The engineer grumbled as he traversed the city. God, he hated this place.
The towering skyscrapers which once blazed with light had long been dark; the streets were devoid of traffic. The city which had once represented to him the pinnacle of man's mastery over nature, his ability to shape the world to his will, was in ruins. It was like a personal hell, made just for him and generously garnished with irony; a world too broken to fix. Worse, a world broken by his creations, though not, he thought emphatically, thinking of the hat-wearing, mug-wielding, straw-obsessed maniac who now ordered him around, by him.
He avoided field trips wherever possible, preferring not to look at the desolate remnants of civilization, and definitely to avoid the various monstrosities which now marauded at their leisure. He would rather stay put and work on salvaging the bits of radio or the more basic computer parts his crewmates brought back; at least the Captain's inane schemes gave him something to do, something that allowed him, on a good day, for a moment, to forget that the world had ended and things would never go back to the way they were before – once in a while he could lose himself in a bit of circuitry and feel almost happy. But the other two had been gone a few hours longer than expected and finally the Captain had decided it was time to send a search party. So he had been sent out by the crazy idiot to find the morally-superior idiot and the idiot-idiot. What wonderful quest, as the former would say.
He kicked a bit of brick and scowled. They could be anywhere in the city! This was pointless. The really annoying part was that if Seven only deigned to look for them himself he'd be bound to trip over them immediately. Alexander never had figured out how that worked. His other great regret…
He stopped when he noticed a familiar black-and-white pattern crouching behind a hunk of concrete, presumably sniping at some mutated quarry.
"Hey, Charles." Mission accomplished. That wasn't so hard. He didn't see what all the fuss was about. He noticed Pilot was there too. Wow, I'm good at this. He hadn't noticed the aviator before because he was being uncharacteristically quiet. He looked as if he wanted to get up or say something, but the marksman gripped his shoulder with a warning glare.
The engineer felt the beginnings of uncertainty.
"What's going - " he noted the sniper's urgent look, his flapping hand gestures.
He turned, following the direction of the rifle, and saw its target.
"… on." He dropped down, his back pressed against a burnt-out car.
Looking across to the sniper, he jerked his thumb back towards the distant figures then made a V-shape, pointing his middle and index finger at his eyes before pointing to himself, head tilted to suggest a question.
The sniper turned his palms up and shrugged. He looked back into his sights. After a few tense seconds he slowly shook his head.
The engineer exhaled. He made a pistol-shape with his hand and mimed the recoil from a shot, again giving the questioning look.
The sniper raised his outspread hands to cup his ears and vibrated them. He simulated counting on his fingers, then scooped his hands inwards in a beckoning gesture.
Snippy couldn't tell if the engineer had understood this last signal but at least he was keeping quiet. So was Pilot, mercifully – but that couldn't last long. Now there was another person he needed to get out of there unseen… keeping Pilot out of trouble was hard enough. This wasn't going to be easy. But he was out of time. He needed to make a plan, now. They could –
Pilot was feeling increasingly restless. He didn't take orders from Snippy. He was Captain's minion. But Snippy said he was in charge of the mission so disobeying him meant disobeying Captain. And that staying very still and very quiet behind this rock was instrumental to the mission. But Snippy told so many lies… it all got a bit confusing sometimes. Only one thing was certain; he would never disobey his Captain. Perhaps it was best not to get up and take the risk that Snippy was telling the truth.
But… if the shoe was lying, and hiding behind this rock was just one of those strange behaviours he sometimes exhibited, saying things like "- just want a moment of peace, could you leave me alone for five minutes" or "Bloody hell! How long have you been there? I told you to stop watching me sleep!" or "No, I don't want to swordfight! I don't – stop it! OW!" or "I'M NOT GIVING YOU A PIGGYBACK RIDE GET OFF ME", then he was disobeying Captain by not finishing the mission. And now Engie was here! Engie barely ever left headquarters, not if he could help it. Had Captain sent him to find them? Were they taking too long? Snippy wouldn't even let him ask, the slug. Maybe he should –
The engineer tried to stay calm. If shooting wasn't an option then they would just have to stay out of sight and go quietly. The sniper seemed to be keeping Pilot in check, for once, but – hell, which way was back? He looked at the way he had come and realised he didn't know where they were. He had been too busy with his internal grievances to pay attention to where he was walking and had strayed into an unknown part of the city. Stupid, he cursed himself mentally. Raising his head tentatively above the rusted door of the car he could make out a landmark he recognised. If he could just get to that tower block he would know the way. But the road was blocked by those… things. Perhaps they would -
Three lines of thought were interrupted at the same time as footsteps rang out behind them.
"MINIONS! I FOUND YOU. CAPTAIN WINS ZEE GAME!" He marched boldly down the street, careless of the noise he was making and the ease with which he could be seen. When his subordinates remained crouched and silent he waved impatiently to attract their attention. Honestly, were they deaf? "CEASE YOUR TOMFOOLERY. STAND TO ATTENTION!"
Pilot jumped up and saluted. The engineer stared in dismay. Snippy covered his face with his hand.
He had been doing that a lot lately.
Another day, another chapter! I think I had Engie being a little slow on the uptake in this chapter which I know is OOC. My talking-through-my-hat justification is that he's not used to combat/stealth situations. The actual reason is that I thought it was funny. As ever, let me know if you see anything you think is uncharacteristic or anything else that bothers you. Or anything you liked, for that matter. My ego will thank you.
Are you all psyched for the next chapter? I am. It has more zombies. Spoilers, I guess.