Headhunters
zTiamaTz
=H=H=
PISTOLERO
=H=H=
Cordelia and I sat in our small kitchen, discussing our current situation. We still weren't sure what to do, and we both felt like shit. After the copters went down yesterday, we had gone back to the house, and finished off the bottle of whiskey I had found. What had looked like an opportunity, had quickly gone up in smoke.
I wasn't sure what was going on now though. In the middle of the night, we'd heard a gun battle going on somewhere in the city, but it had seemed to be moving away from us. Since dawn though, it had been getting steadily closer.
"What about those markers we made so we knew how to get back to the house?" She asked nervously.
"That's a good idea Cor, but I don't think so. They were simple marks, if they'd been arrows, I could see that. But these guys seem to be running, I don't think they'd have the time to notice a pattern."
"Are we going to help them?"
"Help who? We don't know who they are. Like I said before, even if it is the COG we don't know they're the good guys."
"We have to do something!" She screamed, slamming her palms down on the table. "We can't just sit in this place and hope some portal is going to open!"
"We are doing something, we're going to sit here, and wait for them to pass us by."
Cordy narrowed her eyes at me. "Since when did you become a coward Harris?" Her voice was disgusted.
I looked down at the table, and rubbed my hands against my temples, as I avoiding the question. The fighting was getting closer, and my head was killing me.
I couldn't see her, but I knew she was glaring at me. I had always hated it, ever since I was a kid. That glare meant not only was she deciding how to kill your dignity, but where, and how deep she was going to bury what was left.
Most people took the airhead act she had perfected over the years at face value. I knew better. I had faced off with her enough times to know stupid people did not come up with the kind of scathing remarks she made.
"I don't want you to be alone." I said simply.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Cor, if it were just me, I'd go out there in a second and help the good guys." I lifted my head up to look at her. "If I do that here, there is a real chance that I won't be coming back, and then you'd be alone."
"But you've been fighting demons and stuff for six months!"
"That was Buffy doing most of the work. Besides that, they didn't carry weapons that could take down helicopters."
Suddenly there was an explosion that sounded close by. It took me by surprise, but after a few seconds I dove under the table, and then dragged Cordelia down with me. The sound of bullets flying started again right after that.
"Shit!" I turned to Cordy. "They've got to be only a couple of blocks away."
"We should see if we can help them."
"Since when are you Super-girl?" I asked incredulously. "Yesterday you said you didn't know why you bothered to help us."
She got up off the floor and dusted her pants off. "Like you said dweeb, we're probably going to be here for awhile. We might as well see if we can get some help while we're here."
Feeling stupid because I was still under the table, I got up, and watched as she picked up her axe. Then she stood there and waited for me.
"Fine, but we're doing things my way." I saw she was about to argue, but I cut her off with a sweep of the hand. "I'm not going to let you get killed because you picked the wrong side."
As we walked out the door, I hoped there was a right one.
=H=H=
We left the house, and tried to figure out where we should head. The fighting seemed to be to our left, and up a couple blocks. We cut through the yard of the house across the street from ours. I kicked out a few planks from a wooden fence so we could get into the alley that ran the length of the street.
The shots were still going off, but they were becoming sporadic. I stuck my head through the fence and saw the alley was empty and climbed through. After Cordelia did the same, we moved to a dumpster near the mouth of the alley.
"Cor stop here for a sec," I flipped the safety off of the pistol. "I'm going to take a peek around the corner."
"Okay." She replied, looking as nervous as I was.
As I edged my way to the street, I wondered if she was reconsidering her plan. I was quickly broken from my thoughts though, when I heard voices heading towards us from the street.
"Hey Sarge, you wanna pick up the pace? They're right on our ass!"
"Fuck you Sanders! Keep moving!" A gruff voice yelled back.
I was about to peek around the corner when a hail of gunfire shot past the alley, causing me to flinch back. As I turned my head back around to face the street, I saw three figures take cover behind a car. Two of them looked like they were wearing the same kind of armor as the soldier I had found in the command center.
The third guy leaned over the hood of the car to return fire. He was gigantic, his body covered in armor except his head and arms. He was at least three inches taller then me, and solid muscle.
"What the heck is going on?" A whispered voice asked behind me.
"Not now Cor, it looks like those COG guys are fighting with some other group, but I can't see who they are." I turned and gave her a small smile. "Just be ready to hit that hole in the fence if things go bad, I'll be right behind you."
"Grenade!"
I turned back to see the big guy grab one of the smaller one's and try to dive away as the car they had used as cover blew up.
"What's hap-"
I shushed her. "Quiet, the COG guys just got hit with a grenade."
"From who?" She hissed.
I ignored her, as I heard a mucousy growl, and heavy footsteps coming down the street. Two figures came into view, walking toward the Gears. They were both about six feet tall and as wide as the big guy. One wore a set of goggles, and carried a big rifle. The other wore a full-face helmet, and had some kind of machine gun.
They definitely weren't human either. Both had this gray skin that reminded me of a lizard, and one with the goggles had a mouth full of fangs. They strolled up to the car and started messing with something I couldn't see. Probably the poor soldier that big guy hadn't been able to grab, I couldn't really tell because of the smoke. Then I heard a groan.
I looked over to the left ,and saw the big guy trying to crawl away. Goggles walked over to him and flipped him on his back, with a hard kick. He made that growling sound, and I knew he was going to kill him.
I aimed the pistol at him, my hand was shaking. It raised it's boot to stomp the big guy and I fired. The shot went wide and the thing took a step back, the gun had almost jumped out of my hand. It turned to face me and started to raise the rifle. This time, I held the pistol with both hands, I shot it five times and it fell over, hopefully dead.
"Cordy run!" I screamed, just as bullets started tearing up the far side of the alley entrance. I heard footsteps behind me, and I hoped she would get back to the house safely.
=H=H=
As Helmet got closer to the mouth, I was afraid Cordelia wouldn't be able to get out of the alley before he arrived. I fired off two more shots and hid behind the dumpster, hoping I could take him by surprise.
As I leaned against it, I almost fell over. The thing had wheels, which gave me a very stupid idea. I grabbed a handhold, and started dragging it backwards. Just then, Helmet opened up on it, but the dumpster seemed to hold.
I fired back blindly, hoping to get lucky as I neared the hole in the fence. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as Cordy pulled her leg through. I was hoping with the dumpster in the way, Helmet hadn't seen her at all.
I was almost there when there was a sudden shove on the other end. The dumpster jammed into my right leg, twisting it, and I went down hard. I was now on my back, watching as the dumpster was shoved aside, a rifle pointed at me.
I looked around for my pistol, and saw it a few feet away. I looked back, and saw Helmet watching me. The single red eye of the helmet made a whirring sound, as it waited to see if I'd go for it. The bastard was toying with me.
As I eyed the pistol, I slowly reached my left hand over to the knife at my waist. I really had nothing to lose anyway. Helmet caught on to what I was doing and pulled the trigger. I closed my eyes, but all I heard was a click. I ripped my knife out of it's sheath, and threw, only to watch it bounce harmlessly off his chest, when it hit handle first.
Helmet looked down at his chest and then back at me. He grabbed a lever on the side of his rifle. He gave it a twist and a motor came to life. Of course, the fucking thing was a chainsaw too.
I started to crab-walk backwards, as he advanced, but my leg slowed me down. Helmet was laughing nastily and taking his sweet time getting to me.
There was a sudden thunk, and his laugh died. The saw cut out, and a second later he fell forward with an axe in his back. There stood Cordelia, with a big smile on her face.
"Maybe it should have been you doing the running, huh dork?"
=H=H=
I groaned, as Cordelia helped me get to my feet. I must have twisted my ankle worse then I thought.
"C'mon Cor, I want to see if we can help those COG guys."
As I limped past Helmet's body, I spit on him. He could have changed clips and killed me in seconds. Instead, he decided to hunt me down with a chainsaw. As far as I was concerned, these things were no better then vampires.
"What happened up there Xander?"
I quickly explained to her what happened with the Gears, and the grenade. Then how Goggles had tried to stomp the big guys head in.
As we once again neared the mouth of the alley, it was Cordelia that stuck her head out this time. Seeing that the coast was clear, we headed over to the fallen Gears.
The big guy had propped himself up against the wall. I realized though, that the two smaller guys hadn't moved an inch. As we approached, I was once again facing down the barrel of a gun.
"Who are you?" The big guy growled.
"Whoa!" I held up my hands, my pistol pointed in the air. "We're-"
"You jerk! We just saved your life. Put the gun down." Cordelia ordered.
I looked over at her in disbelief. We were so dead.
"Cor, be nice to the man with the big gun." I hissed at her.
"You're the one that killed that sniper drone."
"Do you see anyone else around here buddy?" Cordy was really on a roll.
I wondered when she had developed a death wish.
"Cor, put the axe down." I slowly bent down, and placed the gun on the ground. We wouldn't get anywhere like this, and he had already beaten me to the draw anyway.
"Fine." She gave me a look that let me know I'd be hearing about this later. The axe fell to the ground with a clank.
I looked back to the big guy. He was hispanic, with jet black hair in a crew cut. I was really hoping he'd be a peace-minded kind of person. Hell, his gun was even bigger then mine.
He lowered the gun, letting it flop to his lap. "You Stranded?" He suddenly started to cough, obviously in pain.
"Yeah, you could say that. We kinda dropped in." I stated simply.
"How the hell-"
"Look man, you're in bad shape. Why don't you let us take a look at you, and your guys, then we can talk all you want."
"Check on them first. I ain't going nowhere." Another round of wracking coughs followed.
I could see there was blood dripping down his left arm.
"Cordy, check the guy by the car." I decided to take the man closer to me. He was the one big guy had tried to yank away from the explosion.
"What's your name?" I asked as I checked on the soldier. I could see a golf ball-sized hole in the back of his armor, not good.
"Rodriguez, Bravo Company. What's left of it anyway." He replied with disgust.
"I'm sorry we couldn't help sooner. I'm Xander, she's Cordelia."
I turned the soldier over as gently as I could, hoping maybe he'd still be alive. I tried to feel for a pulse on his exposed neck, but I didn't know how to do it.
"Here." Cordelia knelt next to me. "Let me check." She looked up to Rodriguez shortly after and shook her head.
"Didn't think so."
"I'm sorry." She said simply.
I crawled over to him, wanting to stay off my leg. "How do we get this armor off?"
"Turn the disc clockwise. It'll release after that."
I looked at the armor. It looked like one solid piece. The disc was just below his heart and there was a Gears symbol to the upper right. I could see damage on the front and side, but I didn't know how bad it was.
As I turned it, I heard the sound of it depressurizing, and then his armor just seemed to crack open down the middle. As I pulled the sides apart, blood spilled out onto the ground. The first thing I saw was the Gears symbol-shaped dog tag hanging from his neck. Then I noticed the nasty looking wound in his side.
"Cor, go get the medical kit we put together from the house."
I watched as she snatched up her axe, and took off at a run toward the house. It was good to see her drop the bitch act when someone needed her help.
"You ought to have her put that fire out while you're at it kid." Rodriguez said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"How do you think we got here? We've been following that trail of smoke since first light."
"Fuck!" I couldn't believe how stupid I was. "Cordelia!"
Cordelia turned around as she heard me yell.
"Put the fire out!"
She gave a quick nod, and continued back to the house.
Shit. I really hoped there weren't anymore Locust in the area. With the racket we were making, that smoke was the least of our problems.
=H=H=
"How many more of you are there?"
"It's just us, we've been here almost two weeks now."
"Bullshit." Rodriguez growled. "There's only one ground route into the city and the grubs control it. Stranded don't got no choppers."
"Does it really matter?" I replied angrily. I inspected the wound in his side, it didn't seem that big, but I wasn't sure if it was serious or not. He seemed to be more or less okay.
"You're not being straight with me man, it makes me nervous."
I pulled back, and looked at him. "We don't know how we got here. We just woke up in the middle of an abandoned city, and we're just trying to survive."
He tried to stare me down. I didn't care how big he was, I wasn't going to let him intimidate me.
"That a good enough answer for you?"
"No."
"Too bad, it's all your getting." I continued to return the stare.
He opened his mouth to retort, but I stopped him.
"Considering we just saved your ass, I suggest you cut the attitude." I knew this wasn't going to go anywhere, so I decided to change the subject. "Now what did you mean they control it?"
"Just what I said. They're massed around it, waiting for us to come rolling in." He replied in disgust.
"You guys have helicopters, that sounds pretty stupid to me."
"We're talking about enough people to fill this shit-burg. You have any idea how long it would take to bring them in by air? Plus, we need this place intact. We can't just bomb them."
"Okay, that makes sense. Why haven't they come and killed us yet?"
"Probably don't have the numbers. Between Jacinto, and in-fighting with the Lambent, one little fire wasn't worth their time."
"Wasn't?" I asked darkly.
"With us showin' up, that'll probably change things. They're gonna be hunting us all down now."
"Great, do you know if there are anymore of your guys out there?"
Rodriguez sighed. "I don't know man, we all got separated. Sanders, Hall, and me were just trying to get the hell out of there. When we saw the smoke, we made a break for it."
"How far away were you from here?"
Suddenly there was a sound of running footsteps. He aimed his gun, only to see Cordelia rounding the big iron fence at the corner, her axe in one hand and a toolbox in the other.
He lowered it back down and Cordelia arrived shortly after, slightly out of breath.
"How are you doing?" She asked, as she handed me the box.
"Fuckin' hurts." He turned back to me as I tried to see what I could do to help. "I don't know how far we went, it's not like we had a map or anything."
"How were you guys supposed to clear those Locust things out of the city, without knowing the layout?" Cordelia asked, confused.
"We weren't," He sucked in a breath, as I tried to clean the wound. "We were just doing a flyover to get an idea of what we'd be up against in the Thaw."
"How long is that going to be?" She asked incredulously.
"Sorry chica, there ain't gonna be anyone coming for at least three months. After we sank Jacinto, the COG was looking for places to settle some of the survivors, and Oltura's one of 'em."
He gave a loud groan from me poking him, but continued. "The Frost season gets real nasty in this area, they ain't even gonna try to move people in here until Thaw."
We paused as we heard gunfire erupt somewhere in the city. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
=H=H=
"What about a rescue?" I asked hopefully. After trying to stop the bleeding for several minutes, I was getting worried.
"What rescue?" He said with a snort. "Once that chopper hit the ground, it became a one-way trip."
We both stared at him, shocked. Three choppers had gone down with who knows how many men, and these COG people wouldn't even send someone to search for survivors?
Rodriguez must have realized what we were thinking. "Resources are scarce man. Losing Ilima City and Jacinto made things a lot worse."
"But what about you guys?"
"What? You think after they lost three King-" He paused and shook his head.
"Are you okay?" Cordelia asked, concerned.
"Yeah chica. Just a little sick, head feels funny. Fucking grubs got us good."
She grabbed Rodriguez's wrist and checked his pulse. "Your pulse is down." She did not look happy.
He coughed once again. As he pulled his hand away, I noticed blood on his hand.
"This bleeding isn't stopping." I stated. I looked at his armor and saw something had punched through it where Rodriguez's wound was.
"Shit man. Nothin' goes right in this city."
"Can't you just sew it up?" Cordy suggested.
The sound of the ongoing gunfire in the distance gave me an idea. "Are any of your people medics?"
"Not anymore. She was on 3-7, fucking mortar bomblets hit it."
"Great, there's a bullet, or something else in you, and I don't know what to do."
"Get it out."
"You really want me to do that?" I asked him. I looked down at his side, the blood just kept coming.
"I got nothing to lose kid."
I didn't know if I could do it, the idea scared the shit out of me.
Cordelia pulled out her knife. "Will this do?" She asked hesitantly.
I sighed. "It's gonna to have to Cor." I told her, as I eased Rodriguez onto his right side. I knew she had cleaned the blade, but I was a bit wary of using it after she had stabbed that hopping thing.
Cordelia guided his head gently down to her lap. "Don't worry, he can do this." She told him as she took his hand.
I took the knife and looked down at him. "Are you ready?"
"Just do it kid." He said weakly.
I moved the knife over to the wound. My hand was shaking, I so did not want to do this. As I placed the point near the edge of the cut I hesitated.
"Do it." Rodriguez growled.
His voice startled me, I looked over to him. "Do you mind? I'm trying to do freakin' surgery here!"
"Xander, please." Cordy gave me a pleading look.
I brought the knife back down and cut. Watching the blood spill even more freaked me out, but I didn't stop. After widening it, I took a deep breath and stuck my fingers inside.
He groaned, I couldn't imagine how much this had to hurt.
For several minutes I tried to feel around for whatever the thing was as gently as possible. "I feel something." I said excitedly, and tried to get a better hold on whatever it was.
Rodriguez started to shift to his stomach.
"You've got to hold still man, I can't get a hold of this if you keep moving." I pulled him back toward me, and tried to get my grip again.
"Xander, he's dead." Cordelia said softly.
=H=H=
I stared down at the bloody thing in my hand. Rodriguez had died because of a piece of car bumper, of all the stupid things. I looked to Cordelia, she was crying as she cradled his head in her lap, she still hadn't let go of his hand.
I had a ton of unanswered questions. I hadn't rushed them, figuring we'd have plenty of time to talk. We still didn't know if the Locust were demons or something else.
Now, Rodriguez and his men were dead, we were alone again, and his blood was on my hands. Everything had gone to hell, just like it always seemed to these days.
"What are we going to do now Xander?"
"We're going to bury them. Do me a favor, and get the door we used to move the clothes."
Cordy left without an argument. It still surprised me, which made me feel even worse. She had been there for him as much as I had, if not more.
I looked down at the ground where Rodriguez's blood had pooled around us as I had tried to help him. I saw the gigantic revolver he had pointed at us earlier, sitting there in the middle of it.
I reached out and picked it up, it was a dull silver with a worn hand grip, and it had obviously seen a lot of use. I realized we would need this and all the other guns if we were going to survive another three months.
After killing time, just spinning the cylinder, I heard a scraping sound coming down the street. Looking up, I saw Cordelia come jogging around the corner, pulling the door behind her.
She came to a stop and took the loop off from around her. "That thing is freaking heavy."
"That was the easy part Cor." I said, as I gingerly got to my feet. With my bum ankle, I knew this was going to be a long day.
"Where do we start?" She asked sullenly.
=H=H=
After several hours, and a lot of pain, we had finally managed to get their bodies to the site, and gotten the graves dug. We had decided to use the yard across the street from our house.
I wanted it close by, for when the COG came, that way, they could retrieve the bodies easily. The graves weren't as deep as I would have liked, only about three feet, but that was all we could really manage.
Unhappily, I had taken all the ammunition they had carried, and then we were ready. With Cordelia at his legs, I went to pick up Rodriguez to place him in his grave.
That's when I noticed the thing on his ear. I picked it up, and took a closer look. I realized it had to be some kind of communicator. I'd seen it earlier, but it had never come up.
She came over and knelt down next to me. "What is it?"
"I think it's some kind of comm device." I showed it to her, it had a hook to go behind the ear, a piece that sat over the canal and extended out a few inches.
"Do you think it still works?" She asked hopefully, taking it from my hand.
She held it up to her ear, but after a series of 'hellos' with no reply, she looked disappointed.
I went over to Hall's body, and carefully removed his helmet. He had a similar one attached to his ear as well. "Cor, why don't you take a walk down the street, and we'll see if these work."
As she jogged down the street, I removed the ear piece and put it to my ear. I felt like crap for what amounted to looting their bodies, but it wasn't like we really had a choice.
:Hello.: Cordy's voice came.
I looked up and realized she was down the street. :Yeah, I can hear you.: I had to pull the ear piece away from her shout.
:Come on back Cor, let's get this finished up.: As I went to put Hall's helmet back on, I noticed a bit of chain sticking out from his armor, it was his dog tag. I pulled it loose and put it aside with Rodriguez's.
=H=H=
We quickly proceeded burying the three fallen soldiers. We had stopped just long enough to get Sanders' com, and dog tag as well. We made simple crosses from the fence planks I had kicked in earlier that day.
After that, we painted their names, and then hung their dog tags from the crosses. We gave a thank you to the three men, and then took a much needed break.
Cordelia sat a few feet away from me, her knees pulled to her chest and her head down. I could hear her softly crying. I hopped over, and sat down beside her. "You okay Cor?"
She didn't look up. "I never saw someone die before." She whispered.
Hesitantly, I put my arm around her. She leaned into me, and we just sat there. I wanted to say something, but everything I came up with in my head just didn't sound right.
After a few minutes, she picked her head up and wiped her eyes. She looked over to me, a small smile on her face. "Thanks dork."
"You're welcome." I pulled her tight to me. "Before we go in tonight, I want to get all of those weapons we left back there.
"Okay." She said, and got to her feet. She then grabbed my hands and helped me up as well.
Cordelia went into the house to grab the backpacks, while I headed back to the hole in the fence.
After making my way through, I stopped over the body of Helmet. He had fallen on top of his machine gun, so I had to shove his body over to get to it. After stripping him of anything that looked useful, I eyed the gun.
I pried it from his stiffening grip, and took a good look at the thing that had almost killed me several times today. It looked almost like a normal gun, except it was a little more high tech. The razor sharp teeth, which stuck out further then the barrel, looked like nothing I'd ever seen.
I grabbed the lever on the side, and couldn't help myself, I turned it. Hearing the sound of the motor humming, I just had to try it out. Looking down at the piece of shit that had killed the three soldiers, I knew exactly where to start.
=H=H=
Cordelia looked up, as I limped out of the alley. She had everything organized, and was carefully placing things into the two backpacks.
"What do you want to do with those guys?" She pointed at Goggles' body.
In response, I tossed something at her feet. It clanked as it hit the ground before slowly rolling to a stop.
"Ew, is that what I think it is?" She stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"It's not like these bastards deserve a burial or anything."
"O-kay. What are you going to do with them then?"
"See that fence over there?" I pointed toward at the fence on the corner of our street. It was one of those old iron ones, with spikes sticking up.
"You're joking, right?"
"Nope." I said with a smile, before turning my attentions to Goggles.
=H=H=
END