Humanity's Finest: Part 2
Chapter 2
"Oh you gotta be shitting me." Dempsey cursed; his eyes were wide as Samantha slowly brought her gaze onto him.
She tilted her head with an innocent expression on her deathly pale face as she regarded the marine. Her eyes flashed with dark intent before she turned to Richtofen and her gaze softened slightly. Her eyes began to water as she looked at someone who she considered an uncle, with a hurtful expression on her face.
"Uncle Edward… Why did you betray me and Vati?" Samantha asked. Richtofen stiffened and his jaw clenched when unwanted memories began to surface. "I trusted you. Vati trusted you. So WHY DID YOU KILL US?" She demanded, her voice becoming higher pitched and demonic at the end.
Everyone recoiled at the raw anger of the phantom was showing. Slowly, very slowly, everyone turned to Richtofen for answers. But the man was just as speechless as them. Inhaling and holding his breath for several seconds, Richtofen exhaled sharply before steeling his resolve. He knew he was going to face the demons of his past sooner or later, but damit, he wanted to do it on his terms!
He didn't want it to be like this.
However seeing one of his past regrets right in front of him, it made it that much harder to breathe. He may be a lunatic without morals, but, even he can come to regret things he did. Killing a child that thought of you as an uncle went into that category.
"Samantha," Richtofen slowly began as he slowly took a few steps toward the spirit. "I know you're angry vith me-"
"ANGRY!" The girl bellowed, her face twisting in pure unadulterated rage. "I AM NOT ANGRY, UNCLE EDWARD! I AM FUCKING FURIOUS YOU SCHWEIN, YOU LOCKED ME IN THE TESTING LABS WITH MY DADDY AND LEFT US TOO DIE WITH FLUFFY!"
"Wait. Fluffy?" Dempsey said with confusion. His eyes suddenly widened in realisation and remembrance, and also a bit of fear. "Shit. That's the mother of all hellhounds, right?" He looked at Richtofen for confirmation. Richtofen nodded and Dempsey slowly looked at Samantha who was grinning darkly at him.
"Oh, shit…"
Samantha was now giggling. It wasn't a giggle that would make a person feel bubbly inside, it's the kind of giggle that said; "You're in deep shit now, start running!" and the giggle was slowly becoming a demonic laughter that the zombie slayers were all too familiar with.
"We had better get ready." Nikolai warned everyone, aiming the AK74 in his hands in every direction in case they were about to be attacked.
"Get ready for what?" Miller asked, following the Soviet's example and looked through the sights of his Thompson submachine gun. "What's coming?"
"Unrelenting hell kid," Dempsey answered grimly. "I wish I had my M-14 rifle in my hands, right about now."
Blinking Miller reached to his hoister and took out the spare handgun, the CZ-75. He stared at the pistol for a few seconds before handing it Dempsey.
When the marine stared at him in confusion, Miller shrugged at him and simply said "You'll need this more than I do."
Dempsey nodded in understanding and took the pistol out of Polonsky's hands with a nod. He twirled the modern pistol in his palm before holstering it, and looked back at Polonsky who was now holding out five magazines for said pistol to him. Chucking sheepishly, Dempsey took possession of the ammunition and pocketed them.
"So, Samantha, apart from wanting killing the lot of us, what do you want exactly?" Dempsey asked with a calculating eye.
"That is for me to know and for you to find out." She replied cryptically before a dark smile spread across her lips, which put everyone on edge. "Hope you enjoy playing my new game!" She suddenly added, in a demonic voice that only Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen recognised before a foggy mist rolled in.
Tank Dempsey… the most battle hardened marine you would ever meet had actually panicked.
"SHIT! DOGS!"
Then all hell broke loose.
X.X.X.X
The jungle can be the most dangerous place on the face of the planet in the wrong situations, with the dessert being right up there with it. With wild lions, tigers, cheetahs lying in wait waiting for you to make a mistake before they go in for the kill. But for Mason and Woods the threat wasn't any of those mentioned above – oh no, the main threat to them would be the giant human-walking, talking monkeys that can jump several feet in the air. The only thing keeping the two S.O.G marines alive at the moment was skulking around in the bushes and hiding behind trees.
"This is ridiculous," Mason whispered to Woods harshly as the two hid themselves behind some tree stomps. The apes were ahead of them and they were on the lookout for something. "We can't hide from them forever!"
"I know that!" Woods hissed in annoyance. "But right now all we've got are crudely made grenades and swords, and those monkeys got the numbers on their side."
Narrowing his eyes Mason peeked above the edge of the stump and saw a large group of apes, holding weapons from butchering knives to claymores were packed rather closely. He realised a few well thrown grenades could kill them and he had a few crudely made grenades to get rid of. Reaching into his pouch, Mason took out crudely made grenades and a lighter, placed one on the explosives on the ground beside him and looked carefully at the apes ahead of him.
When Frank saw Mason lighting up the lighter, he realised what the marine was going to do. And truthfully he thought Mason was insane.
If only he knew.
"Mason!" Frank hissed in a quiet whisper, "What the hell are you doing?"
Alex didn't even look at him. Or show any sign of acknowledging him. Watching Mason light the fuse, Woods saw the curves of his friends lips twitch upwards. And when Mason drew his arm back Woods didn't attempt at preventing his friend from giving away their position, because if they wanted to put out the fire they'd have to use the skin on their fingers to do it.
And using a combat knife to sever the fuse would be difficult when said explosive felt like it was ten pounds in weight.
"Let's see what kind of damage this thing can do!" Mason growled softly, before rolling the sphere toward the group. The S.O.G marine watched the explosive with anticipation when the apes looked down at the grenade with curious eyes. And not wasting any time Mason quickly lit up the other explosive and rolled it in another direction toward a group that was separating from the main body.
Frank slowly edged away when he saw and heard Mason crackling silently in anticipation, and to his shock Alex laughed like a lunatic when the grenades exploded five seconds after one another and caught the apes in an explosion of fire, powder and shrapnel. Those who were lucky were thrown off their feet, but still had shrapnel embedded in nonvital areas of their bodies
"Damit Mason," Woods cursed when Alex took his sword out of its scabbard and approached the apes that were lucky enough to escape the explosion. Unsheathing his sword Frank got out of his hiding place and slowly walked toward an ape that was trying to crawl to safety. "That could've alerted everyone to our location."
"They were in our way." Mason said grunting as he stabbed an ape through the heart, and moved off to put another monkey out of its misery. "Hiding from them would only go so far."
"We could've waited until they passed though,"
Mason scoffed and said in a deadpan, "There was a good chance they would've spotted us if we did let them pass."
Woods sighed in defeat and slowly shook his head. There wasn't any point in arguing with him over this. Mason was already hell bent on killing the survivors and anyone else in the area surely had heard the explosion, and was likely coming to investigate. Unsheathing his sword from its scabbard Woods went to help his friend kill the survivors. They couldn't have anyone telling their superiors which direction they went after they've left now could they? After five minutes of ending the apes lives Mason and Woods put their swords back into their scabbards and continued moving in the direction they were originally heading in; toward the other humans that the mysterious voice had told Frank about. After fifteen minutes of walking cluelessly through the forest' both Mason and Woods were cursing themselves in their minds for not having a compass on their possession to show which direction they were walking in. They didn't know which way was north, east, south or west. And they couldn't use the sun to know which direction was which, because the sun was in the middle of the sky, and because of that none of them were able to tell which direction they were walking in either.
Walking a few inches away from each other; with Mason covering their flank and Woods scanning their front constantly for the new enemy', the two were mostly forced to stop and listen to their surroundings before taking cover behind some trees when they heard apes approaching. They also took note that the more they walked on the more apes they encountered patrolling – but managed to either hide or avoid them completely.
Most of them were close calls too.
They went on for several more minutes until by sheer luck; they came across an abandoned shack that was surrounded by a swamp. It was of moderate size, with a single floor and with its location in the middle of a murky swamp is easily defendable from attacks. They were tired but after some persuasion from Mason, both he and Woods took shelter in the shack and the moment they two entered the double doors unexpectedly shut behind them.
Cursing loudly when the door wouldn't budge Woods turned to Mason and gave him the 'I told you so!' glare.
"Greetings gentlemen, and welcome to myshack." A disembodied voice said, with a distinctive feminine tone. Both woods and Mason looked around with their hands hovering above the hilts of their sword, ready to draw them at a moments notice. "I want to play a game with the two of you."
Mason was brave enough to speak, "What kind of game?"
The disembodied voice chuckled, seemingly with mirth, or anticipation. "A riddle," The voice answered with an inane giggle. "If you can guess the answer to my riddle correctly, I'll let you stay here, unharmed, and I'll even throw in a few choices that will help you get back to your brethren." The voice bargained.
It was tempting. A riddle and they would be allowed to stay in the shack, unharmed and they'll allow a few choices that will get them to their… brethren?
"Alright. Give us your riddle!" Woods said with confidently.
The disembodied voice giggled with excitement. "Ok, this is a good one that took me a few years to come up with. This is my riddle: I am always there, but never spoken. But when there is sound, I am broken. What am I?"
"Question: Do we have a time limit?" Mason asked.
"Answer: What do you think?" The voice teased.
Woods was able to sum up their situation with one simple word, "Shit..."
"Another question: How many guesses do we have?" Mason asked again. There was something wrong with this, and his gut was telling him there was more to this riddle than meets the eye. And before he could answer the riddle, he needed information; the obvious one what he had asked seconds ago.
"Hehehe. Answer: You have three guesses, no more, no less."
Mason smirked at the answer the voice had given. Now most people, when told they have three guesses usually have to think hard to come up with an answer that they would most likely be correct for their question. In both Mason and Wood's case, it was for a riddle. And while the benefits of getting it right looked good, the consequences would likely be dire. But thanks to his ever calculating brain Mason had discovered a loophole in the girls little game.
The voice didn't say anything about them both having three choices between them.
And that was something Mason was going to use to his full advantage.
Reciting the words in his head carefully, Mason opened his mouth to give his answer. "Is the answer to your riddle; noise?"
"Nope! Two chances left!" The voice said gleefully. But Mason wasn't deterred in the slightest, he had two chances; but Woods still had his three.
Mason turned to his friend, "Frank, it's your turn."
Woods blinked and gave Mason a questioning look with his eyes. And when Mason didn't say anything and stared blankly at him Woods sighed and wracked his brain for the most logical answer for the voices riddle. "Fine, is the answer to your riddle, speech?" He wasn't really thinking about his answer, and threw out the first thing that came to mind and would likely be correct.
The riddle resolved around sound after all.
"Nope! You have one chance left!" Woods cursed and would've said sorry to his friend until he saw the smirk on his lips.
"I don't think so." Mason shot back with a confident grin.
There was a pause, "What… Are you questioning' my rules?"
"No not really. I just found a loophole in your game." Woods gave Mason a look that demanded him to explain. "She said to me - but mainly us - that I had three guesses to get the correct answer to her riddle. But she didn't say that you and I had three guesses between us."
There was a brief silence that was broken by the voice, who was chuckling to herself. "You're the first one to figure that out. The apes, cheetahs and sometimes moles weren't always that smart when it came to the loopholes in my games. I commend you on finding it out."
"Ok, it's my turn to guess again." Mason said to himself as he exhaled. "The riddle resolves around sound, that much I gathered. But the clues to the answer are in the riddle itself… 'I am always there, but never spoken. But when there is sound, I am broken…' I'd say… silence."
There was a pause where no one spoke. The silence was deafening. Both Mason and Woods were waiting with baited breath for their answer, and the suspense was slowly getting to them. The silence was broken by mirthful laughter from their mysterious riddle giver.
"You, are, correct. Congratulations, now, to clear things up' you both have an option." As if on cue, a computer screen with a keyboard and mouse appeared along with a desk on the far end of the room in a beam of light. Suddenly the girl's voice began speaking like she was lecturing a bunch of five year olds. "That machine in front of you is called a 'computer' and it can bring whatever you request directly to you. Imagine it being like a delivery that a postman brings, but only a thousand times better!"
Both Mason and Woods slowly looked at each other. And the two S.O.G marines silently conversed with one another by their eyes. There was a lot of silent debating and reluctance' in their eyes but eventually one of them relented. When Mason got on the computer first, his eyes lit up when he saw some WW2 weapons mixed with the weapons he uses today. And each weapon had a bottle or two to go with it, which in Mason's opinion cool because he was thirsty at the moment.
There was a Spaz 12 shotgun, which had a red and green bottle that said Juggernaut and Speed Cola on it.
Next was a Thompson submachine gun with a bottle of root beer.
And the list went on. Scrolling down the page to see if there was any other options' he paused for a brief moment when he thought he saw a link saying "Reinforcements" and when he blinked and still saw it, Mason moved the mouse curser toward the link and clicked on it. He brows arched in surprise when he saw two familiar faces, a bald man in his mid to late thirties with nasty looking scars on his face and had sunglasses covering his eyes. The other man appeared to be in his early to middle thirties had a moustache and had an eye patch covering his right eye. All in all the two looked serious and knowing them both personally, they are good men to have at your back.
And from Woods's excited and gleeful expression the man was thinking along the same line as he was. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth Mason quickly moved the curser toward the two men and clicked on them. And logic be dammed a rip in time appeared out of nowhere, and quite literally tossed out the two men that Mason clicked on. The two landed on their stomachs, causing all the air to eject forcibly from their lungs.
"Why do I feel like I've been hit by a truck?" The man in the eye patch said rhetorically.
The scarred faced man looked up, and his eyebrows rose over his sunglasses showing his surprise. He quickly got to his feet and removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, "Mason? Woods? Is that really you?" He questioned in disbelief.
Both Mason and Woods smirked, "Nice to see you too Mr. Shades." Mason said as he crossed his arms. He looked at the Russian and help him too his feet when he saw the man slowly getting up.
Woods saluted the two men with respect and said as he lowered his hand to his side, "Hudson, Weaver, its darn good to have you guys here' but we're in trouble. A lot of trouble and I don't mean the Dragovich and Kravchenko kind either. Neither of us knows what the hell is going on; nor do we know what time period we're in. Something had changed and we don't know what. The apes we know are one of the things that had changed."
"Changed? Changed how?" Hudson asked, taking off his shades to show how serious he is.
Mason gave them the answer, "The being able to walk and talk like us, kind of changed?"
Both Weaver and Hudson stared at the two as if they were insane. But when the two's facial expression didn't change, they began to realise they were actually serious.
"You're actually serious?" Weaver asked shaking his head in disbelief. "Their able to walk and talk like us?"
Woods nodded solemnly, "Yep. The fact that they can use armour, swords and frickin bombs makes them a force to be reckoned with. The two of us have been sneaking around, gathering what equipment we can and used them against their creators." He jerked a thumb to Mason. "Alex, here, has a full bag of explosive the apes use."
As if on cue Mason took the bag off his belt and handed it to Hudson. Showing surprise at how heavy the bag was Hudson opened it and carefully pulled out the explosive and whistled in awe at the size. It was a massive iron sphere, with a large fuse at the tip.
Weaver carefully took it away from Hudson when the scarred man gave it to him, and had to shake his head at how heavy it was when he held it. "Crude and overweight, the thing is a liability given its size and weight."
"Still they have their uses. The apes never expected to have their own weapons used against them. And Mason and I had managed to take out a group of the bastards, with only two of them just a short while ago." Woods proudly told them of their exploits.
Woods quickly became serious before anyone could comment on it however, and walked to the computer to put in his choice. While Woods was doing that Mason was standing at the door, peaking through the opening gap to see if there was any apes approaching. Although the voice said they were safe inside the building, Mason wasn't going to take any chances. It was better for someone to stand guard and be a lookout for them than to be completely defenceless and caught unawares by an attack.
"Still," Mason began under his breath. "With our numbers increased by two we should have a better chance at taking those monkeys on."
Woods found three categories that he could choose on the computer. They were "Tactical" and "Assault" and "Stealth". Picking the Tactical category Woods found the whole entire page was full of short to medium range shotguns, explosives like C4 and Claymores. He raised an eyebrow when he found a China Lake grenade launcher, a Panzershrek and an M2 Bazooka in the selection too.
"One modernized weapon, and two rocket launchers that haven't been used since the Second World War? I wonder what the Assault section has…"
Woods quickly found out when the Assault category was filled with both WW2 and Modern weapons, like the M1A1 Thompson or commonly known as "The Tommy Gun", an M-16 Assault Rifle with a flamethrower attachment, an MP40 and Type 100. He even found the infamous B.A.R (Browning Automatic Rifle). And it wasn't just the American's, German and Japanese weapons that could be chosen' there was Soviet weapons too.
Shaking his head Woods went to the Stealth category. He wasn't surprised to find that the whole page was full of bolt action and gas-operated sniper rifles with silencers on them. The Springfield had a scope and silencer attached to it, the German Kar98 looked silver and had engravings on it' but had no scope on it.
There were so many choices in these categories but Woods wanted more than one weapon. Besides with him having a highly powered weapon like the FG-42 while everyone else was stuck using swords was not a good balance.
X.X.X.X
Nikolai screamed out loud in a high pitch when a hellhound was close to biting off his family jewels. Swiftly taking out his knife the Soviet swung, stabbed and slashed at the hellhound in a desperate attempt to force the demonically transformed dog away from his groin. It worked for the most part. But the hellhound only bared its teeth in anger and went in for another bite, with its claws brandished and ready to tear. Luckily for Nikolai, salvation arrived in the form of Richtofen and Takeo who used their MP40 and AK74u to force the dog off in another direction. Dempsey and Polonsky were covering each others backs as the dogs tried to swarm them from every side. Ejecting the empty clip from the CZ75 Dempsey quickly grabbed another and slipped it inside the slot, and quickly unsheathed his knife and rammed it underneath a hellhound's snout when it leapt at him. Growling as both marine and dog were knocked to the ground; Dempsey quickly pressed the barrel of his pistol in the side of the demonic dogs head and ruthlessly pulled the trigger.
The hellhound howled in anguish before it blew up in smoke and flames. Tank hacked and coughed when he accidentally breathed in some toxic fumes, and started pounding against his chest in an effort to force the fumes out of his lungs. Spitting the saliva that was building in his mouth Dempsey cleaned his mouth with the outside of his arm before screaming a curse when a dog landed on top of him. Polonsky luckily enough saw the hellhound about to tear into Tank's throat and he turned and brought his boot down on the dogs head. The hellhound wasn't expecting a boot to be shoved on its head, and the force of the kick was enough to force the hellhound to stagger away. When the dog regained its bearings turned to face the person that distracted it, only to narrow its eyes in defiance when it found a barrel of a M1919 Browning in its face.
It howled in agony before dispersing in flames and smoke when 30. Caliber bullets, curtsy of the Browning, easily tore through its face like paper.
"Did you fight these things all the time?" Polonsky yelled over the carnage.
"Yeah! They were and still are fucking annoying to deal with!" Dempsey replied as he quickly got to his feet.
Polonsky chuckled in spite of the situation. "I can see why,"
The seven were facing a growing problem. The mist was seemingly thickening and it was beginning to impede with their eyesight, making it difficult to see which direction the hellhounds were coming from. The hellhounds with flames covering their entire body were somewhat easy to spot, but eventually, they'll be hard to spot from within the mist.
"We need to regroup with everyone else!" Dempsey yelled.
Polonsky nodded in agreement. He didn't care if there was a Nazi amongst them. He was helping them survive and that was good enough for him to fight along side the racist bastard. With that the two Marine Raiders followed the sounds of gunfire in the mist, and scanned their surroundings for more hellhounds that were likely waiting in hiding. Having a weapon that fires 30. Caliber bullets was a massive help when both Dempsey and Polonsky were ambushed, and having a semi-automatic pistol that carries more than eight bullets and fires 19mm bullets helped a bit too!
"I love this gun!" Dempsey laughed joyously, as he emptied an entire clip into three hellhounds that attempted to flank them. He quickly took out the empty magazine from the slot and placed another in its place, before switching to his M1911 Colt.
While not being able to carry as many bullets like the CZ75, the .Colt (and sometimes the CZ75) is one of two weapons known that is capable of firing bullet sized grenades once upgraded. But it had to be Pack-A-Punched in order for that to happen.
"Tank, why the heck are you using the .Colt?" Polonsky asked when he realised his lookalike wasn't using the more advanced and effective CZ75.
Dempsey didn't know how Polonsky saw him using a different gun, given how dense the fog has gotten since they set off on finding their comrades. He shrugged his shoulders; even if he was sure Polonsky couldn't see him and said in a quiet tone. "I want to save ammo for later use. These hellhounds tend to spawn like crazy if you kill enough of 'em. So, I want to use my .Colt first, then the 75 later."
"Oh, that seems reasonable." Polonsky replied.
The silence was deafening, apart from the occurring gunfire and the dying howls of anguish coming from the hellhounds until Polonsky broke it.
"Actually that doesn't seem reasonable. That seems stupid!"
Dempsey arched an eyebrow, "Its actually better getting rid of your weak weapons first and using the more powerful weapons later." The blonde haired marine wisely pointed out, as he nodded his head to himself sagely. "It's how the rules of Samantha's little game works. The weapons we buy are strong at first, but later on," He lifted his .Colt and twirled it in his palm. "The guns gradually get weaker and weaker until they do jack shit on them-" He stopped twirling the .Colt and quickly took aim at a hellhound that was trying to catch Polonsky unawares.
It took a whole magazine to its head just to bring the dammed thing down.
He then continued as if he weren't interrupted. "-and now, it would take an entire clip from this gun just to bring one of them down."
While Polonsky and Dempsey were making their way back to the others, Roebuck and Miller were holding their ground from inside a building where the prisoners used to be held. Roebuck with his B.A.R was firing out of the door at any hellhounds that were approaching. Miller with his Thompson was standing in reserve' and was going to take Roebuck's place when he needed reloading. That was until the hellhounds decided to get smart and started teleporting inside the very building they were in. With a curse that was censored and removed from this story for the foulness of it, Miller swiftly turned on his heel and opened fire at the hellhounds before they could move. Five bullets for one demonically transformed dog, ten for another two, reload the submachine gun while Roebuck covered him and repeat the process. For Roebuck it was fairly the same thing. He would open fire on the hellhounds when his friend needed to reload his submachine gun, before reloading himself.
Also to make sure they don't get flanked, the two Marine Raiders slowly moved toward the nearest corner in the room and began a process which snipers had called "camping". It was extremely effective against the dogs because they had no choice but to appear in front of them, and Roebuck and Miller were able to kill them quickly once they were spotted. And the continuously thickening mist did little to hide them if the flashing spheres of light their in gave away their location the moment they appear.
The system both Roebuck and Miller were using was this:
Roebuck was knelling down in the front. Miller was standing at the back. Roebuck would unleash hell upon the hellhounds until he needed to reload, and then Miller would pick up the slack and fire at the demonic looking dogs until he needed to reload. Of course if the hellhounds were to get smart and gang up on them then the system the marines are using is null and void.
Then everything from there is fair game.
Pulling the pin out of a pineapple grenade, Miller drew back his arm and held it there for a few seconds before throwing the grenade into the fog. Moments later there was an explosion of shrapnel and gunpowder' followed by the surprised yelps of the hellhounds. Closing one eye Roebuck carefully aimed through the sights of his B.A.R and opened fire on a hellhound he spotted limping towards them.
The hellhound didn't have a change to roar when bullets tore through its head and into its brain. The hellhound silently fell forward on its knees, and blood seeped out of its wounds and onto the floor. The stench of decay was thick, but Roebuck and Miller were used to it since they were forced to step over the rotten corpses of their fallen brothers in arms and enemies.
The two marines quickly reloaded their weapons and waited for the dogs to teleport into the building again. But after a few minutes of silence, the fog that was slowly blinding them began to let up.
Miller breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's that."
Roebuck nodded his head in complete agreement with relief evident in his voice, "Yeah. Let's go see if the others are ok or not." Miller didn't need to hear anymore. He was internally glad that he wasn't alone in this fight' and had someone he knew watching his back.
Nikolai screamed like a girl when a largely packed group of hellhounds chased after him as he ran around in circles. When they came close to taking a chunk out of his ass the soviet sprinted as fast as he could to get a little distance away from them. Takeo and Richtofen had taken refuge on top of a rooftop that gave them a good view of their surroundings. And they were using said rooftop to watch Nikolai running around with nearly thirty to thirty five hellhounds chasing after him.
Takeo being the honourable Samurai, wanted to state his honour, and therefore left Nikolai to his doom while ignoring his screams for help as he sat in a meditative state, muttering some Japanese proverbs under his breath. He stroked his AK74u that rested in his crossed legs like it was a cat.
Richtofen being the unstable, insane bastard that he is' took joy in watching his Cossack friend getting chased around. He would often help Nikolai' by removing off a large group of dogs off of the face of the earth with his MP40, until the fog so dense he could hardly see anything. Then he had to stop and wait to see if Nikolai pulled through, or got nommed by hellhounds.
"No! Naughty boy, down! I said to STAY THE FUCK DOWN!" Nikolai bellowed. This was followed by the sound of his AK47 going off, grunting and the sound of glass shattering and the distressed howls of his pursuers. "Oh! Look what I've found, a stick. Catch the stick boy! Ahh, not the groin!"
Takeo flinched at the mental image that was going through his head. And from the look of sickening glee Richtofen was showing he was likely thinking the same thing. Repressing the urge to shudder Takeo grabbed his SMG and quickly moved to the ledge to find his hammered companion. Takeo and Richtofen waited for Nikolai in tense silence. A few minutes of peering into the mist for any sign of their Russian teammate the German and Asian had finally spotted a bloodied figure swaying towards them. They immediately knew it was Nikolai. After all, who else in their group sways around like a drunk? To Takeo's relief –although he didn't show it- the mist began to let up giving him and Richtofen a better view of the ground.
Their eyes widened in surprise and disbelief once they saw how bloodied and torn Nikolai's uniform was. His right sleeve was torn off completely; there was a claw tear on his torso, his kerchief was dishevelled and had a few splotches of wet blood on it. His sack was surprisingly in perfect condition, apart from some blood here and there and Nikolai was currently holding the sack protectively in-between his arms with a snarl on his face.
Takeo pressed his palm to his forehead in despair when he heard Nikolai commenting with righteous fury in his voice, "That will surely teach the svoloch behind me no never go for the groin, or my sack of vodka!" The mist was still around and the drunk didn't bother look around in case the hellhounds decided to spawn again.
Then in a comical display, Nikolai turned on the heel of his boots and using the momentum' he smashed his sack of alcohol against a hellhound. The sounds of bones breaking was audible, even from where Takeo and Richtofen were standing. And then something completely unbelievable had happened. The hellhound after it had its face smashed against the sack was actually thrown off its feet and was sent into the sky with Nikolai bellowing at it in Russian with his fist shaking in anger as the dog was slowly becoming nothing but a tiny speck in the distance.
"D-Did you just see vhat I-" Richtofen stammered, as he pointed a shaking hand at the furious looking Nikolai.
Takeo nodded and for once he was actually wary of the Russian. If he could do that with that sack of his… imagine if he used his fists. Or worse, the boots! Thousands of images of Nikolai delivering a boot up the ass and being sent into the sky with an uppercut flashed in Takeo's mind. Yes. He would have to be careful around the Soviet for now on.
X.X.X.X
Spyro and Zoidius looked at the rising smoke in the distance as several different coloured dragons rushed from and out of Warfangs walls around them. As dragons they would be able to get to the site and find the humans before the fire reaches the abandoned village and fly back to Warfang with time to spare. Spyro and Zoidius had requested to go with them but Terrador and surprisingly enough Volteer had told them to remain in the city. Cynder was still missing and the scouts the Avalar tribe had sent out had given information that the apes were reorganizing for something. Spyro knew if the apes were reorganizing for something then it would be big and won't be good for them in the long run.
Then Dempsey's friends and other humans that dressed like him popped out of nowhere. And they found Dempsey again just before they were somehow sent back to Warfang without the humans with them. Yeah, something was happening and Spyro had a feeling the humans were going to be in the middle of it.
"Hey…Spyro…" Said purple dragon glanced at the black dragon, who stared blankly at the sky before pointing a talon. "What the heck is that coming towards us?" The black dragon asked. Frowning Spyro followed the talon and squinted his eyes.
Imagine his surprise when he saw a speck heading towards them, with four of its legs comically flailing around helplessly. As the speck grew bigger and Spyro was shocked when he saw that the speck was actually a dog. A giant dog but a dog nonetheless. And he was even more shocked that the dog was almost as big as a cheetah, its fur was burnt, patches of burnt skin could be seen through the gaps and large chunks of flesh were ripped off that you could see the bone.
It was also covered in fire and had glowing red eyes.
With a startled yell both Spyro and Zoidius immediately took to the skies' and not a moment later the flaming dog smashed against the brick floor, head first (which caused Spyro and Zoidius to whence when they heard several bones snap) before barrelling out of control as it connected the ground and skidding off the wall and onto the hard ground below.
Both Spyro and Zoidius shared a look a hidden agreement in their eyes before they flew to the ground floor. It was a long fifty foot drop. So it didn't come as a surprise to the two dragons when all they saw was a bloodstain surrounding the dog on the ground.
No one spoke for a moment, before Spyro broke it. "You know, somehow, I think the humans had something to do with this." He said in a lame attempt at a joke.
Zoidius despite the situation stifled a laugh.
X.X.X.X
The possible future
"So… you're workin' for her now?" Dempsey said grimly.
Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen stood side by side with Dempsey. Each of them was holding a very scientifically advanced weapon. Tank Dempsey held the Wunderwaffe DG-2, a rifle that fired electricity capable of killing one to ten zombies with a single shot in a chain-lightening. Doctor Edward Richtofen held the Thunder Gun that is able of generating a blast of wind with the force of a hurricane behind it that could blow anything off their feet. Takeo Masaki had the Winters Howl; a hand gun that is able of trapping multiple objects in blocks of ice. Nikolai Belinski had the Ray Gun, another side arm that is able to generate green rays that can dissolve concrete and melt the strongest of steels.
"The Holy One had said you four were a threat to our very existence. And after all that's happened, I have to agree with her." A soft yet seductive voice said from every direction. "If I kill you all here, then our future is secure."
"You do rearise if we die, then everyone erse here wirr die too?" Takeo shouted.
"After all that's happened, that is what you think?" The seductive tone quickly hardened as the speaker hissed at them. "I've seen the future. Death and destruction follows where ever you four fools go. I don't want that to happen to my people!"
"Death and destruction follows where ever Samantha goes you dumb bitch!" Dempsey bellowed in frustration. "How do you think our species died out? Samantha killed them and turned them into flesh eating zombies! She is doing the fucking same to your species, and got them killing everyone and everything in their path!"
"Shut up!" The mysterious speaker shouted, her voice carrying in the wind like thunder. "You know NOTHI-"
"WE KNOW ENOUGH!" Dempsey roared his teeth were bared and his eyes were full of fury. "It's obvious that words won't reach you. It's a shame. Spyro would've wanted you to live, to fight for another day, but I clearly see the truth." Dempsey lifted his arm and pressed his fore and middle fingers to his ear.
"S.O.G and Task Force 141, this is Raider 935: Operation Purification; is a go. I repeat, Operation Purification is a go!"