buckle it around my waist and put the handgun in the holster. He hands me another handgun and I put it in the empty holster. Then he hands me another handgun. I look at the belt and don't see anywhere to put it.
"Take this as a spare." He says. I take the gun and put it in my bag. He hands me a knife and I hook the sheath it's in over my belt. He nods approvingly. He then hands me several clips for the handguns. I put 4 of them on my belt and the rest in my bag. Then he hands me four clips for the assault rifle. I drop them in my bag also. Next he hands me a box of grenades and I drop those in my bag. He grabs a box of shotgun shells and drops those into my bag also. By now my bag is heavy so I tie the strings at the top and throw it over my shoulders.
He shows me how to load and reload each gun, including the grenade launcher part of the assault rifle. He checks to make sure each gun is loaded and then begins grabbing more guns.
I sit down on some kind of box and watch him as he fills his bags. He fills 9 bags with different kinds of handguns, ammunition, and grenades before he stops and throws the bags over his shoulders. Then he reaches up and grabs several assault rifles, shotguns, and a few other big guns that I don't recognize. He throws the straps of those guns over his shoulders and motions for me to climb on his back.
He climbs out the window and we begin to move again. About two hours later he stops and lets me down. I watch as he drops all of his bags except one and all of his guns except two shotguns and one assault rifle into the hole. He then pushes a large rock over the hole.
"Why are you leaving those here?"
"You'll see." He says and motions for me to get back on his back.
Minutes later we are standing about eighty feet away from a large, heavily guarded building.
"Use a grenade." He whispers as he points towards the guards standing by the front entrance. I make sure there is a grenade in the chamber and I turn towards them and fire. The grenade misses and about twenty startled guards look up and start running towards us. He jumps out and begins shooting them with his assault rifle. Suddenly bullets start flying by my head. I load another grenade in the launcher and turn and shoot. It hits the ground in front of the guards and several of them are blown back. But now instead of only twenty guards there is more.
"Why couldn't have we just grabbed some regular grenades I am better with those." I yell as I duck back behind the tree to load another grenade.
"Don't bother with the grenades!" he yells and I duck back out and begin shooting at the guards. It's hard to hit the guards with the assault rifle, but I still manage to take down several of them. Its easier to aim where they are closer together, then it is to aim at the lone guard at the side. "Take this." He yells and hands me the shotgun. I finish off the clip from the assault rifle and begin blasting away at the guards with the shotgun. After a few shots I am empty. He grabs the other shotgun and hands it to me. I aim and begin blasting guards again.
Once the other shotgun is empty I throw it down and grab my handgun. I aim and fire. The first two shots miss, but the third hits a guard. I fire three more shots at his head before he falls over. Then I aim at another, and another. After both handguns are empty I grab the assault rifle and reload.
I look over and Frost is suddenly gone. Then I see a dash of red pushing through the guards, and several of them falling. I take aim at the guards closest to me and begin shooting them, hoping a stray bullet doesn't hit Frost. Finally the last guard falls. Frost grabs my arm and we run to the buildings entrance. Once at the door Frost stops.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing." He says, "Ladies first."
"Okay." I say and start to push the door open. Suddenly I feel cold steel pressed against the side of my head. "Wh-what?"
"Quiet." He says. His arm slides around me and holds me against him. Suddenly I feel something cold and sharp pressed against my throat. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to trust strangers?"