The Sniper could barely breathe, but something inside him kept pushing him forward. Perhaps it was the fact that his legs were still functioning, or the realization that he would die if he stopped. He ran, harder, and longer then before. Finally, he was there. One more field to cross to safety.
There was nothing in his mind. His body felt weak and tired, but he kept pushing himself to his limit. With a last burst of strength he once again pulled ahead of the zombie horde. When he reached the iron door of his "home" he had no time to open them, so in stead he walked against the wall before reaching for an edge above him. There he hung, with a zombie horde below him. He knew that he would not last much longer, so he pulled himself up, reaching for the next edge, and finally climbed onto the roof.
There was nothing left in him, and he collapsed onto the ground. His heavy breathing slowly subsided, and there he lay. His eyes started to fail him, and moments later he fell into a deep sleep. His body had given everything it could, and now, he could only rest.
(An emotional moment ahead, and also the part where I start to call the people involved in the story by their real names (the names I made up.) I did this because i wanted the characters to feel more like humans, in stead of just people who's name was their job description.)
(suggested music ; watch?v=QFaAUw5fp8M )
It must have been hours later. The Sniper slowly came back to his senses, but everything was so strange. The Sniper could barely describe the feeling, but he felt as if he was just living, for the first time. He stared at the stars above him. He never wanted to leave that place, where he was alone with the stars. It reminded him of his childhood, using the small telescope in his room to look at all the shiny lights in the sky.
"I'm...home. Made it." he said to himself
"You're not at home." The Sniper couldn't grasp where the voice was coming from, but it sounded extremely warm and familiar. The temperature started to rise, and the Sniper realized that the night must have ended. But the stars were still out.
Curious, he slowly got onto his feet
"You're so far from home. So far, far away from us."
'Who are you?" The Sniper stared at where the light is coming from
"He misses you, but he'll never tell you. You know how he is."
"Mom?" The shining lady smiled.
"It's good that you call us, but it's just not the same. I know you're all grown up, but I can't wait to have my little son back at home again. I miss you, Patrick." The Sniper stared at the vision of his mother, that slowly started to cry.
"Mom, don't cry. I'm coming for you, I promise." The Sniper slowly rose to his feet. "I'm getting out of here as soon as I can."
"I know you have your own life, and your own job..." She started to cry even harder. "But I'd love to see you again. I'd love...to talk for real. Please, come back home, even if it's for one weekend . Whatever happens, we will always love you. Best of wishes, your mother"
"Mom! I'm coming for you! Don't go!" The light started to fade, and the vision disappeared.
Patrick started to look around for any sight of his mother, or anyone else. In the distance, on the roof, he could see a figure slowly approaching.
"Hello? Mom, Dad, is that you?"
He started running towards the figure, but stopped in front of it. It was a zombie, one of the zombies had made it onto the roof. In the weak , confused state that Patrick was in, he could only do so little. The zombie leaped for him, with his mouth open, however Patrick held him back with one arm. The Zombie gnawed and started chewing on his right hand, ripping off multiple of his fingers. Patrick kicked the zombie away and started running towards the entrance to get inside his safe home. It was a miracle that he even made it that far and managed to open the door. Then he slammed it shut behind him and collapsed against the door.
Slowly, he stare at his hand. He was missing his pinkie and ring finger. Not only that, but he was dead. The infection would spread and he would die, alone and miserable. Then, his eye fell onto his wall of different blades. Perhaps, he could save himself. Perhaps he could live, and see his parents again...even if it was for 5 minutes.
(Note, this is still the same chapter, however, this part takes place a few moments later...)
The Engineer and Medic were on their way up. Sure, they made much more horizontal progress then vertical, but they carried on nonetheless.
The knew they were close to the surface when the Engineer's walkie-talkie suddenly started to burst to life. Through the cracking and creaking of the device they could start to make out sentences.
"Hello? Anyone there? Anyone?"
"That sounds like ze Sniper."
"Yes, Sniper, we're here. This is the engineer speaking. We're currently underground, making our way back up."
"Not...the Sniper." The words barely escaped from the static
"You're not the Sniper? Who are you then?"
"My name...is Patrick Mundy. The Sniper does not exist...any more."
"What happened to you , Sniper?"
"Got bit by … a zombie." The Engineer moved the walkie-talkie around to establish better contact
"Mein Gott." The Medic blurted out.
"Chopped off my...own hand. Stopping...the bleeding. Where's doc?"
The Engineer handed the walkie-talkie to the Medic "I am here, Sniper?"
"Mundy...Patrick Mundy. Tell me, doc...what's your name?"
"My name? My name is Günther Beckenbauer. Vhy do you ask?"
"Because, Gunther, I'm bleeding out. I think I'm starting to die." The signal improved, and now they could make out Patrick's words with ease. "Could you please save me, Gunther?"
"Ve are on our vay. But, if you vant to survive untill we get zere...you have to stop ze wound, get some cloth or vhatever and stop ze bleeding by shutting down the blood flow. Tie the cloth aroudn your arm and pull as hard as you can.
"
"Got it."
"Now, ve are going to get you, stay upright against a vall or somezing and patiently wait. Vhatever you do just must not fall asleep. Do. Not. Fall. Asleep."
"Understood..."
"I vill keep you updated on our progress. Ven ve get outside you vill have to guide us to you."
"If I live to see that happening, I'll help you, but if I don't...make me a promise."
"A promise? Again?"
"Yep. If I die today you and Engie leave the base and go tell my parents I didn't make it. They live near Yarrawin, on the far end of Billybingbone Brea, Australia.
"Begriffen. But zat shall not happen, ve vill get to you soon."
"Hope so. Good luck, Gunther."
"You too, Patrik."
The idiotic way in which everything was constructed was not helping the Medic's and Engineer's journey. Often they found a way up that led to a dead end or was built so idiotic that the Engineer wouldn't even walk on them. But their persistence paid off, and now they had finally found their way to het outside. Slowly they pushed away the manhole. The Medic slowly rose out of the hole, looking around if they were safe. As he turned around he stared down the barrel of a shotgun. The person holding the gun was extremely familiar. The Medic stared at the bald face and couldn't help himself but smile
"DOCTOR!" The giant, overweight RED Heavy grabbed the BLU Medic under his shoulders, lifted him into the air...and hugged him.
"Heavy! Put me down."
"Yes Doctor." The Heavy gently put the medic onto the ground, until he realized that his lover was wearing the wrong color uniform. He turned aggressive, and reached for his shotgun.
The Medic did nothing but stare into the Heavy's eyes
"You are not Doctor, you are SPY!"
"I am ze BLU Medic. Not a BLU Spy. "
"BLU is still BLU!" The Heavy pointed the gun between the Medic's eyes. "You will regret day you faced me."
"Listen here, Heavy." The Medic gave an absolute death glare so scary that the Heavy took a step back. "I have no time for zis argument with you." The Medic pushed the gun sight's away from his face. "Now, I have someone to save, und I have NOT worked ZHIS hard to die right here! Eizer you go with us und save ze Sniper or ve vill leave you in zhis room."
The Engineer climbed out of the manhole, a bit disturbed by the sudden realization that they were in the RED spawn. The Heavy was the only one in the room, but there were a bunch of zombie bodies lying near the door
The heavy pointed the shotgun at the Engineer, only to have the Medic violently whacking it out of his hands.
"Ve have no time for zis you dumkopf! I vill explain it to you on ze way. Get your stuff."
"Doctor, you are my enemy."
"Silence! I vill not hear about zis again untill ve save ze Sniper. Understood!" The Engineer noted that the Heavy 's body language suddenly turned submissive.
"But.."
"Nein! Now move!"
"Ja Doctor." The Heavy reluctantly started to pack all his equipment. When the Medic told him he couldn't take a minigun because they were in a hurry the Heavy almost punched the German.
"I need Sasha, und Tomislav, und Natasha." The heavy said defiant
"Heavy, ve need to hurry und move fast. Bitte, let zem stay here, und I promise you ve vill be picking zem up after we save ze Sniper."
"I do not go out with no gun."
The Medic delivered a fierce slap to the Heavy's cheek, so hard that it even took the Engineer off guard.
"Ve vill return. Now, let us move!"
"Njet."
"NOW!"
"Ja doctor. " The Heavy kicked aside one of the bodies, and reached for het metal handelbars of the door. With a great ease he lifted open the door, allowing the Engineer and Medic to go outside.
The Heavy wanted to grumble at the Engineer but one look from the Medic forced him into silence.
"Good news, Sniper. Ve have found ze RED Heavy und ve are bringing him to you. Ve are at ze RED spawn, how do ve get to your base ze fastest?"
"RED spawn... that's not that far. You see the sign that says "Jimjom" or something , with a happy face on it.
The Medic looked around, and saw a billboard with the letters "Jimi Jam" plastered onto it.
"Und?"
"If you pass that, take a left. There's a control point ahead, if you pass take the..." The sound suddenly fell silent
"Sniper? Hello? Are you there?"
"Yeah...I think ...so. Not feeling good, doc."
"Keep yourself together. After the control point, zen what?"
"Just keep going ahead until you see the place where I saved you. One right, cross the field, and you're there. But, there's a horde of zombies there."
"Ja. But ve vill be ready for zem. Hold on, my freund."
"Doing the damn best I can, doc."
The Sniper's instructions were spot on. Soon the Medic recognized the place where he had been surrounded by zombies, and used the über to get through.
"All right, if ze Sniper is correct, zere will be a horde of zombies on ze next turn. Stay here." The Medic walked around the corner, but quickly returned
"Und ze answer is yes. Zey haven't seen us yet so zat is a plus. However, how are ve going to get past zem."
"Let me take a look." The Engineer carefully leaned past the corner of the building.
"Yeah, that's going to be an issue. However, Doc, I might just have a practical solution to that lil' conundrum." The Engineer reached for the rope he had tied to his belt. He pulled a metal strip from a nearby door, and started whacking it with his hammer to form a crude looking hook. He attached it to the rope, and flung his contraption at an edge nearby. The hook caught hold behind an iron bar, and the Engineer tested if it could carry his own weight. He climbed up the rope, detached it from the bar and gently threw it to the medic.
"If we can get close enough to that building, say through any other building we can try to get this hook attached to one edge of the building. From there it's a small stage act to get to the Sniper."
The Engineer smashed open the window behind him with one fierce strike of his wrench. Careful not to stab himself on the sharp pieces of glass everywhere, he descended one floor and opened the door to let the others inside.
The wall were so flimsy that the Heavy could easily punch through them. Like a unshaven rampaging bear he simply ran at the walls ahead to smash it into pieces.
With the heavy's help they easily made it to the other far end of the building, near the Sniper's base. The Engineer threw the hook at the nearest corner of the opposing building. He pulled the rope tight and attached it to the balcony edge.
He pulled at the rope like it was one of his guitar strings and smiled when it gave a satisfying "Twang!" sound.
"All right, doc, do you know how to climb across a vertical rope?"
"Not really." The Medic gulped as he stared at the zombies below
"All right, simply cross your feet around the rope." The Engineer lay on his back to demonstrate this technique. "Use both hands to grab onto the rope and pull yourself forward. You could also try just using your two hands but that would be less safe and also leave your legs hanging. I don't want you to become some kinda zombie pinata."
"I see." The Medic grabbed the rope and first let himself hang from it. Then he pulled up his legs, crossing them around the rope just like the Engineer had demonstrated. Slowly he started moving towards the building the Sniper was hiding in. The zombie horde suddenly noticed the bumbling German and started moaning, waving their arms in a futile attempt to get to him.
Now the Medic was starting to get nervous. He stared down every 5 or so seconds.
"Just keep on goin' Doc, you'll be fine."
"It is not as easy as it seemed!" the medic yelled back. After what seemed like an eternity the Medic reached the other end of the rope and climbed onto the roof.
The same zombie that had attacked the Sniper now started to move towards the Medic. But the Medic however was not at all exhausted. Even before it got close the Medic had filled it's head with a fine set of bullet holes. Before he moved past it he first checked if it was truly dead by reloading and emptying his clip into the creature's neck
"Sniper, I am here!" The Medic pulled open the door to inside, to find the Sniper collapsing onto the floor. Apparently he had been lying against the door.
The blood was everywhere. The sniper was extremely pale, but managed to create a smile
"You're..here."
"Hold still."
"Not much...else I can do."
The Medic pulled out his medigun, aiming it at the missing hand.
"Zis might feel strange, but zat's ok. If you feel nozing, please do tell me." The Medic activated his medigun, and blue particles came out of the long end. The Sniper's stump started to stretch, slowly forming bone, and slowly shaping itself into a hand. As soon as he had completed the process the Medic began to check up on the Sniper
"My medigun unfortunately does NOT fix your blood loss. Your body vill have to fix itzelf, by taking lots of rest."
"It was at that point that the Medic realized that the Sniper had fallen asleep a while before.
The Engineer had crossed the rope, signaling the Heavy to stay behind
"I'm not sure if the rope can carry you! We'll clean out the zombies from up here, and then you can come in from the front entrance."
"How is he, Doc?"
The Heavy didn't like the implication that he was overweight but he did realize that living was more important then being stubborn.
"Ze Sniper vill be fine...with some rest."
"Great! We're all set, except we have to get the Heavy inside."
"I zink I might have an easy was to clean out ze zombies." The Engineer and Medic picked up the Sniper and gently placed him on an improvised bed.
At that point the Engineer noticed the fine selection of weapons on the wall. "I never knew Snipes had anything like this stacked up."
"Now zat ve could use zose to clean out ze zombies." The Medic pointed at a selection of weapons on the wall. He believed the Soldier called it the "Libbery Lawnchair" or something as silly like that. The Medic grabbed the rocket launcher, checking if it was armed. It was quite heavy, at least, much heavier then he had expected. The Engineer saw him stumble and grabbed the far end of the rocket launcher.
Painfully slow the two lifted the device up the stairs. Uneasy the Medic aimed the rocket launcher at the zombie horde over the edge. He pulled the trigger, bracing himself for the knock back. When it eventually came it only slightly knocked him off his feet, and quickly recovered.
"Would ya look at that!" The Engineer smiled at the destruction below. Not only was there a large hole in the floor but seemingly half of the zombies had been reduced into soup. The Medic picked up the rocket launcher he had just dropped and launched his second rocket, again with devastating consequences...for the undead. Now, only a few were standing around. The Medic aimed for the middle of the group and hit the trigger.
"Ok Heavy, come over here now!"
The RED heavy had been standing at the balcony for quite a while now. All the things he had seen, they confused him thoroughly. His team was gone, and there were deadly creatures everywhere. What was he going to do?
The zombies had been devastated and the heavy only counted 4 survivors. The Medic aimed again, but only herd an empty click.
"Scheiße." He tossed the rocket launcher away, and start to look for his revolver. He realized that he must have dropped it during his emergency surgency.
The Heavy jumped from the balcony and landed with a big bang. The last few zombies noticed him and started to reach for him. With a few aimed shotgun shots he easily dispatched of them.
From the side of the building the Engineer popped out of the door to signal to the Heavy to get inside.
" C'mon!."
The Heavy quickly crossed the distance and shut the door behind him.
"That was some nice shootin', Heavy."
"Thanks." The heavy looked around at all the weapons in the room "What is this place?"
"Snipes favourite camping spot. I knew he liked to be a camper but this..."
The heavy noticed the BLU medic standing near the sleeping RED Sniper. He immediately recognized the doctors look of extreme worry.
"Doctor." The Medic turned to face him "What is happening?"
"Sit down, my freund. Zis vill not be a short story."