(Author's note: Well, I got to work again, but the next updates wont be as quick as these. School goes before fanfiction, yknow. Anyhow, here's a long chapter, and I really like it. It's quite low on action, but I definitely think this is one of the best one's I've written so far. The Medic and the Engineer explore the deep, and themselves a bit.)
(suggested music: watch?v=IOmA2ruTWqM )
The Engineer was getting quite bored. He estimated that they had been descending for over 5 minutes. The further they progressed the wider the tube seemed to become. Below them he could start to see a very faint flicker of light . Suddenly one of the engineer's guns fell out of his back pocket. The Engineer looked down, but the light was still too faint to see where the gun had fallen. However, his ears allowed him to peace together exactly what happened . First he could hear a soft thump, followed by loud and angry German screams, that faded into a large splash sound.
"Medic! Are you ok?"The Engineer peered down, doing his best to make anything out in the distance below him.
" Vhat just happened! " The Medic glared at the Engineer. "Somezing hit me, und knocked me off. I am fine, I simply landed in ze vater below."
"My gun fell outta my pocket. Sorry Doc." The engineer descended down into the same "room" the Medic had fallen into. Due to the light being so faint the Engineer didn't notice that the stairs did not notice that the stairs did not end on solid ground. His left foot reached for the next step, never felt solid ground. He lost his balance and ended face first in the liquid below him
The whole ordeal was so ridiculous that even the Medic had to laugh, losing all his worries for just a moment. The laughing stopped when the Medic saw something brown slowly float past him
"Ve need to get out of zis filzy vater."
"Yeah, whatever."
Slowly the Engineer and Medic started to move towards the flickering light in the distance. As they got closer they could see a small platform that was barely high enough to prevent it from flooding. The Medic dragged himself out of the water and emptied his satchel. The various bandages and syringes had been soaked in filthy sewer water. Everything could have been infected and was now useless. The only way in which he would be able to use his equipment would be after it would have been sterilized. Where was the Pyro when you really needed him?
The Engineer wasn't doing much better. Both of his PDA's had stopped functioning, and the Engineer was pretty sure that they were not going to be of use later. He looked ahead and behind them, but couldn't see anything else then the flickering light and the platform.
"Medic, have you got anything of a light?"
"Nein."
"Thought so." The engineer pulled out a screwdriver and started tinkering at the lifeless PDA's. A little while later he had rewired them into one strange looking flashlight operated by a large switch on top.
The Medic smiled a bit "If only zese tools of mine were so easy to give a new life." He tossed a broken Synge into the water.
"You ready to go, doc?"
" Almost." The Medic loaded up the rest of his satchel and attached it to his belt. "Vere do ve go now?"
"We came from there...so let's go over there." The Engineer used his light to point ahead at a slippery small stone path.
"If it keeps me out of zis flizy vater it is fine to me."
At path circled right, left, and right again. Both were unsure if they were actually walking in circles and if the path even led anywhere. Of course, they both had other things in mind.
"I haven't eaten since this morning. I could really go for some Bee Cave style BBQ. Some nice fat ribs with some delicious honey sauce , sausages dripped in melting butter, deep fried fish and a gallon of beer."
"Engineer, you are a master of all zings mechanical . However, shouldn't you know zat zinking und talking about food makes you even more hungry zen you vere before?"
"I can't help it Doc. This body was not made to function without food."
"Und mine is not ezer. "
"You mean, ether? "
"Ja. Und if you vere so kind to stop talking about food I vould be very zankfull."
The Medic was looking down at his feet, careful not to step in one of the cracks below. He would not want to end up cleaning his syringes all over again. Besides, he had other things to worry about.
The Sniper had been nothing more then a tool to him. Something to sacrifice when times got tough. He kept saying it to himself but didn't really believe it. For years and years he had been outright hating the RED spy for being a coward, a liar, and a Judas. Now, in how he had treated the Sniper, wasn't he doing exactly the same thing.
"Look!" Further ahead the room became wider, slowly turning into more of an underground cave then a simple plumbing system. Pipes covered the walls, sprawling back and forth through the entire room. The whole place looked more like modern art then simple engineering. In the middle of the room there was a deep hole , and to the left was another gigantic pipe that flowed into the abyss below.
"The more I start analyzing the structures here the more I want to whack the fool that built this."
The Engineer stepped onto the thin metal walkway that crossed over the hole below it. As soon as the Medic followed the Engineer could hear a loud creak. With a swift hand movement he signaled the Medic to get back.
"This structure doesn't seem safe." The Engineer slowly retreated. "That area over there has been wet for so long, it must have rusted." Some of the waterfall collided with the path ahead and the gray metal had turned into orange-brown rust
The Engineer took slow steps towards the middle of the bridge. With every step, there was a definite audible crack. However the Engineer didn't hear the sound of structural faillure, so he kept moving towards the middle. As he got about halfway he started to hear a slower, more deeper sound then before. All of a sudden the Texan stood still. The sound continued. Now, all of a sudden the Engineer leaped forward, jumping over the rusty area. He didn't stop until he had solid ground under his feet.
"Doc! I've got good news and bad news!"
"Vhat is it now?"
"The structure is definitely failing, but if you have quick legs you might just make it to this side. And if you get here, there's something you should see.
The Medic stared at the bridge. The weight of the Engineer alone had made it snap in the middle, and there was at least a 20 centimeter vertical gap between his end of the bridge and the Engineer's .
"Keep moving and you'll be fine! If you start, don't stop!"
"Jetzt geht los..." The Medic took a step back, and pulled out his medigun. "Neunzehn und neun Prozent? Verdammt!" He put it back on his back. No über, no protection from the fall. The Medic was very hesitant to move, but he also realized that there was no reason (outside of the fear) to stay behind. For a second he imagined that he was charging into a sentry-filled room with the Heavy at his side. Then, he went for it.
As the Medic stepped onto the bridge the slow and brooding sound began again, much louder then it was before. The Medic could see the gap between the two widening as he came close. There were no thoughts in his mind. He just had to keep going. His half of the walkway began to bend downwards even more the closer he came. At last, he had to jump for it. He reached for the underside of the walkway, and barely missed them. Now, the water was streaming down his face, almost knocking off his glasses. He slowly pulled himself up ontop of the Engineer's side, and lay there for a few seconds. His heart was pumping like mad , yet he forced himself to breath slowly to calm himself down.
For a short moment the Medic felt truly free, as if he could take on the world. Then, he heard the loud cracks, and realized that he wasn't out of danger yet. The other side of the walkway was starting to bend just like the one the Medic had ran over earlier.
"Don't just stay there, Doc, MOVE!" The Engineer shouted.
The Medic rose to his feet, and ran towards the Engineer. The road ahead continued to become steeper until the Medic reached the point where he knew he would fall over. Before that happened he reached for the metal sides of the walkway, and used the thin metal strips to slowly climb up. The strips seemed to bend easily, so the Medic fastened his pace of climbing
The Engineer got onto his knees and held out his gloved hand as far as he could without falling. He reached for the Medic. "Grab my hand, doc."
"Ja!" The Medic grabbed the Engineer's hand as tightly as he could, while the other hand reached for the edge .
"3...2...1.." The Engineer pulled as hard as he could, while the Medic pulled himself up . The Engineer felt his muscles complain, but he refused to let go until the Medic was more then a meter onto solid ground.
Both men relaxed against the wall. Out of nowhere, the Medic started a small giggle that ended into a hysterical laugh. The Engineer couldn't help himself but join in. It took a while for the laughing to die down.
"Let us never do zat again."
"Agreed, Doc. That there was some mighty fine runnin' , if I may say so."
"Zere is zis...German saying." The Medic said, inbetween his loud breahts." Wenn Sie sie wirklich brauchen haben alle Menschen Flügel." The Medic took a second to translate it into English "When you really need them all men have wings. "
"Sounds pretty , but what does it mean?"
"As much as, in times of crisis we all have the power to do amazing things. I zink I have just received my wings today."
"With that long jump you did, I'd definitely believe you had wings." The Engineer stood up, and pulled the Medic along.
"I do not zink I could perform it again. Und, vhat vas zat zing you said was here?"
"That right there." The Engineer smiled. The room was much smaller then the previous one, however, it was filled with all kinds of desks and office supplies. However, none of them seemed to been used in years, and they were all covered in dust.
"Zat's..odd. Vho vould vant to vork here?"
The Engineer smiled. "Voever it vas zey vare nawt vere." He put up a silly rendition of the Medic's accent anf responded to the glare the Medic gave with a nonchalant "Hey, if you say things like that I'm bound to mock you over it."
"Vhatever. I need to sterilize my tools. I'll set up a fire in zis corner. "
"Fine by me, just don't be a pyro and burn everything in the darn room. I'll look if there's anything I can find to help us." The Engineer's stomach groaned. " And some food, of course. "
The Medic went to work, using his bonesaw for the unconventional purpose of sawing actual wood. He processed multiple desks into smaller planks that he could stack up and ignite safely. He created two stacks of wood, one to start the fire with, the other to keep the fire going.
Now came the tricky part. The Medic had no way to properly start the fire, so he had to improvise. The reached for one of the dusty desk lamps and ripped off the top. The Engineer wasn't the only one that knew about rewiring things...but he was a lot better at it. The Medic unscrewed the bulb and cut off the top of the lamp. Then he pulled out two copper wires and stripped the plastic around them. He twisted both into straight lines, and smiled at his work
"Zat could vork." The Medic stood up, dragging his decapitated lamp along to a power socket and plugged it in. To check if it functioned he put his finger in between the two wires. He felt a shock and pulled back quickly.
As soon as he had finished the last problem the next appeared. The closest electrical socket was meters away from the safe place he established to be the site of the fire. Undeterred the Medic reached for another bureau to cut it apart again. This time he only took one of the bureau's legs, and used his bonesaw to start scraping wood from the side of the leg. He collected this wood shrapnel and placed it under the "lamp".
Carefully he picked up both wires as far from the unexposed edges as he could. Then, he started to push the wires against each other on top of the tiny stack of wood he had created, hoping that one of the sparks he was making would ignite the wood. It took quite a few attempts, but eventually the medic had created a small fire.
The Medic reached for the leg he had scraped off earlier, and put it inside the tiny camp fire, unknowingly robbing the small fire of it's oxygen. The flames subsided, and the leg had only blackened a bit. "Verdammt!" He started scraping again when he noticed that the burnt side of the leg had started to glow like charcoal. Quickly, the Medic walked over to his fire spot and carefully put the glowing leg underneath his orderly stack of wood. He quickly scraped off new shrapnel on top of the glowing parts and started blowing as hard as he could. The glow became brighter, and minutes later the Medic was leaning back in one of the office chairs, idly throwing new planks onto the fire.
"I'm back." The Engineer was carrying 4 cans. " This is all I could find. That room over there used to be some kind of food room, but I can't even recognize what kind of vegetables they had there."
He stared, amazed at the fire the Medic had created.
" How did you do that?"
"Ze wings, of course." The Medic pointed at the empty desk chair beside him.
"Did those wings of yours bring a matchlight , perhaps?"
"So vhat is in zose cans?" The Medic's stomach sought to change the subject. "Meat, tons of it." The Engineer slowly sat down next to the medic, enjoying the heat of the fire
"Now if we had some honey it would just be like home." The Engineer opened one of the cans with his screwdriver, eager to get his stomach filled.
"You forgot ze beer." The Medic handed the Engineer a small beer bottle.
"Where did you get that?" The Engineer took a sip, relieve to see that the beer was in order.
"I allways carry zwei with me. In case I really needed zem. Now is as good as allways. " The Medic pulled out his last beer out of his satchel.
"To our BeeBeeQue" The Medic smiled as he took his first sip. "It tastes like home, does it not?"
"I couldn't agree more."