Chapter 3: A New French Revolution
"I thought you were dead." I said.
"I thought the same." Yumi answered. Just seeing her face, let alone hearing her voice brought new life into my body. We had to get out, but how? "How'd you get in here?" She asked.
"I got arrested and they didn't give a reason." I answered. "They knocked me out and the next thing I knew, I woke up in here." She angled the mirror to get a look at the rest of me. I also got to see the rest of her. Her clothes were ragged, hair matted to her head, and like the other prisoners, she didn't have shoes, or socks.
"How'd those claw marks get on you?" I looked down. My shirt had been clawed, but there were no marks, not even a scar. I had managed to heal up completely.
"I had a close call with an Infected, but I managed it out." I lied straight to her face. "How'd you get here? And why don't you have socks?"
"I managed to reach a Red Zone checkpoint. They imported me into the Yellow Zone. After a few days though, I found out how strict the laws were. I was broke and needed food. I was walking down the street a couple days ago when I saw a Blackwatch food truck. Once a day, they would drive to every refugee camp and give out food. I didn't have my ID card saying I was part of a refugee camp. Walking up to the Blackwatch soldier, he asked for my card. I said I didn't have it on me, but I would show it tomorrow." She stopped in order to take a breath. "He laughed in my face. This was partially my fault, but I punched him in the nose and grabbed a plate. Of course, I was tackled immediately and moved to this place." She said this, motioning her hands to the walls.
"As for the socks, you know how they take away everything that could be used as a weapon?" She asked.
"Yeah…" I said, partially confused. Most of the people around me had socks though.
"Yesterday, I took a whole day's worth of food, stuffed it one, and when a guard walked by, I beat him over the head with it. I managed to get his keys off his unconscious body and open my cell. I was almost to freedom when another Blackwatch soldier blocked the exit. I tried to turn around, but he slammed my thigh with the butt of his rifle. I went down grabbing my leg. Then he picked me up and threw me back into my cage." She put her hand on her left thigh. She winced before removing her hand quickly. "Still hurts."
A thought drifted into my head. I remembered my squad leader talking about a Marine revolt. I think they were going to attack hospitals to get medical equipment to the people. "Hey, where is this place?"
"It was a hospital before they took it over."
"Perfect!" I said. "The Blackwatch will be so distracted with what's going on outside, we can make our escape."
"What's happening outside?" Yumi asked.
"You don't need to worry about it for now." We kept talking for a while. I was completely lost in the conversation. Looking into her eyes, I was unable to hear the footsteps of an approaching Blackwatch soldier. Only the sound of his gun barrel hitting the metal bars brought us back to reality. Both our heads snapped to look at a Blackwatch soldier looking down at us.
"It looks like you've broken the rules again, Ms. Ishiyama." Yumi started to pull her arm back, but the soldier caught her by the wrist. I pressed my body against the bars.
"Don't you lay a finger on her." I said as menacingly as I could manage. He seemed to laugh under his mask. He tugged her arm hard. Her head bounced off the iron bars as he then shoved her back into her cell on the ground.
Stepping over, he got eye level with me. My head was pressed against an iron bar. "And what are you gonna do about it?" The other guard walked over and whispered into his ear. He leaned back and kicked the bar my head rested against. The sound of a crowbar on a metal security door echoed through my head and the room. I fell back with an ugly bruise on my forehead. "Let's take her to a test." The first one suggested to the other.
He nodded in agreement. One opened the door and the other grabbed Yumi. "But I'm not scheduled till tomorrow!" She yelled as she felt herself pulled off the ground.
"You just got bumped up the list." The one holding onto the door answered.
"Don't touch her!" I screamed.
The one holding her said, "You can't do nothing behind those bars." I tilted my head down slightly and activated my powers. The three of them froze up in fear. The one with his hands free lifted his rifle up to his shoulder.
"I'll hit you right between your eyes." My eyes narrowed.
"No you won't." I felt new tendrils wrap around my entire body. A suit similar to what had covered the Armored Infected formed around me. It was pitch black and held tightly to my body. The dark material built over my face and pulled back to a point. A shirt collar like structure rose up around my neck to lip level. The soldier pulled the trigger. Three bullets rang out. Each one bounced off my forehead. I pushed forward with all my strength, scattering the iron bars onto the ground. I dropped what remained in my hands and walked towards them. Each step boomed like I was walking in steel toe boots.
"You take her. I'll sound the alarm." The soldier holding Yumi said as he pushed her into the other one's hands. As he grabbed hold of her, he dropped his gun. Pulling out a knife, he held it close to her throat.
"Take another step and she'll be seeing red." Just looking at his body language I could tell he was bluffing. His knees quivered while his voice wavered slightly. I took a small step forward, and he took a larger one back. I kept taking slow steps, him reacting by weakening his credibility. I reached out to him, grabbing his dual bandoliers. Lifting him off the ground with a single hand, he dropped both the knife and Yumi. She landed on her butt with the knife next to her. She looked up into my faceplate, eyes wavering, full of fear. "Wait, I can help you." He said with both hands grabbing at my one.
"You will." I said as I reared my arm back like a baseball pitcher. Kicking my left leg into the air, I leaned forward and threw him at the peak of my swing. He screamed as he rocketed down the hallway. The other guard was against the wall, about to hit the alarm button. He heard the yelling and turned towards me. His partner's body smashed into his at the speed of an MLB pitch. A sickening crackle rang throughout the room as the one against the wall had his ribs crushed into his lungs. The neck of the other one buckled into his torso, shattering his spine and jellifying his brain. One body flopped to the ground motionless as the other fell to his hands and knees, tearing at his mask to stop from drowning in his own blood.
I grabbed him by one wrist with my right hand and lifted him into the air. The only thing he could manage to give off was him gargling to try and get air. Four tendrils shot out from my back. They jabbed into his different extremities. I closed my left hand into a fist and punched into his chest. Grabbing his heart, I ripped it out as my fist exited his back. The tendrils tugged hard, tearing his body into four pieces and pulled them within me. Black tendrils covered my body and forcing my eyes closed.
When it stopped and my eyes opened, I saw everything through a HUD display that had a star with angel wings on it in the top left corner. In the top right corner, a timer was running down to zero with only a couple minutes left. Written under it was 'till shift change.' I had taken the form of a Blackwatch soldier. Picking a rifle off the ground, I turned around to face Yumi. She was on the ground, knife in hand, body shaking. I started walking to her. She scooted back, too fearful to take the time to stand. "Yumi, it's me, Ulrich."
"Wh-what are you?" She asked.
"I'm just another human."
"You're some kind of monster." Yumi said.
"I've just got problems right now is all." I answered with a hint of honesty in my voice.
"That isn't just a phase. What really happened to you?" She asked, standing up. I walked towards her while switching back to my street clothes. My jacket was on as well as my black tennis shoes.
"I was Infected." She gasped and turned to run, but I grabbed her shoulder. "But I'm not like them. My DNA had a natural mutation, making me immune to falling to the Hive Mind's will." I said this as a new memory started playing through my head. It was saying more or less the same thing. It was of some scientist talking about the reason Mercer became the first Prototype.
"Why should I trust you?" She said with her head pointed towards the ground.
"Because you did before you knew the truth. Listen to me though, we need to leave. This shift ends soon and then two more will come down here. If they see you out, a cage broken, and a guard dead, they'll shoot us both on site." She looked up at me, ready to listen.
"What should we do?" She asked.
"I've already taken one guard's form. You take the other's uniform and follow my lead." She complied, stripping the other soldier to his underwear. I lifted the body and dumped it off in Yumi's cell and closed it. She soon pulled the hood over head as two new guards entered the room.
"We're here to relieve you of duty." The one on the left said, who's voice was female.
"It's been one of those days, so could you remind us of what we're doing next?" I asked, my voice had automatically changed to the soldier I had consumed.
"You take our job, so you go outside on guard duty." The male soldier said. I walked past them, as did Yumi. As soon as the door closed behind us, we ran for our lives. Sprinting around corners, we stopped at a set of elevators. Apparently, we were on the 2nd basement level. Yumi started hammering the call elevator button. The other guard's voices started echoing through the hallways.
"Hey! Somebody stop them!" The male soldier yelled from around a couple corners. One elevator door slid open and we slipped inside. The entire inside was silver and slick. I pressed the ground level button, and Yumi started holding the close door button. They came around the corner as the doors shut.
While the elevator rose, I turned to her and said, "As long as we look in place, we should be able to slip out." The doors opened up and we walked out. I held my rifle handle in the left and rested it in the right. Yumi adjusted to match me. We both looked up and straight ahead. We even matched our footsteps. I rolled my shoulders up and back, then she did the same. Looking both formal and unison, we made our way into the lobby.
No one glanced our way, or really even acknowledged us. Opening the glass doors, I looked out into the parking lot. A chain link fence stood way off to our left. A massive concrete barricade wall wrapped around the entire parking lot. Looking at the pavement, there was street access on the opposite side from the chain link fence. Several topless, empty cargo trucks sat in the parking lot on the other side. Some looked like they had stopped to drop off test subjects, others had soldiers under them doing maintenance.
Walking together across the lot, I whispered into her ear. "When I say duck and cover, run behind a truck and change back to your street clothes."
"Got it." Yumi said while we looked both left and right. Then I heard tires screeching and tracks rolling. Looking towards the entrance, several guards had their guns up and were yelling something. Two topless trucks rolled through the fence, flattening the guards standing in front of the fence. They immediately dismounted and hid behind the truck. Then an explosion rang out behind us. Turning back, a freaking TANK had blown a hole in the wall while two more trucks drove in. Those Marines did the same thing.
Amidst the sudden chaos, I called out, "Duck and cover!" Yumi and I hid behind the closest empty truck and Blackwatch troops hid behind what they could. Out of sight, I turned back to my Marine uniform while Yumi took off the Blackwatch uniform. She was wearing her street clothes underneath. I brought up my rifle and crouch walked around the back to joined the Marine pack. I started firing my rifle into the Blackwatch crowd still in the open. Being attacked from two directions, they didn't have far to go.
A low thundering sounded as an Apache chopper flew in overhead, firing missiles. Marines ducked and rolled away as both the missiles struck the tank, leaving only scrap metal and fire behind. Then the chain gun opened up, cutting down several Marines. More trucks began to pile in from behind, feeding more Marines to the kill zone. As the next wave of Marines ducked behind trucks that were well chipped away at, I ran through the open hole with my hand grasped tightly around Yumi's. Going into the alleyway on the other side of the concrete wall, I equipped my armor suit with my Muscle mass power, as I had come to call it. "You stay here." I told Yumi. She nodded, then walked to the wall and sat down.
Running up along the wall, I then jumped over the alleyway with a backflip and kept going up the apartment building on the other side. Reaching the 12th floor, I stood on the roof where two people had managed to get a bonfire and ratty couch onto. As my landing boomed, they were startled over the back of their couch. Without a second look at them, I jumped off the roof, staring straight at the chopper below me.
My hands wrapped quickly around tail of the chopper. It whirled around in the air about ¾ before straightening itself out. I leapt onto the wing that held the missile pods, then onto the side of the glass. I knocked out the pilot and splattered the copilot across the glass. I grabbed the pilot by the throat as the chopper climbed high into the air. Consuming him, a new memory began to play. Several images of a chopper flashed by while a soldier barked out, "You will learn every bit and piece of this vehicle and master it until you can fly with both hands tied behind your back!"
Instantly filled with the knowledge to fly this thing, I grabbed hold of the stick as the chopper started to dive. Holding it only about 10 yards off the ground, I turned towards the Blackwatch and the chain gun opened fire. Bullets quickly began to whittle the cargo trucks along the long wall down to metal shavings. Soldiers ducked in and out of corners to be diced up by both the chopper and the Marines. Then I heard what sounded like another tank. This one came out of the hospital, and fired a round directly at the cockpit. Fire and shattered glass cut into my armored body.
The Apache began to lose altitude as a black trail of smoke followed behind. Still in partial control, I veered the machine down upon the tank. Leaping out and into the shadows, I changed back to my Marine outfit and emerged with my rifle. I stepped around the wreckage and met up with other Marines. "Sorry I'm late for the party."
One Marine looked at me. "The party's just got started. We spotted some sort of Gentek property. It seemed friendly towards us. I'm sure that'll change."
Lining up with a unit missing a man, I asked one of them, "What are we up to?"
"Our unit's going to chase down the base operator. If he escapes, we can't access any security doors, mass release the prisoners, or torch the Infected subjects." The Marine explained this all. Not sure why, but I quickly agreed to join the unit. I looked back at Yumi, who was talking with a Marine that had stopped to help her. She looked towards me and winked.
Going inside, I looked at the lobby I had left a few minutes ago. A Gentek scientist looked straight at me, as if he could straight through my suit to see the me he knew. I slung my rifle strap on my shoulder. He took a few steps back before turning and all out running. I chased him up and down the hall. He stopped to enter a room and got the door closed. I armed my rifle and blasted the lock off the door. Kicking the door open, I entered the room and grabbed the scientist. Pinning him to the wall with both hands, I yelled at him, "Where's the commander?"
Stuttering like a child, he answered, "I-I-I don't know." Another Marine in the unit came by and slapped him across the face. Then he held his rifle against the scientist's head.
"We know you know!" He barked into his ear.
"Fine! Just don't shoot!"
The squad leader walked into the room. "Now we're getting somewhere. What do you know?"
"He's headed for the roof! A chopper's headed for the hospital right now."
The leader nodded his head. I nodded mine and dropped him to the ground. The scientist skittered to his feet and ran towards the exit. Two Marines popped around the corner, grabbing him and tackling him to the ground. One Marine slapped cuffs on him while the other carried him outside.
The leader said, "Alright let's get moving for the roof." We made for the elevator, but it was on lockdown. Neither one would budge. The buttons didn't even light up. The leader stuck his finger into the air and said, "To the stairs!"
Making our way down the hallway, we soon found the door with a red sign over it. The sign read Fire Stairs. Opening the door, several flights of stairs twisted into the air. The building was easily 10 stories tall. The concrete walls were covered in graffiti symbols from rival gangs and general vandalism. Skipping steps the whole way, we made our way to the 7th floor when bullets started shooting down the stairwell. It was a tight square set up and we were sitting ducks. One Marine standing next to me screamed, dropped, and rolled down the steps with a bullet in his knee.
I leaned over to get a better look. Several Blackwatch were clustered all over the stairwell on the other levels, as well as one putting something on the stairwell to the 10th floor. I immediately squeezed the trigger, blasting one nosy soldier in the face with three bullets. His body limply fell back against the wall. "We need to move!" I yelled as I leaned back. I led them up the stairs and around the corner, putting a bullet into the gut of Blackwatch that popped around the corner. Reaching the 8th floor, I heard a high pitched beeping. Looking up, plastic explosives with blinking red lights littered the 10th floor flight of stairs.
Several soldiers barged in through the door, rifles at the ready. Our squad shot them up, leaving only corpses as we trudged to the 9th floor. Looking up the flight, a single soldier stood with a trigger in his hands. Flipping it down, the beeping turned into one tone as the lights turned green. The sound of thunder shook up the entire stairwell as the next flight of stairs collapsed onto the last. I immediately pulled the trigger. He grabbed his chest as blood ran down his suit. He dropped to his knees, then fell head over heels onto flight below us.
"New plan." The leader said. "We make our way through the 9th floor to the other flight and get onto the roof from there." I grabbed the handle to the 9th floor door. I pushed it down and quickly made my way into the hallway. What I saw forced me to duck into the first room on the right. Looking into the room, the bed was soaked in blood. Several used syringes lay on a metal tray. The chairs were all torn up and one in pieces. The sound of a chain gun erupted in the hallway. The pungent odor of death wafted through the room. Peering back out, my fears were reassured as I saw the door I entered through full of holes. On the floor laid three more bodies. A female Marine was standing in the room across from me.
At the end of the hallway sat a scientist who had grabbed hold of the turret. I looked at her, and she nodded at me. Poking around the corner, I attracted the attention of the scientist. Before he could fire, the Marine ran up close to him. He looked over to her through his hazmat suit, only to have the visor shattered into his face. He slumped back onto the ground. I walked over the gun and kicked the tripod out from under it. Grabbing the chain gun, I lifted it placed it on the ground and picked up the munitions box. "Would you mind carrying this?" I asked her.
"Oh hell yeah." She responded calmly. But her eyes still quivered with guilt from seeing her allies being shot down. I handed it to her and she almost dropped it. "Shit! This thing is heavy." She said as she lifted it back up. I grabbed up the gun and we started forward again. Trudging down the hallway, we peered into each room. Each one was more or less like the first. Some had X-rays of people's infection sites. Several microscopes sat on the counters in some rooms. Others still had a dead body lying on the bed, flesh peeled back like a frog in biology class.
Then we came an intersection. "Which way?" I asked.
"Straight to hell!" A voice yelled out from our right. Several Blackwatch poured around the corner. They also came out from behind open doorways. We heard a thundering on our left. A helicopter stopped by the window while more soldiers poured in through the window.
I turned to the left and held the trigger. The barrel rolled up and sprayed the helicopter as it headed for the roof. Catching the rear rotor, shards of metal splintered off the rear. Sparks and black smoke poured off the rear as the chopper swirled around. The soldiers started to move forward, but it was too late. The chopper spun out of control and into the building. The still intact blades split the soldiers in two while the cab scraped across the linoleum floors. Fire quickly started to consume the hallway. "Fall back." I told her as I started to back away. We moved back and ducked into a room. Stepping back, I nudged something cool and metallic with my elbow. Behind me sat an aqua colored, small oxygen tank. "I got an idea."
Walking out into the hallway, smoke clouded the vision of everyone. She held the oxygen tank like an RPG with the nozzle pointed behind her. I walked behind her. With one fell swoop, my balled fist struck the nozzle and broke it off. A high pitched whistling attracted the attention of the Blackwatch. The canister flew from her hands and into the smoke. We both went in and grabbed the parts of the turret. We turned back around the corner in time to hear the explosion along with screams of anguish and anger. Charging through the smoke clouding the intersection, I saw the mangled bodies of the soldiers unfortunate enough to be close to the explosion. 5 more soldiers peeked around the corner and started shooting.
We entered into the room on our right. I leaned out and showered the hallway with bullets. 3 dropped in pieces while the others ducked back again. We ran out into the hallway. The two stepped out in front of us and fired. I ducked and she leaned against the wall. I dropped the gun and grabbed my rifle. Letting two rounds off quickly, I picked the gun up as more from behind came for us. I led her around the corner to the other stairwell.
"What about them?" She asked.
"Just keep moving!" I said as we reached the door to the roof. I braced myself and hit the door. It opened and banged against the wall. We both heard voices yelling from behind. She closed the door and placed some scrap metal from the roof across the door. With each push to open the door, the scrap metal grew weaker. Turning around, the base operator wore a suit with a large blue visor, and a yellow stripe down the outside of each leg. He lifted his pistol up. On either side stood another normal Blackwatch soldier. They also had their guns trained on me.
I handed to the gun to her. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Make sure no one interrupts the interrogation." I said as I turned around. One man fired a round. I leaned to the left and it flew past my head. I whipped my knife out and threw it. The knife struck the soldier on the right in the face. He went down holding his face. Whipping my rifle out, I pulled a trick straight of a movie. A bullet flew from the chamber, striking the gun out of the other Blackwatch soldier's hand. Doing it again, I shot the pistol from his hands. The normal soldier reached for his gun, but got a bullet in the side of his head and dropped to the ground. Then I heard another rumbling.
A second chopper rose above the roof top. I ran and grabbed the operator. "I'll shoot!" I yelled as I saw the guns angle towards me.
The operator seemed to look at me. "Ha, they'd rather shoot me then let you have the code." He was right too. The guns opened up as the helicopter strafed over the roof. Still holding him, I rolled behind a vent unit. Then, the chopper flew towards the girl.
"Look out!" I yelled. She turned around and immediately started to shoot. Rounds quickly punched through the glass, killing both the pilot and copilot. The chopper dropped down and skid across the roof. The door slid open and more soldiers pooled out. She started shooting into the crowd, mowing them into chunks. Satisfied, she turned back towards the door. "Hey! I'll watch the door, you report the situation."
"Got it." I said as I pulled out the handheld radio given to me. "This is PFC Stern. We have possession of the target but we're pinned on the roof."
The other line quickly crackled to life. "Roger. Are they on the roof right now?" the male voice asked.
"No, but they will be soon. The rear staircase is the only one they're coming up through."
"Copy that. We'll clean them up in no time." The voice said before returning to static. I held tight to the base operator. He tried to squirm out several times, but was still unsuccessful. Then the scrap metal gave way. The door flopped open, allowing the soldiers to tromp in. The Marine pulled the trigger, but the chain was empty. One soldier promptly shot her in the knee. She dropped to one knee before getting a boot in the face. Out cold, she lay on the ground until a Blackwatch soldier lifted her up and held her by the throat.
"You shoot him, I shoot her." He called across the roof.
"You shoot her, I shoot him." I called back. The remaining soldiers in the building, that being about seven, stood around the one holding the Marine. Each one was trained on me. Then one I fired. I ducked behind his body, causing the body to strike his leg.
"Are you kidding me?" The Blackwatch trooper yelled, unable to console his wounded leg. I returned fire, striking the hostage holder in the forehead. They both dropped back onto the ground. The soldiers then opened fire, forcing me to duck behind an air unit. Bullets bounced off the metal sounding like rain. I lifted my gun up and fired a few rounds. I heard someone grunt and collapse on the ground.
Then I heard someone yell, "We got more of them." Peering over slightly, I saw several Marines firing into cover from behind. Leaping over, I began to run across the rooftop. A bullet caught me in my side and I rolled across the ground, as did the operator. Looking up, a single Blackwatch soldier looked at me from behind cover triumphantly. Started towards me to use me as a shield. As he got just close enough, I removed my hands from my wound, grabbed my knife from my side and stabbed him in the calf. Let out a cry of anger and dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Then another gunshot silenced him.
I got onto my knees to see them taking the operator into custody and dragging the female Marine into the open. They carried both her and me down the steps. They placed me on a bed in a relatively untouched bed and they said a doctor would see me soon. Within minutes, a medic came in and got down on his knees. He took out a small flashlight and turned it on. Peering into my wound, he muttered to himself. Then without warning, he grabbed a pair of clean needles off the metal tray nearby and dug them into the hole. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. I grabbed a clean portion of the cloth and put it between my teeth to keep from hurting them.
The medic stuck his tongue out in concentration and dug them deeper. "Could you dig any deeper?" I asked in sarcasm.
"Why?" He asked as the bullet in me started to pull out.
"Because if you're trying to check for my appendix, I know it should still be there." I said. Then a rush of fresh blood and relief ran through my wound as I felt him dig out the bullet. Then he pulled gauze out of a bag he was carrying. Creating a bandage, he then slapped it over the wound and said, "That'll do for now." As he went for the door, he motioned for others to come in. With that, four people in camo walked into the room. They lined up around me.
Each person took off their helmet. Emily, Odd, Jim, and Yumi stood around me. "How are you feeling?" Odd asked, still with a limp.
"Doing good." I said as I sat up in the bed. "Yumi's a Marine?" I asked next.
"Yeah. I did some talking with a Marine while you were inside. Also, I referenced you." Yumi said. I then got out of bed and stood up. I couldn't even feel the wound anymore. I healed up that quickly. "So…now what?" I asked.
"We celebrate." Emily answered simply. "This is the first step to a new Revolution. This is like the Bastille Day of the modern world."
Then Jim spoke up. "Today and tonight is a celebration. Tomorrow we start our movement to help and recruit the people. As well as the next military campaign against Blackwatch."
"So what's the next target?" I asked.
"We have the medicine," Yumi started, "but we don't have the power, if you know what I mean." I looked at her, confused. "You know, help the people to get more of them on our side. Give them the power they've been stripped of."
I continued to look at them lost until Odd spoke up. "She means we're gonna gain control of the power plants."