Humanity's Finest
Part 2: Chapter 9
There are a lot of things that Cynder had seen in her short lifespan. A lot of the times, the things she'd seen would have unnerved a lot of people. She'd seen her own kin, those that she had put down herself when she was still working with the Dark Master, come back to life years after they'd been killed in battle.
She didn't bat an eyelash at that.
So when she heard terrified screams nearly, she quickly opened her eyes and bolted to her feet. Peering her head out of her tent, she a crowd gathering in front of one of the tunnels where the commotion was coming from. This was followed by the sound of rumbling from within' the tunnel, putting everyone on high alert.
With a frown pulling at her maw, Cynder with an irritated growl emerged from her tent and approached the assembling crowd with deadly narrowed eyes. She was going to get to the bottom of this commotion and sort it out before it gets too far out of hand.
When she was halfway, there was another rumbling sound from within the tunnel before the sound of a tunnel collapsing reached all their ears, followed by a noise of what sounded like a pained scream. This made all the apes who were gathered in front of the entrance, stare at each other nervously, before they, as one, slowly step away from the entry way.
"Is this place haunted?" One of the apes asked fearfully.
Another ape, standing beside the one that spoke, shook his head negatively as he stared at the entry way warily. "No it can't be. There was no reports like this when we were stationed here."
"Then what in the world, caused that noise in there!?" The first ape that spoke demanded, looking like he was close to panicking any moment.
That was when Cynder made her presence known. "This tunnel was made recently, remember?" She said to them in a tone that was lathed in sarcasm, making everyone turn and face her. "It is possible that your kinsmen merely uncovered something, disrupted it and it went on a rampage. Have any of you ever thought of that?" She asked in a sickeningly sweet voice with a sickeningly sweet smile that displayed her dagger like teeth.
"If there was something here we would've known." One of the more armoured apes stated.
"Actually I would've known." Cynder corrected him dryly. "My forces were stationed here. So any discovery that was found would have been reported to me." She frowned however and looked up when she saw a several shadows fly over them, seeing a few of the undead dragons flying above them. "However, there have been no reports of discoveries. So I'm just as in the dark as you are."
"So...if you don't know...and we don't know...then just what the hell has been hiding here?"
"That's a mystery. This place does have a remnant of human structures. One of them being that large contraption that is partially trapped inside the ice." Cynder replied as she pointed at the large ship that was embedded in the ice a fair distance away. "Anyway;" She coughed bringing everyone's focus back on her when they stared at the back end of the ship that was sticking out of them ice. "Whatever is inside there is obviously causing disruption." That was followed by more screams of agony before a tremor shook the earth. "And we obviously need an armoured large group to go inside and...if possible take care of the disturbance."
While Cynder didn't like the apes, if she had known what was in there, she wouldn't have sent a group inside to deal with it, not knowing the being was beyond their ability of combating.
X.X.X.X
Using his stagelight as a sledgehammer, George A Romero had crushed anyone that stood in his way. His mind was fuddled when he woke up after a long time of sleeping. But when he was finally awake and aware he was confused to find himself in a tunnel with ice everywhere. He was even more confused when he first laid his eyes on these...apes. They weren't much different from when he'd last saw them, but these ones seemed...smarter.
Like those apes from the movie The Planet of the Apes, these apes were capable of speech. They were capable of using weapons like swords from what he'd seen. Thankfully he had not seen anyone use any guns or any of the modern weapons he had grown up to know. From what little he saw, the former director was able to deduce that something had happened when he was sleeping. Something bug that had changed the world as he knew it.
He had no idea just how right he was.
Stalking through the tunnels in a slow pace, with the bloodied stagelight being carried effortlessly in one hand, George A Romero looked almost like a predator. He walked over the corpses of the fallen apes' with bloody footprints trailing behind him as he stepped in the puddles of blood and sinew.
"Come out come out where ever you are!" He called out tauntingly in that inhuman voice of his before chuckling maddeningly to himself. His voice had caused an echo to sound in the tunnels. An intimidation tactic to try and flush out the hiding prey. His sinister glowing yellow eyes glanced to the left when he heard something move and a cruel smirk pulled at his lips before he stalked his way over there.
As he approached the former human began to see a piece of fur sticking out from a corner. His eyes saw it shifted slightly nervously and if possible the smirk grew even more. He lowly chuckled to himself in sickening amusement. Grabbing the stagelight with his free hand Romero, brought the weapon back and swung it at the wall where the ape was the moment he came to the corner.
The ape wasn't able to react in time, and because of George's abnormal strength, the upper half of the mammal's torso was reduced to a bloody smear on the wall. Cracks began to spread from where the stagelight connected, but Romero didn't pay attention to the little details. He didn't care that the tunnel they were all in began to shake the moment his stagelight hit the wall.
The apes who had managed to get away could only watch in horror as their comrade in arms was crushed. His upper half being reduced to nothing but a bloody smear. They all flinched when they felt his blood splatter on their faces and were too scared to try and wipe the crimson liquid off.
Romero slowly turned his head to look at them. His smirk widened even further; the angle of his head allowed the apes to see what was hidden underneath his ice covered glasses' and saw his glowing yellow eyes. That combined with the way he appeared before them made him look like a sinister devil out for blood. And apart from the devil part, he totally was. "Heh-heh-heh..." The apes felt a sense of dread crawl up their spine at the sound of his sinister chuckling. "...I Found you..."
They could only scream out in sheer terror for a quick moment before they were abruptly silenced. Courtesy of Romero's weapon. Upon using it to crush one ape against the wall, he began to let out a loud sinister laugh as he felt its blood spray his face. Electricity came from the stagelight when it touched the ground and spread out in all directions, electrocuting and killing everyone in its path apart from Romero himself. The icy earth shook again before one of the tunnels, two tunnels down from the one he was in collapsed conveniently on top of another group of apes who were using it to hide from the insane man.
Lifting up the top part of his weapon from the ground, Romero searched for any more prey. He frowned in slight disappointment when he couldn't sense anyone. With a low inhuman growl rumbling in his throat he turned around and left in search of more prey, leaving behind a blood trail that came from the currently bloodied stagelight.
Maybe he should let them hit him in the next encounter? Give them a taste of his 'berserk state' and make them despair even more? Yeah. That sounded rather fun.
Normally, George A Romero would not be like this. But after being exposed to element 115, it had slowly deteriorated his mentality over time. Now after a long time sleeping, Romero's mental state was deeply down in the 'insanity' section. He is still able to tell from friend to foe but it was reserved. So instead the undead were friendly and the living were unfriendly.
His characteristics are more like the undead as well. But unlike his more mindless brethren, he wouldn't stop to eat the flesh of the living until everyone and everything in the vicinity are all dead. Unless his master told him too. And knowing how demented Samantha is that won't be likely.
Groaning in a low, creepy and dead tone Romero suddenly looked at the ground, and found an odd trail of footprints' that he guessed belonged to the apes he'd been killing recently. So with having nothing else to do he followed them, and after several minutes of following the trail he eventually finding the exit. He paused several metres away. Not liking how quiet it was. With all the killing he'd been doing since he'd woken up he'd have guessed that a few lucky ones who had managed to escape would go and alert their superiors of his existence.
Suddenly he sniffed the air, and a happy smirk pulled at his lips. He had gotten their scent, and with how fresh it was, they were close by. If they were waiting in ambush at the corners at the entry way, then they'll get to see his 'berserk state' quicker than he realised.
X.X.X.X
A few minutes before, a small amount of workers had run out of the tunnel as if the gates of hell itself had opened. In haste they told them that they had uncovered something, demonic and pure evil and was now hunting them down. This of course had not gone well with the others. Cynder realising that whoever was causing this is incredibly dangerous and had to be dealt with quickly before fear spreads throughout the camp. Or worse ends up with the death of everyone here.
So a few minutes of ordering everyone into two groups; the workers and the soldiers, Cynder had ordered the workers to go and regroup with the other works in another part of the island while the guards would stay here and fight whatever beast was causing panic. The workers were all too happy than to change to another area to work.
The guards however were not. But they withheld their displeasure as Cynder ordered a few of Samantha's prototype weapons to stay and give them support. Cynder would also be nearby to lend them support if things get a little too overwhelming for them.
So they all got into position. The guards splitting in two groups and taking cover in front of the two edges of the tunnel, making sure they were far enough away where they would not be spotted. The undead dragons' would be standing above the entry way, literally, by digging their nails in the ice. Cynder herself would be out of the way and out of sight. Allowing the apes and undead dragons to handle this until it becomes too much for them to handle.
They should be able to handle this. They did out number the thing after all.
Minutes had gone by, and, there was no sign of this being. It was too quiet for their liking. But they were patient and they would hold their position. They would not move until the attacker had gotten in their line of sight, or if they were ordered to move. Everyone tensed suddenly when they heard someone from within the tunnel approaching.
The apes tensed and brought their weapons up in preparation to strike as they heard the footsteps getting closer and closer. Then the sound suddenly stopped, and they all heard the being sniff the air. Not knowing it was getting their scent.
The sound of feet trudging against the ice was heard again and it wasn't until they saw the stagelight poke out of the tunnel they leapt out of cover. In mid-air, the apes raised their swords above their heads and brought it down to hack at their target. The moment their weapons collided with its target, the last thing the apes saw and heard before darkness taking over their senses, was an enraged roar and glowing yellow eyes behind glasses.
Cynder at first angry at what she'd seen. The being coming out of the tunnel, the same being that was killing everyone was a human of all things. He wore different clothing to Dempsey and the other humans' she had seen, and she completely ignored the fact that he was carrying a stagelight that was far too heavy to hold by one hand in the hands of an old man. If she were human too that would have raised some alarms in her head that something wasn't right.
Plus the tall tale signs of glowing yellow eyes under the spectacles should have told her he was infected with the same thing that reanimated the dead dragons. However given how far away she was from the rest of them that can be excused.
What happened next, however, was so clear even from her standing point. What the human did the moment the weapons came in contact with his skin made that anger change to pure and unaltered shock. The moment the apes hacked at the human, his body, literally changed before their very eyes.
His clothes ripped, and the exposed flesh became rotten and decomposing literally becoming an undead.
The second the human changed he roared out loud in anger, and without effort he swung the stagelight, throwing all apes off their feet crushing bones, and breaking necks the second the stagelight connected. Those that were lucky, had managed to duck beneath the swing and had put as much distance between them and the transformed human. However, they had underestimated just how fast Romero was in his berserk state and he had quickly caught up to them.
The zombified dragons who were positioned above the entry didn't move to intercept. The human was clearly an undead and to them that meant he was an ally. Plus while the chaos was happening Samantha was specifically giving them orders not to intercept. Not entirely sure that isn't a good idea as George Romero was decimating the opposition with little effort. The blunt force trauma he was delivering with his stagelight was enough to kill an ape instantly.
If they weren't then they'd be in severe pain as they slowly died. Because getting smacked in the side with a stagelight with the force of a sledgehammer behind it is enough to fatally wound a person. By giving them broken bones and ribs, with the ribs themselves piercing the lungs it would make that persons final hours really, really painful. Not to include the internal bleeding you would be slowly bleeding to death.
And that was what was happening to the apes. They would avoid the wild swings and put some distance between them and the weapon, but Romero would use his freakishly inhuman speed to quickly close the distance between them again and begin swinging away once more. Plus every time he ran, he would rest the stagelight on his left shoulder giving him better momentum when he would go and swing it.
Cynder obviously saw they were easily getting overwhelmed by the now berserk human and would have gone out there to help. Or at the least run away as she realised it would not have made a difference if she went there to help or not. She had quickly found she lost all control of her body apart from her head. The reason behind this was Samantha had directly taken control of the dragoness, the moment Cynder got on her feet and forced her to stay where she was and made her watch as Romero tore through the apes with ease.
"This is a demonstration of the forces at my command." Samantha explained to her. A demonstration indeed. George was getting impaled with the apes' swords and spears, and he was shrugging them off like they were nothing. He showed no sign of physical pain. He did not grunt in discomfort either.
"What is that thing?" Cynder asked, whimpering in fear as she watched the bodies of the apes cave in on themselves when they were hit with the stagelight – head first. He looked so disgusting. He was a sick twisted parody of a human. "It can't be a human!"
"Indeed. He is no longer human." Samantha confirmed sounding very pleased with herself. "He is more than that...special. An undead who simply cannot die." She then giggled as Romero roared out victoriously when he stamped on one of the apes' head who trying to crawl away from him, crushing the skull beneath his heel like a melon."No matter how much injury he is inflicted with, no matter how much damage you deliver him, he will not die. He is simply...unstoppable."
"If he can be hurt, if he can bleed, then he can die!" Cynder retaliated snappingly.
Samantha was silent for a moment. As if she were thinking on her words. For a moment Cynder thought she had succeeded in making the insane little girl quiet. But it was not to be. "...True. If not for the fact that the humans had more advanced weaponry than your species' and used a weapon capable of shooting powerful explosives on his head... Well, you can still see his head can't you?" She stated rhetorically. Cynder even though she could not see Samantha, knew she was waving her off dismissively. Her tone showed her dismissive posture she spoke in.
Cynder let out a low grunt when she tried to move again and grow irritated when she still found she had no control over her own body. "Why can't I move!?" She hissed.
"Why? Because I'm controlling you."
Cynder widened her eyes in shocked surprise. "What?! But how!? When!?"
"When you eat the key of course. I can't believe you forgot after I told you." The amount of sarcasm lathing her voice was so thick even a blind man would notice it.
Cynder paused and frowned in thought, only to come to a starling discovery moments later. "...I don't remember!"
"Oh of course!" Samantha sounded like she had just realised a revelation. "How could I have forgotten about that teeny tiny fact: a side effect of being injected with element 115 – which was inside the key you eat – is memory loss. Don't worry, however. The effects are not too threatening...much."
Cynder didn't like how Samantha had trailed off awkwardly near the end. And what the heck did she mean it wasn't threatening much? And if that key had that element in it, does that mean she is at the risk of becoming a zombie too!?
"Element 115 was known for reanimating corpses." Samantha began to explain as if she had heard Cynder's unasked question. "If it is injected inside a living individual, the most common side effects would be death and then reanimation. Another side effect would be amnesia, bringing someone back to full health, and making said person stronger, faster and more durable. But seeing as you haven't dropped dead once you eat the key, you have little chance to dropping dead without warning." She quickly added when she saw Cynder was about to have a panic attack. It wouldn't do if her newest slave were to die because of her revealing her location to George Romero.
Cynder, hearing this, began to calm down visibly. So she wasn't at the risk of suddenly dropping dead and coming back as a zombie? That's, really reassuring. But that left the question.
"How do you know of this?"
Samantha again was oddly silent for a moment. "...I believe it had happened to me in the past." She sounded very unsure of herself. "I do remember Richtofen experimenting on others to create super soldier's. As far as I remember, apart from myself, only three others had succeeded."
"Who were they?"
"You know one of them: Tank Dempsey. The other two are Takeo Masaki and Nikolai Belinski. They along with Edward Richtofen are the ones' who infiltrated your temple several months ago."
X.X.X.X
Morning came rather quickly and like they planned last night, at 0700am Mason, Woods, Weaver, Hudson, Polonsky and Roebuck had gathered their equipment and headed to Dante's Freezer with Hunter leading the way. It wasn't until they were a fair bit away from the liberated village that they had realised one critical thing. Or rather the lack of it.
They had no idea what they were looking for. Or rather what it looked like.
Sure they knew they were looking for a very, very dangerous weapon with the possibility that it can turn living breathing beings and turning them into zombies. But they had no idea what the hell the weapon looked like. They had a basic idea that the weapon would be different than they were used too and would be out of place, so to speak. Then again, the six of them were out of place.
They were far away from the village when they realised it and while the smart thing was to head back and ask Dempsey if he knew what the dammed thing looked like, they would be wasting valuable time backtracking and they all knew that time was not on their side. Hunter had suggested sending one of his own back to get the information, as they were quick runners and could track other cheetah's by their scent alone.
Having an anthropomorphic animal, that can run faster than humans, make the run back to the liberated village and track them down without having to delay until said cheetahs return? The answer to that was obvious. And so without much protest, Hunter sent one of his own back to the village with the intention in knowing if Dempsey knows the identification of the WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) they were all looking for.
That was almost 20 minutes ago and they still had a few hours of travelling to go. Wanting to pass the time Polonsky decided to start up a conversation. "So since you're all from the future, how long was it since the war?"
"Which war?" Mason asked bluntly.
"What do you mean 'which war'? Are we still fighting against the Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire and anyone else who sided with Hitler?" Roebuck questioned with a curious look.
"Oh!" Mason widened his eyes in realization at what war they were asking about. "No. Nazi Germany along with their allies were defeated. The Japanese had finally surrendered after we hit them with two bombs we developed."
Polonsky, Miller and Roebuck were relieved. So they had won the war in the end? That was good news. It was lifting. But they were curious as to what bomb they had developed and what it did that had caused the Japanese to surrender.
"It was a nuclear bomb." Woods answered upon seeing the curious looks the marine raiders were giving them. "They were being developed during the early stages of 1945 and were used later on in the year to bring an end to the war."
"Never heard of a nuclear bomb before. How dangerous are they?" Miller asked.
"Let me put it this way: a single one of those bombs can level a large part of a city. The residue left behind by the explosion can kill thousands of others later on; that is if they had managed to survive the initial explosion of course."
The looks on their faces were priceless. "Holy shit."
Woods chuckled humourlessly. "I know. When the Japanese finally surrendered, I think it was because they felt threatened by those bombs, and didn't want more of their people dying." He snorted. "It was a smart move of them to surrender in my opinion."
The rest of the way was met with silence after that. However, it wasn't until after another 20 minutes of silence later that Polonsky asked another question. This time it was directed at their guide. "Hunter, were the apes always like this?"
Said cheetah shook his head after regarding the human. "No. They weren't. Once, a very long time ago, they had minded their own business. Kept to themselves and avoided others unless they needed too." He frowned and pulled his snout back in a snarl, that was filled with hatred. "Then the Dark Master came. A purple dragon who, like Spyro, was able to command all the elements with little to no effort. He approached the apes with an offer of power if they worked under him, and, being themselves' the thought of power was too much of a temptation to ignore and they accept."
"Seeing the way they are now I'm going to guess they've accepted the offer?" Woods asked dryly.
Hunter nodded as his expression darkened considerably. "Yes, they did. Once they accepted the power that was offered to them they went and waged war on everyone. Everyone they came across, every species they had encountered, they had forced under submission. The dragons' however had a fate worse than slavery. Under the Dark Master's orders they had almost wiped them off the face of the planet. Since the Dark Master hated his own species he wanted to bring them to extinction, and, if it weren't for Spyro he would have succeeded."
"Spyro..." Polonsky said. He tapped the corner of his lip in thought as he scrunched up his face. "...that wouldn't be the other purple dragon would it?" He asked making Hunter and the other cheetah's look at the human with surprise on their faces.
"You met him?" One of the female cheetah's asked in astonishment.
"Yeah." Replied Polonsky as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "He was among the captives who were at the village we had liberated." He scratched the back of his neck as he shrugged adding; "Neither he nor the other captives are there anymore though. Something just...took them away while leaving us behind? I have no idea."
"You sound a little unsure there." One of the cheetah's had stated.
Polonsky scoffed."Well wouldn't you be a little unsure if everyone apart from you and the others' just upped and vanished all of a sudden?" He asked rhetorically. "Hell my look-a-like thinks there's someone called 'Author' following us. Plus we've been teleported to several different places' thanks to Dempsey talking to said 'Author'" He said, using quotations when he said the word author.
The S.O.G group stared at Polonsky in bewilderment the second that sentence came straight from his mouth. While they didn't see anything wrong with Dempsey in appearance, they knew anyone with a mentality like that should not be in the military. He should have been discharged. But having been fighting the undead constantly for as long as he could remember – which is not long thanks to his amnesia – they couldn't really blame him. He may have made up this author person to deal with the stress the constant fighting had brought unto him.
And then there's Richtofen. One of the people responsible for making the dead coming back to life. He seemed stable, for the most part. But they could see there was something wrong with him. They didn't know what though. Nikolai...he was a drunk. Pure and simple. Takeo he is the strong-silent type of person who only speaks when needed, or once he is spoken too.
"Maybe Dempsey has post-traumatic stress? With everything he had been through he may have made this 'Author' person to in order to cope with it?" Woods suggested.
"Likely. Someone who was constantly fighting where ever he went doesn't come out as the same person before." Hudson said with a thoughtful stroke of his chin.
"Post-traumatic stress?" Hunter asked.
"It is a disorder that someone gets after they are exposed to something that was traumatic to them. An example would be the threat of death, like war. Or torturer." Mason explained, before closing both his eyes and reaching up with his hands to massage the sides of his head. Another thing that could have been a cause of post-traumatic stress is illusions. Having create a personality of a person you know, or someone random just to cope with what had happened.
Woods seeing this looked at Mason in concern and grabbed his shoulder worryingly. "Mason? You alright there?"
"Yeah... Just... Memories I didn't want to remember spouted up."
"Memories of Vorkuta?"
Mason nodded grimly, his fist clenched until his knuckles whitened. "Yeah. Vorkuta."
"What happened to you in Vorkuta?" Polonsky asked as he glanced curiously at Mason.
Alex's face darkened considerably. "A lot of things. Things I don't want to talk about." He said in a tone that told the teen to drop it. Polonsky nodded with a small frown showing that he was going to drop the issue, even if he was displeased he wasn't going to get his question answered.
For the better part of the day everyone was quiet and with Hunter leading the way they were able to make some progress. Three hours after they left the village, the cheetah that had went back had managed to track them down again and rejoined the group. When they asked if he had gotten information on the weapon's appearance, he replied to their disappointment that he was unable to receive any information on the weapon so they were in the dark on what it looked like.
"Great. We don't know what the dang thing looks like." Polonsky complained.
"It was a long shot Polonsky. Not everything will go our way." Roebuck replied with Miller nodding in agreement. He knew Roebuxk was speaking from experience. When Sullivan was leading the mission to rescue his team that was captured during the early stages of the American-Japanese war, he was injured by a Japanese soldier who used his Katana just before they had managed to escape after he had destroyed an enemy weapons depot in Makin Atoll.
He got out of there in one piece however, but only he out of the two survivors of that rescue was the only one that was able to fight. So yeah. Not everything can go according to plan.
"I know that, serge. I just don't like the fact we're going in partially blind."
"Neither do I. But as long as we work together, we'll overcome all obstacles."
"Yeah!" Miller patted Polonsky on the shoulder reassuringly. "So chin up. With the seven of us together all of us will get through this."
Polonsky gave Miller a sceptical look for a second before he gave a reluctant nod. As much as he would like to believe that, he along with the others all knew this wasn't going to be easy as going in and search willy nilly with no opposition. Still, having some optimism on getting through the mission alright did raise their spirits slightly.
"Alright. But remember Miller; we're running low on ammo." The teen reminded them.
"Yeah I know what you mean. I'm down to my last mags for this." Miller sulked as he looked to his Thompson hanging from his shoulder.
"So apart from having to search for a weapon we have no idea what it looks like, we also have to watch for our ammo as well..." Roebuck trailed off, the list of problems seemed to grow more and more the more the second they took this mission. He looked at both Polonsky and Miller with a look on his scarred face that is befitting a sergeant. "We'll have to play this smart then. Use our weapons when we have no other choice."
"That is where we come in." Hudson interjected making Miller, Polonsky and Roebuck turn to stare at him. "Weaver and I have sniper rifles. If we can find a good spot that overlooks the entire area, we both can cover your approach as you three, Woods and Mason make your way in."
"We won't have radio contact though. And as far as I know there's no satellites here which means we won't be able to communicate with one other if we go with your plan." Woods pointed out dryly.
For a moment Hudson stared silently at Frank in the eyes who gladly returned the gesture. With a blank look on his scarred face Hudson reached for his walkie-talkie, pressed the communication button on the side, and then he leaned toward it.
"Mason, you receiving this?" He spoke into the receiver.
Much to Woods' surprise he heard Hudson's voice come from Mason's walkie-talkie. Blinking Mason touched the communication button on the side of his walkie-talkie and replied; "Yeah, I'm receiving you."
Hudson nodded and gave Frank a pointed look. Sighing Woods rubbed the bridge of his nose before exhaling through his mouth. "Aright, I was wrong. We can communicate with one another."
He didn't bother to question on how that was possible. Since there was no radio station or satellite to transmit, by all rights it should not have worked. He suspected it had to do with the walkie-talkies themselves. They do transmit radio waves that can be received through another walkie-talkie. He didn't know how far a distance that can work until they receive static interferences but he will take what they've got until they have a better solution.
It was pretty stupid of them that they hadn't thought of this problem until now of all things. Just when they are several miles away from the liberated village.
"How long until we get there?" Weaver questioned patently.
"We only have a few more miles left to go." Was Hunter's reply.
Weaver nodded his head in confirmation, though Hunter didn't see it, before he rolled his shoulders to get rid of the stiffness he was starting to have, from the added on weight the weapons and ammunition he was carrying on his person.
X.X.X.X
Meanwhile at the recently liberated village Tank and Nikolai were walking around the village to get a better lay out. Mainly because they needed to find a way to barricade it so it could be defended easier from any raiders and bandits who thought this village would be easy pickings because of how abandoned it appeared. With the two of them surveying the landmarks, they would know the best places to put these barricades.
Takeo was at the Mark IV tank with Richtofen. He wanted to see if it was useful for them. Don't get him wrong, having a tank is very useful, but given this was gifted to them by Samantha of all people, the Japanese Samurai wasn't going to take any chances.
It was all quiet when suddenly, Nikolai out of nowhere asked; "Comrade, what are we going to do with our ammo issue?"
Tank glanced at Nikolai from the corner of his eyes, and shrugged with a bored look on his face. "Dunno, we usually have those 'Max Ammo' things to resupply us. But I haven't seen a floating Max Ammo in a while. Maybe whoever is giving us them and the other things to help us is having trouble getting them to us because of where we are?" He replied questionably to Nikolai, who shrugged in response.
"We still need to solve our problem though." The drunk reminded him.
Dempsey slowly turned his head and stared deadpanned at the Russian. "I know that, Nikolai." He said slowly and patently, as if he were explaining to a child. "But we don't have anything that can take care of our 'munition crisis. So we have to rely on our friend who's been watching after us, during our fighting with Samantha's undead army, to give us what we needed." Not to mention they would have to change weapons the moment they find a weapon outline. Those are lifesavers whenever they happened to run out of ammo.
If Nikolai weren't as drunk as he is, he would have noticed that Dempsey was slightly mocking with the way he was speaking to him. Luckily for Tank Dempsey, the Russian did not take notice so he had gotten away with it.
"Ah, right, the glowing and suddenly-turning-to-blinking icon thingy that we mostly see whenever we turn up somewhere new." Nikolai said as he nodded his head to himself. He suddenly turned to the marine walking next to him; "How come we haven't seen one lately?"
Dempsey gave Nikolai a nasty look. After he had just told him a minute ago, he forgot!? "The fuck am I suppose to know!?" He snapped irritatingly at Nikolai, who merely frowned and made a thoughtful sound. He didn't take notice of the irritating look on Dempsey's face, or the strangling motion he was doing with a sickeningly gleeful expression, as he was currently looking elsewhere.
Tank took a few calming deep breaths and forced himself to look ahead. Don't get him wrong, he liked the man as a friend, but for Christ sake he really got on his nerves sometimes.
"How's your leg?" The marine questioned all of a sudden, gazing at Nikolai's' bandaged leg with narrowed eyes in concern.
Nikolai grunted. "I get phantom pains every now and then." The drunk admitted as he looked down at said leg while grumbling lowly under his breath; "But I can walk properly now. That is good, eh?"
"Yeah. That's good." Tank replied positively. It was a good thing they healed quickly. After all this time he still had no idea why that was. Maybe it is because of those bottles, like Juggernaut, that somehow enhances their body to go beyond their capabilities? He didn't know if there were side effects' apart from the obvious, where Speed Cola shortens the time to reload their weapons by making their muscles move faster than humanly possible. Or double tap, to increase the number of bullets fired from their weapons by x2.
"It wouldn't do if I had to save your sorry ass all the time, Nikolai." The marine added in a joking manner, as this was sort of a running gag between them; where Tank is usually the one to rescue Nikolai when he got into a situation that was way over his head.
Like a horde of zombies. A massive horde of zombies. He mainly had to team up with Takeo, and sometimes Richtofen to rescue Nikolai from his predicament. Sometimes they had to abandon their ground and retreat when they were about to be overwhelmed. In Kino Der Toten they had been close to being overrun far too many times in the past to count. They had gotten out of there out of sheer luck alone. It helped they had advanced weaponry in the form of the Thunder Gun and gun turrets in critical parts of the theatre. Those things were life savers.
"What do you think happened to those scaly creatures who were with us?"
Dempsey scratched beneath his chin. "They could be anywhere in the world, Nikolai. But if I were to guess, I'd say they were transported back to Warfang?" He then shrugged. "But as I said it is just a guess."
Nikolai grumbled in confirmation. That was as close to an answer he could get. While he didn't know them that well, he couldn't help but be concerned for the former captives when they suddenly vanished. Even if he didn't show it.
Suddenly Dempsey chuckled under his breath. "You know, this is sort of like a vacation." He said, getting Nikolai to look at him questioningly. Seeing the look the Russian was giving him, Dempsey elaborated; "There's no zombies. No one trying to kill us. We're just walking through the village, looking for things. It's a small vacation we all earned."
Nikolai looked thoughtful before nodding a moment later in agreement. What his comrade had said was true. For as long as he could remember all he, Takeo, Dempsey and Richtofen had done was fighting zombies, solving difficult puzzles and helping people. Now they weren't doing anything right now, it did feel like a small break. It was...strange not doing anything that involved risking their life to complete an objective they had no idea about.
The only time they hadn't done anything, was when they were trapped behind a room where the only door to the room was frozen shut. They had to get other people to help him out. He sighed blissfully in remembrance. Those were the days.
For the better part of the day all Tank and Nikolai had managed to do was walk around the village, and mentally marked off the important areas they would have to barricade off, but that was pretty much it. They were quick to realise if they were to fortify this place then they needed more people to help them out. But at the moment there were only four of them, with two looking over the Mark IV tank.
The others were probably halfway to Dante's Freezer by now. While they could wait around for them all to come back, that would be wasting time, and they all could do something more productive than waiting around. Like gathering food. And Nikolai had given Dempsey the rest of the meat he had kept, who in turn gave the rest to the marines' after he had taken a few chunks out of it.
It wasn't long until they double-round and went back the way they came from. Eventually the two encountered Takeo and Richtofen who still had their full attention on the Mark IV tank. They didn't even notice Tank and Nikolai approach while they were approaching.
"What are you and Richtofen doing Takeo?" Tank asked as he and Nikolai approached. Takeo glanced at Dempsey from the corner of his eye, before jerking his head toward the German who was inside the tank itself.
"Richtofen wanted to see if the machine was 'booby-trapped'." He said stoically, using quotations when saying booby-trapped. "Nothing has come up so far." He added with a lazy shrug.
"Maybe because tank is not trapped with boobies?" Both Tank and Takeo were giving Nikolai disbelieving stares at what he said. Nikolai misinterpreted their facial expressions compelling him to ask; "What is wrong? Is something on my face?"
"Nikolai..." Tank began, getting said Russian to look at him with a small confused look on his face. "Why the hell would you think that tank is trapped by breasts?" He asked, his voice slowly giving way to incredulousness by the end.
"Because you said it was booby-trapped. Therefore it is trapped by breasts, no?"
Tank shakingly inhaled and exhaled with mild irritation. Taking another deep breath Tank gave Nikolai a patented stare; "Nikolai, in this context, the term 'booby-trapped' is something that is covered in traps. It is nothing more than a figure of speech, understand?"
"Figure of speech?"
"Yes, a figure of speech. Just because Takeo said the tank is boody-trapped, it doesn't really mean it is trapped by breasts. Got it?"
Nikolai took a few long seconds – which slowly turned into minutes – to understand what Dempsey was trying to explain to him. Given he was hammered, like a jock on steroids, it took quite a while for him to understand completely. Afterwards he slowly nodded to show he managed to comprehend what Dempsey was trying to explain to him.
"Tank is covered in traps? Not covered by breasts?"
"Yes! That's it!"
Takeo felt one of his eyes twitch, and had to resist the compulsion to unsheathe his katana and cut both Nikolai and Dempsey down. He was pretty sure he had lost a few brain cells from what he had heard. Ignoring them the samurai had turned to the tank when he heard Richtofen yell frustratingly in German from within the tank. Of course Dempsey and Nikolai were ignoring the German because Dempsey was now, for some unknown reason, trying to explain to Nikolai what figure of speech meant.
"...no, Nikolai, just no, listen to me ok? That is not what figure of speech is!"
"Then give me example!"
"Fine! Here is an example for you: I have butterflies in my stomach!"
Nikolai stared dumbly at Dempsey before he lowered his gaze to his stomach. "...you really have butterflies in your stomach?"
"No, you dumb ass! That was an example! It's a figure of speech!" Dempsey exclaimed loudly with twitching eyes, before growling loudly at Nikolai. He is very, very annoyed with him. No one, even if they are drunk cannot be this stupid.
"Then give me example."
"I DID GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" It was of no surprise to anyone, that Dempsey at this point had completely lost his patience with the drunk and snapped at him.
Takeo at this point was no longer paying attention to them and was now walking behind the tank, to see what problem Richtofen had ran into to make him yell out in frustration like he did.
By the time the Asian got there, he could hear Richtofen ranting to himself under his breath, as he examined the tank for any defects."(1)Warum auf der Erde tat, Göre hasste uns zu geben haben einen Tank, ist fast sieben Jahre nach der Zeit? Wenn wir doch nur ein Tiger, das gibt uns mehr von Vorteil!"
"Is everything alright, Edward?"
"Ja, ja, everything is fine. (2) Natürlich, alles wäre besser, wenn wir einen Tank, ist mehr moderner als dieses Stück Scheiße wir haben." He waved off in fake cheer, before ranting lowly once again in German. Takeo didn't know the rest of what he was saying but nodded along anyway. He had a feeling it had something to do with the Mark IV tank.
Grunting in irritation Richtofen took off his cap and rubbed his forehead with his sleeve. Stopping what he was doing Richtofen, walked out of the tank and placed his cap back on his head before looking at Dempsey and Nikolai, frowning when he saw the two were still childishly arguing with one another. It wasn't over the 'figure of speech' thing anymore; it was over something else entirely.
Basically, which country was better.
"No! The motherland is better than your country! We have bears!"
"We have bears in America too." Dempsey pointed out dryly.
The Russian paused, then thought of a comeback, then exclaimed loudly and viciously; "The Motherland is big in size!"
Dempsey merely shook his head with a smirk. "So is America, Nikolai. You'll have to do better than that to get one over on me."
Nikolai clenched his fist in frustration for several seconds. Then he brought said fist up to rub his chin. Snapping his fingers Nikolai jerked his thumb at himself with a victorious smirk, "The Motherland have Vodka!"
"The United States has a massive monument on Mount Rushmore." Dempsey easily replied, folding his arms across his chest with a 'beat that' look on his face.
Nikolai scowled at that and threw his arms up in defeat and turned away from the American. Dempsey chuckled victoriously before patting Nikolai on the shoulder. "Hey, you win some, you lose some. Just this time you lost." He didn't do it to rub it in. He was merely stating the obvious. Even if he did sound he was rubbing it in Nikolai's face.
"Bah! Whatever! Next time you will not be so lucky!" The Russian said in declaration, turning around and pointed a finger a Dempsey dramatically. If there was a soundtrack to go along with this, the music would have become dramatic the moment Nikolai turned around and pointed. But of course there was not.
"Of course there isn't any dramatic music!" Dempsey suddenly exclaimed as he looked toward the sky. "This is a fan made story between two games, not a reality TV show! Fucking dumbass..." Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all stared at Dempsey in awkward silence who realised people were looking at him, and returned the stare with one of his own. "...What?"
Takeo didn't say anything. Though he did drive his face into his palm before dragging across his face. Richtofen merely ignored Dempsey, and turned his attention back to the Mark IV tank while muttering "Stupid Americans." under his breath before the sounds of tools moving was heard from within. Nikolai blinked evenly at Dempsey's outburst, and letting out a sigh Nikolai pinched the bridge of his nose and asked; "Who were you talking to, American?" Nikolai's tone was the same as his original personality: intelligent and clear.
Dempsey frowned confusingly. "The Author. Why?"
The now oddly serious Nikolai, which Takeo noticed was different than he was just seconds ago, deadpanned at the American. "The last time we spoke of this person, you had no idea who this 'author' was. And now you claim to be talking to this 'author'?" He asked/demanded while using quotations.
"Fourth wall breaking man. I've done it in Der Riese. I did it in Shi No Numa. I even did it in Kino Der Toten and Ascension. So, do. Not. Question. That is the power of fourth wall breaking..." The former marine raider replied seriously. Each syllable coming from his mouth, Tank Dempsey slowly got into Nikolai's personal bubble until he was right in Nikolai's face. "Ok?" He questioned, suddenly turning a full 180 in attitude.
Nikolai worried about his own safety quickly nodded his head; Dempsey leaned away with a satisfied nod before walking away toward the direction they both had come from, leaving Takeo and Nikolai to watch him walking away. Richtofen was back in the Mark IV tank so he had no idea what had transpired just now.
"Takeo..."
"Yes Russian?"
Nikolai turned to look at the Asian with a unnerved look that was poorly hidden; "Agree that we do not question the American's strange laps in sanity?" At Takeo's nod, Nikolai began nodding to himself as if that would reassure him. "Good. No questioning his laps in sanity. Live longer that way..."
Dempsey yawned out loudly as he stretched his arms over his head. He stared ahead with bored eyes as he mindlessly walked away from the others with no destination in mind. With everything peaceful, and that cheetah who came by to ask him on the identification of the weapon the others were looking for, hours earlier now gone, he could go about exploring the village unhindered.
A few minutes of mindless wondering, he suddenly paused mid-step, and back traced when he walked past a patch of hay underneath a few wooden planks. Normally that would not be something that would garner his attention. What made it catch his attention however – it was not there when he and Nikolai took this path minutes before, and there was a teddy bear with dried blood matting its fur, sitting on top of it.
It was a mystery box location. But if that was here when it wasn't minutes ago, then that would mean... Eyes widening in alarm Dempsey immediately checked to see if he still had his CZ75. To his dismay, it was gone, replaced with an M1911, with a full clip and 32 bullets in reserve. He snapped his head up when he heard the familiar groans of the undead and snarled aggressively as he took the safety off on his side arm.
Suddenly a creepy, childish laugh that slowly turned demonic he knew all to well echoed throughout the village. It is the same laugh that accompanied the mystery box every. Fucking. Time. They got a teddy bear from the dreaded thing.
"Here we go again..." Murmured the marine as he held out the pistol in front of him before he, along with the other three vanished.
X.X.X.X
Samantha after telling Cynder about the other successful experiments: aka herself, Takeo, Dempsey and Nikolai she released her control on the dragoness and after giving Romero strict instructions not to harm Cynder and the working apes – those who acted as guards however were free game – she took her leave and after remembering what Tank and the other's did to her faithful pet, Fluffy, decided to get her own on them. So going back to her body she went to the village they had liberated to see what they were all doing.
She was very disappointed to see the village almost abandoned once again. She was happy to see that her mortal enemies were still there though. So she decided to give them a surprise she knew they'd loathe. First she started by placing a few spawn locations for her mystery box in the form of a patch of hay with wooden planks on top and her favourite blood stained teddy bear sitting on it.
Second after Dempsey saw one of the spawn places that was not there minutes ago, she easily took away his CZ75 and replaced it with an M1911 .Colt with 32 bullets in reserve and 8 already in the chamber.
Third to tell them all she was back, she let out a childish laugh that slowly turned demonic in nature, and teleported them all off the streets and into one of the buildings together. Fourth she sent out her new undead army to test against them! That were made by, cheetahs and moles and wolves and many, many more!
She had gotten this new army through her campaign against the living. The apes were big contributors on getting her a new undead army. All she had to do was send them out on the villages, kill off all the inhabitants, and bring their remains to her so she could get started on reanimating them.
This was the first time, however, she was sending them against her sworn enemies. And she was eager to see how they would stack up to her old army.
(Don't know if the translation is right or not, but I'd like to think it is.)
Translation:
(1) Why on earth did that little brat have to give us a tank that is almost seven years out of date? If only we had a tiger, that would give us more of an advantage!
(2) Of course, everything would be better if we had a tank that is more up to date than this piece of shit we've got.