The Kindergarten - Day 3 - 14:58 Local Time
Neil held a brick of C4 in his left hand while the detonator was still dangled on his belt. It was now or never, the colossal being began to fall down into the fracture in the earth that was the Kindergarten.
Neil removed his helmet, throwing it to the floor. He took his sidearm from its holster, he took his backpack off and dropped it as he pulled the remaining bricks of C4 from their place of storage.
Looks like this is it… I wonder if this is some kind of new record?..
Neil struggled to stand up, pulling himself to look above the bullet-riddled cover. He could see the gems and even the Russian, looking very confused and afraid without his helmet on, all stood on the warp pad, waiting for him.
He called to the others, waiting expectantly for him to get up and run to meet them, he didn't see this ending in that way. "JUST GO! THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS!" Neil yelled over shrieking space of creatures.
Steven tried to jump for him, to make some kind of contact before Amethyst grabbed him, stopping him from endangering himself, Peridot at his other side.
The Russian looked onward, standing still and watching the entire exchange before him. Peridot initiated the return to the Hilltop Barn warp pad and in a flash of light a faint chime of sound, they were gone, leaving Neil with nothing but the sound of screeches and a deep and foreboding, rumbling growl left to fill the bitter air.
Looks like it's just you and me…
The monster was at least twice as large as the barn, a wild mixture of colours that ranged from bright pinks to fluorescent greens to dark purples and glowing amber. It had limbs that protruded from its main mass, which resembled something like a blue whale, only with teeth replacing every smooth surface and limbs filling all the others. It seemed to try to scurry to him, each of its limbs acting individually, trying independently to close the gap between themselves and Neil.
As it walked over the smaller gem mutants, it seemed to collect and join them into its mass, growing slightly with each shard that joined its mass. It cleared the space between Neil and the warp pad in a single confused and conflicting manoeuvre.
Neil had no real plan, just to repeat the last thing that worked well enough; bring the house down.
This time he would need more than one brick of C4 for the job and while he could barely walk, still struggling to maintain clear vision with a sensation that felt like sand running through his head and legs that felt like they would melt away from beneath him. He went for the nearest full cliff, stumbling and only barely keeping himself moving as the mass continued to move and claw in his wake.
He dumped all of his remaining explosive, his drill training droning through his head as he did.
Remember to never use more than one brick at any time, do not use it for mining, for cooking, for fun or for showing off and if I do find you using this stuff for anything but its intended purpose, I will shove your detonator so far up your ass, every time you cough, it will sound like the 4th of July!
He dumped his bag, containing all of his remaining explosive and armed them all, the mass of limbs getting closer and closer with each second as it chased his scent. He mustered what strength he could and threw the bag into one of the many holes that dotted the cliffs around him.
He struggled to move onward, beginning to feel the burden of a very low blood pressure and a high stress environment. His heart rate was increasing and that was bad for his still very leaky wound.
Standard safety procedures dictate that the minimum safe distance for one brick of C4 is dependent on the mass of the explosive used, more explosive, larger distance… I had about 10KG of C4 left and the minimum safe distance for 13KG is 300 Meters… I won't make it but it's worth a try…
The beast was hot on his tail, only a few seconds behind him as he did his little calculation and decided on getting to 270 meters before he would definitely detonate.
Neil was not the fastest soldier by any means. In his day, he could do 100 meters in a little over 20 seconds at a full sprint.
Right now he was wearing most of his combat gear and was still gushing blood from his arm, while he was also on the verge of passing out with only a few moments to go before he would be consumed by the beast behind him.
He was only 127 meters away from the explosives when he detonated.
The shockwave was largely buffeted by the stone that surrounded it in the cliff and the beast that was positioned just beside the deposit and, much like the previous cliff, this one began to and rise and fall onto the mutant monster.
Stone was ejected high into the air before the gravitational bonds of the earth grasped them once again and pulled them back into the abyss where a still rapidly retreating Neil attempted to escape in the rolling dust clouds that soon formed and chased after him.
A further explosion of dust as the monstrosity was struck in the 'head' by a large piece of fall debris which caused it to poof that segment, other pieces trying to independently maintain themselves only to cease in maintaining their forms. Neil had been successful but there was still much debris falling for him.
One large piece struck a gem injector drill and caused it to fall near to him, then it began to make a number of concerning noises in the near silent sound of occasional boulders striking the ground as it began to start up.
The large crystal on its top lit like small beacon before it methodically clawed its way toward the cliff face, forcing Neil to take refuge in one of the holes in an attempt to get away from it.
It chose his hole to start its process with, its beacon following him and tracing his movements.
First the drill head simply spun rapidly, an intensely high speed that would surely have torn him to shreds if it touched him. His heart was racing, was this really much better than being blown up by his own explosive? Or being shot by a confused Russian? Or even being completely crushed by the monstrosity he just destroyed? Was this his price for trying to survive?
Oh god no...
Then it stopped, only a few inches from his chest. The sound was still ringing in his ears and he could feel the stone and air around him heat in the presence of the friction the machine caused, dust filling the space, making it incredibly hard to breathe.
Then it impaled him square in the chest, a rod the diameter of a throwing javelin jutted out from the end of the drill, piercing right through his body armour and into the back of his chest cavity and crushing into the midsection of his spine. Then as if simply being fully impaled wasn't bad enough, the end of the rod began to heat up intensely before a flaming hot, syrupy fluid began to flow from the tip of the javelin and into the new cavity of his body, spreading in all directions of it's exit point as it tried to form a shape inside of him.
Neil felt numb all over before but this was something entirely different. He felt his organs suffer under the tremendous pressure of the rod, his ribs had all been broken while his lungs and hart had been completely crushed under the weight of his body armour in these new conditions.
He could feel his entire body begin to pass, arms dropping to his sides and legs failing to prop him up any longer. The bullet wound no longer hurt, nothing hurt anymore, he could barely feel anything beyond the sound of rushing blood in his head and the noise of the gem drill moving on to the next pre-drilled hole in its automated process.
Then there was nothing, a blackness that no sense could describe.
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The Warp – 5 minutes ago
"WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME HELP, AMETHYST?!" Cried Steven, tears welling in his eyes.
Steven believed he should have at least tried harder to make a difference and help the soldier he was coming to call friend but none of the others felt the same way, or at the least they felt like there was little they could do to help.
Alex was very confused, he didn't expect to find anything even remotely resembling people on the other side of the wall of light but to have seemingly American people of such a confusing nature surrounding him in the void once again was certainly not at the front of his mind.
What in the name of Putin have I gotten myself into?
Peridot was just slightly tormented, she knew there were forced fusion experiments in the Kindergarten and she knew they were of varying sizes but she had no indications or prior warnings for the whale of a mutant.
Amethyst was suffering her own kind of torment, as far as she knew, the Kindergarten wasn't all that dangerous, there was never any evidence of a giant fusion monster there under her young and confused feet when she emerged. She also felt bad for Neil, just a human that was making a very serious move in their favour that, as far as they knew could be just as fatal to either party involved.
"Steven, I don't know what you think we could have done. That thing was huge! If Neil didn't manage to poof it or destroy it entirely, then he managed to distract it, even if only for a few moments. And if managed to distract it, we might be able to make it back in time to help him."
Steven looked down to his feet with a look of self-disappointment, Peridot gave some words of comfort; even if she wasn't very good with others and feelings, she still had to say something.
"I believe that one of his team was a sort of field doctor, he might be able to help Neil and stop him from bleeding out in the cold and unforgiving embrace of the Kindergarten and if he did fail in keeping the creature at bay, I'm sure they won't mind letting you pull the trigger that finally stops it."
This wasn't quite as effective as Peridot was hoping, she thought saying something was better than saying nothing, which wasn't necessarily always correct.
Thanks to the green thing, the remaining people spent the rest of the journey trapped in an awkward silence until the trip finally ended and they reappeared by the red barn.
Alex was the only one to appear in the air, a few feet above the warp pad, which meant that when gravity returned to him, he had a very brief moment of looking like a cosmonaut before dropping like a stone to the ground. Steven ran for the nearest character, which happened to be Pearl, who was moving a few plates of tungsten over to her next segment of the drill.
"PEARL!" Steven cried as he ran toward her as fast as his stubby legs would allow.
Pearl's attention was immediately snapped to the direction of her name caller, she put the tungsten down and stood to face Steven as he came within conversation distance.
At the sound of the chiming warp pad, everyone's attention was drawn to the same direction, although the lack of a squad member and the presence of the newcomer was not just unexpected, it was downright mortifying.
"Where's Neil?" Asked Sam, the first one to see the lack of their squaddie in the group, "And who's that?" He said pointing to the Russian.
Steven spoke in a fast and panicked tone. "WeweregettingNeil'sstuffandthenthisguyshotathimandthentherewasthishugegemmutantthatcameoutofnowhereandnowNeilmightbedeadbecauseIdidn'tspitonhiswoundintheKindergartensopleasecomebackwithussowecanhelphimquick!" He took his opportunity to breathe after spitting out his hurried explanation.
"What?" Franklin said, not managing any better than anyone else to decode what Steven said.
"NEIL NEEDS HELP!" He spat out, taking a moment to see if the others would pick up on his more concise explanation.
Garnet stood at the corner of the Barn, peeking around the corner, "We'd better get moving then."
That was all the encouragement the marines needed, opting to sprint right for the warp pad, with Steven in pursuit and Gems gaining on them.
Before anything else could happen, Pearl, Amethyst, Steven, Franklin, Sam and Garnet where all on the warp pad, it chiming as they were sent back to the Kindergarten.
This left Peridot, the stranger and Kyle, who had only just returned from a midday nap, confused at the glimpse he got of the crowded warp pad shortly before it left him there with a stranger and the green one.
"What happened?" He said, wiping sleep from his eyes and yawning.
"Neil had… An incident…" Peridot said, with a tormented expression on her face. The stranger had a face of fascination and absolute confusion at the same time, dumbstruck enough to not even bother with running form the American soldier that now held him in a vice-like grip, dragging him away to the barn for an interrogation, even if it would end up more like guard duty.
Alex thought that he would rather Max was still with him, at least he would have a buddy that way, someone to talk to and someone to relate to.
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The Kindergarten – Day 3 – 15:02
They all piled out of the warp pad's circumference and moved to clear ground quickly.
The first thing they noticed was the sound of distant activity and the lack of any rubble from Neil's first escapade here, replaced by a massive trail of disturbed dust and stones, that seemed to track to the source of the activity.
There was also a dark red trail of blood that followed the same direction.
The group all followed the devastation, soldiers and Gems holding their weapons at the ready for action at a moment's notice.
As they winded around the winding walls of the ravines, nearing the source of the activity, they could see what remained of a collapsed cliff, the entire structure having fallen to a large explosion that opened out into a wide, open area.
In the area, they moved around the rubble that seemed to vibrate slightly with the increasing volume of the activity.
Then they found the source, a gem injector drill that had activated itself and after attempting to climb further up the cliff face, failed to maintain a good grip and plummeted down, breaking in half over the boulder that lay in wait beneath it. The drill head was still spinning although it wasn't the drill head that caught their attention, rather the thick blood stains that had accumulated around it and around the hole the drill faced.
Pearl was immediately disgusted by the sight and sought to cover Steven's eyes in an attempt to shield his innocence from the gore present, although the low lighting made it near impossible to see anything beyond the rim of the space.
"What the FUCK?" Sam said, obviously disturbed by the sight, blood staining all around the hole itself. Franklin made a fast move, dropping his weapon and going for his medical equipment in an attempt to at least try and do something.
Carefully stepping into the dark space, Franklin found the remains of Neil, his body was severely broken, his combat vest had a large burned hole; the same size of a gemstone present on any of the crystal gems. Indeed looking into it Franklin could see a slight glistening but in the low light it was hard to differentiate between the blood and the gemstone itself, although moving Neil's broken body, he could see the gemstone protruding from Neil's back, it was still very hot and seared at Neil's dormant flesh.
He checked for pulse, although the large amount of blood told him there was a certain unlikeliness to this working. As expected, there was nothing. He looked to his watch, showing the mission time and spoke in a tone only audible to himself and the helmet camera, still recording.
"Time of death: 4 days, 6 hours and 43 minutes into the mission. Chances of recovering the body and equipment to mainland is minimal." He took the dog tags that hung only a few inches away from the hole in his chest. "Cause of death is likely extreme blood loss and invasive penetration of the chest cavity."
No one could pry their eyes from the hole, the sounds and sights of a defeated Franklin crawling from the dark and gory void only added to the sadness Steven felt, shared by everyone present.
Franklin stood in the open to give his address, choosing not to describe the situation in such detail that it would haunt the child for the remainder of his life, "He's not coming home guys."
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Neil felt a total lack of sensation, as though he had no sense of sight, no sense of hearing, he couldn't even feel his own body. He had his ability think and that was all he had.
Was this death? Was this all that happens? Everything just blacks out and I am left to think things for eternity?
No… What makes you think that?
Who was that?
I could say the same. Who are you?
Well… I guess I am still called Neil Vickers, what about you?
I don't know… Who am I?
Well I guess you could use a name then… How about Angela?
It feels good, I have a name, a designation.
That's a big word for a entity that didn't have a name 4 seconds ago… What are you?
That depends… What are you?
Please, I wasn't very good at philosophy in life…
Well, what if that's all we have left now?
I guess so… I suppose I was a kind of self-aware, conscious entity… A mind, or a soul, or…
I don't really know…
Well that sounds like me too…
Were there many other things about being you?
I was a human… A person that was one of many… I had a group, a squad of others like me…
Are they in this same predicament right now?
I don't think so…
What was life like?
It was difficult, there are always challenges and obstacles to overcome but beating these things are what made living worth doing,
they gave a satisfaction in their completion…
Is that all humans do? Complete challenges?
Well when you say it like that it makes it seem boring…
It was more than that, there were emotions like frustration, and pride,
and sadness and joy...
That sounds stupid…
Have you never felt an emotion before?
Not since I started existing… I only feel like I am supposed to protect, but protect what?
I found myself asking that same
question a while ago…
What do you mean?
Before I was a full soldier, I was trained to fight and kill but despite the vicious acts of hatred we trained to do,
we convinced ourselves it was to save more people in the long run…
To spill some blood now so less blood is spilled later…
That sounds like a very conflicting dilemma for one that joins in half way through…
I thought the same so I just put it aside and let it fall out of memory,
at least until it becomes relevant again…
...
Why am I opening all of this information to you?
I don't even know what or who you are…
You already named me Angela, although being as I only just came into existence and have no other means to detect the world around me…
Right now, there is nothing but your voice guiding my totally blind consciousness…
So you are like a mind without a body…
A soul without any senses beyond
a single voice…
That's certainly how it feels right now…
A silence encapsulated the two entities, neither sure of what would or even could happen next.
What would you do if you had a
second chance?
A second chance at what? At life?
Yes…
I guess I would live a little easier knowing
death isn't all that bad and I guess I would
be a little happier about being alive…
A little more thankful...
I guess you never really miss things until you lose them…
But what would you do to other beings?
I would treat them with a new outlook…
I never used to think about these things, they scared me.
But now I understand that under the flesh, we are but minds,
entities that desperately want to be happy and contented.
I guess I would treat others with the
respect and dignity they all deserve
without the stigmas against them.
To protect them all and to save them all…
That sounds like a good thing…
I would be glad to be a part of you if you would carry this message to those around you...
What do you mean?
And then the conversation just ended, no call would yield a response from the entity called Angela and there where no sensations to fill the void that no possessed Neil's existence.
Well what now then?
Then there was a strange sensation, he could feel something...
A/N
Not too sure about how I ended up going with this one... Oh well, if it sucks too badly, let me know and I will see to it that it is fixed...
Also search "The View - Realisation" because I frigign love that song right now, let me know if you like it too!
Now the next chapter will be out by Friday, guaranteed but right now, I really need to shower...
See you all in the next one!
Mein Kapatin