(Author's note: "Boom, I'm back, dummy!" Yep, I'm back, it took me quite a while to get this chapter done as I was not quite sure where I was going with this. Now let's continue our story…actually, no, one more thing. As I look at the characters I've written I realized that I wrote them to be much three-dimensional as the game portrays them. I've also came up with names for all of them, and woo boy, I'm gonna use em. Anyhow, I think I did screw up with the switching in names but right now I'm too lazy to look for those spots. Now let´s...OH! One more thing! I found an old fanfic of me, of Chrono Trigger, I completely forgot about writing it, but now that I look back at it for the first time made me realize that it has a lot of potential. Strangely enough it also stars someone that tries to surivive. More on that, coming soon. NOW BACK TO OUR SHOW!)
The Medic told the Heavy everything he knew. From his start, the death of "his" Heavy until the moment when they received the Sniper's message. The Heavy was silent afterwards.
"So what now?" he asked.
"You tell me. I haven't heard from the administrator in so long. I don't think we're really employed anymore." The Engineer was working on building a new sentry out of the Sniper's weapon collection. He had rewired two separate rocket launchers on top of an improvised rig. Not only that, but he had ripped open of the machines that lay around to use their inner parts into his new sentry.
The Medic had left the Sniper for a while to cook some soup for the three of them. He almost burned his own hair when he examined the backburner.
Meanwhile the Heavy simply sat on a chair, leaning against the wall. He did not feel like doing anything at all but sit in silence. His mind was slowly processing the changes that had happened to him in the last few hours.
The Medic handed the Heavy a can of warm soup and a shiny clean spoon. "Zere you go."
"Thank you, Doctor." The Medic reached for his own can and sat next to the Heavy.
"So what are these...things we fight?"
"I have no idea." The Medic sighed. "I only know so little about zem. After someone is bitten by zem zey get sick und slowly turn into zese creatures. Zey move slow and are veak but zey have so many numbers. It is wunderbar zat zey can kill by a mere bite. Ze Sniper was bitten und he only lived because he stopped ze infection...by cutting of his hand." The Medic stirred into his soup.
"Ze respawn is down, you know zat right?"
"Da. I know. I vas with doctor vhen ve got surprised. I am here, Doctor is not."
"So ze respawn collapsed after reviving you."
"Da. Stayed in spawn after Doctor not appear."
The Medic nodded. "So, you felt ze process of becoming one of zem"
"Njet. I vas eaten alive."
The Engineer shivered. "Do you two mind, I'm making a sentry here!"
"Fine zen. Heavy, have you accepted zat ve need to vork together? I had to take a vhile to accept ze Sniper as my freund."
"Is very strange, yet alike." The Heavy took a while to think of words for what he was feeling. "You are not Doctor, but so close. My team is gone, but now I have new team."
"Zat is good, my freund. Ze Sniper saved me, und likevise. Vorking for BLU feels so long ago. I don't zink I've slept in a vhile. Or, far too long ago." The Medic let out a slow sigh, and put his hand on the Heavy's shoulder. "But I must say zat I am very happy to see you."
The Heavy nodded silently. Meanwhile the Engineer delivered a last few swings with his wrench
"Now that there is starting to look like a proper sentry." The Engineer pulled out a big red switch that he had wired into the back of a sentry. "I am pretty sure that this lil' fella will do just fine."
He hit the switch, and the sentry buzzed and beeped into life. And by that, I mean, exploded.
Various bits and parts were flung around the room and even pelted the Medic and Heavy. The Engineer was flung back into a wall and hit one of the support beams of the building.
"Can't ve ever get some rest here?" The Medic wiped the junk from his coat. He picked up his medigun and pointed it at the engineer. To his surprise however the Engineer easily stood up and started to examine what was left of his sentry.
"Guess one of the launchers was jammed or somethin'. I should have checked for that." The Medic shook his head and smiled. At least his branch of science had less chance of exploding every time he tried something. Then again, the Engineer was more focused on his machines then on his teammates. Outside of the Soldier and Demoman none of them were prone to random explosions.
"Bloody hell, Truckie!" The explosion had awoken the Sniper who now sat upright. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Welcome back, Sniper." The Medic held out his hand to help the Sniper up.
The Sniper was hesitant for a second, and then he grabbed the hand firmly. He stood up, and pulled the Medic into a very surprising hug.
"Vhat?" the medic exclaimed.
"Thanks, Gunther. You saved my life, again." The Sniper let go of the baffled German "Doc...I saw a hallucination, just before I got bit."
"A hallucination? Do tell me, bitte?"
"It was me mum, and she wanted me to come home. I think she was reading some kind of letter to me. One she never sent, apparently."
"I think you just caught a sunburn, son." The Engineer barely looked up from the new sets of plans and drawings he was creating.
"I've had sunburn before in the Outback, and I damn well know that was not sunburn! I think it was a sign, or something." The Sniper stared up for a bit
"A sign from whom?" The Heavy, half covered in debris was unsure what to make of this.
"I have no idea, really. I kinda believe in God, but then again, not really. Anyhow, good to see you Heavy. How did you get here?
"Doctor came from sewers and took me along." The Heavy shook off the debris and sat down again. "Not like I have things to do."
"One more thing, I want to know your names."
"Why?"
"Because, if you didn't notice yet, the wargames are over. There's no further point in calling each other by our job names any more. And there's no meddling administrator to complain about it. I don't exactly think we're on BLU and RED anymore."
"I agree, Patrik. Zat was your name right?"
"Happy to hear you remembered, Gunther."
The Engineer laid his plans down to rest while he approached the Medic and Sniper. "Engineer is my job, not my name. That would be Dell Conagher."
"Ludvig Pootis." The Heavy didn't even bother to move a single muscle outside of his face.
"Now, we can't stay here forever. Eventually we're gonna run out of food and ammo. We need to start moving." Patrick looked
"Vas it not your plan to stay here?" Günther did become a bit concerned at the sudden changes that Patrick was going through.
"Well, I realized one thing. Me parents are still out there, and they could be exposed to these zombies. Last night I put on the radio to keep me awake. It was last night, right? Can't really tell, there's no windows in here." Patrick looked to find any clue on how late it was
"It vas zhis afternoon. Ze sun vas setting vhen I found you. It must be about zehn or somezing."
"I couldn't get a proper station; all of em were broadcasting static. Except for one, who had a prerecorded message playing over and over. It was as much as "The Australian Government urges you to be calm while evacuating this region. Stay away from the infected and try to head for the coast. This, is not a local thing. It's spreading."
Dell started to look unnerved. "If they're evacuating and one of the people on board have been bitten.."
"It vould spread across ze world. I already zink it is doing zat right now." Günther nodded slowly, deep in thoughts over how they could stop the spread.
"Melanie!" Dell shouted.
"Melanie?" Günther and Patrick spoke in surprise
"My daughter! She could be in danger."
"And me parents as well. This means that we need to go and get them. The more we wait, the more danger there will be for both of 'em. Me...Gunther, have you got any family in Germany?
"Of course, but ve are not zat close. I have not seen zem in years, und I am pretty sure I do not vant to."
"Righto, we need to get out of here. Truckie, you got your truck close?"
"Just as close as your camping van, just outside of the large gate."
"What happen when we find family?" Ludvig raised his hand to pull the Sniper's attention.
"I...I...err...I don't know. But it's better than just sitting here and hoping for the best."
"Zere is one zing." Günther smiled in such a manner that it made Patrick and Dell uneasy. "If ve are leaving here, vhy don't ve burn ze place on ze vay out?"
"Are you bloody mad? Was the pyro your brother or something?" Patrick looked quite annoyed as well as surprised.
"I can assure you zwei, he vas not. Und, ze fire vould obviously spread, taking a lot of zese creatures along. Ze less zere are of zese creatures alive ze better."
"I reckon I can see the reasoning behind that." Dell nodded slowly. "It aint exactly pretty but neither are they."
"Is good plan." Ludvig nodded.
"All right, all right. We'll burn the place after we checked we got everything. Anything else?"
"Not für me." Günther shook his head.
"Notes, notes, where did I leave my notes?" Patrick searched a bit until he found his stack of papers. "All right , the northern gate is about 5 minutes of walking. With zombies involved, that would be at least 15. Not that far."
"We pick up our vehicles, move 'em here, load 'em up and burn the place. I can create a radio controlled ignition system and hardwire it into the rear of pyro's flamethrowers. That way we can set the place on fire when we already left." The Engineer reached for one of his technical wonder devices, the one he called the wrangler. It looked like a gun with some kind of receiver disc placed on the front of it.
"All right, Dell, how about you start working on that while me, Gunther and L...l..."
"Ludvig."
"Ludvig go and collect our cars. You got your keys on you?"
Dell tossed the keys at Patrick's face, so hard that he had barely enough time from leaving a key sized bump in his face. "Thank you, I guess. You two ready?"
"Actually, nein, I vould like to sleep first. A good night and day rhythm is very important you know."
"This again, doc?"
"Ja, now let me go to bed. I know you have slept but ve need our rest too. It's good to see you awake but we're not going out zis night."
Patrick let out a sigh. "All right then, but don't expect me to tuck you in."
The next morning...
Günther slowly rose from another night on his improvised bed. Either he had been extremely tired last night or the blanket he lay on had turned into a proper bed. But that was far from the most surprising aspect of his bed. Ludvig lay next to him, but he was sure he went to bed alone.
"Guten mörgen mein freund." Günther slowly laid the blanket over the loudly snoring Russian.
"Good morning, doc." Dell was back to tinkering at his radio-controlled flamethrowers. He had lined 3 of them up against the wall and had strapped them onto a stand he must have produced overnight.
"Don't you ever need your sleep?" Patrick had been up, carefully planning and scribbling on his papers.
"Says the guy that stayed up all night."
"I slept before, you didn't." Dell whacked one of the flamethrowers so loud that it woke up Ludvig.
"I'm done, by the way. How about you?"
"I was ready to leave last night." Patrick did a quick check on his equipment. 'So, doc, when do we move?"
"After zis." Günther was heating up some soup for himself and Ludvig. "Ve can go."
The journey to the gate was far shorter and far les eventful then expected. Ludvig, Günther and Patrick stood close to the gate, observing how to open this huge Iron Gate. On the left side there seemed to be some kind of control panel hidden inside a small house.
Günther was the first inside, checking out all the strange wires that ran over the place into the central control panel.
"I zink zat zis button shall open ze door." He eagerly pressed the large red button, wondering if he was correct. The smile on his face disappeared when alarms started ringing all around him.
A pre-recorded message from the administrator was loudly broadcasted "Alert! Someone is trying to leave the premises! All personnel to the main gate!"
"Dammit, doc! Do you want to wake up every zombie around!" Patrick looked around him, ready to pull out his SMG at a moment's notice. For a short while the message kept repeating itself until Günther managed to shut the alarm off. Outside Patrick let out a sigh of relief. The alarm had not triggered a wave of oncoming undead, yet...
There was a loud creaking sound, and a slow grinding sound that followed it. The Iron Gate started to open. Patrick could clearly hear the sound echoing through the base. And then, in the distance, he could see a large group of zombies heading their way.
"Gunther, we need to go. Now!"
The gates had fully opened and it was silent once more. But the damage was done, and the horde was approaching quickly. Günther, Ludvig and Patrick ran through the opened gate. A small distance away from them stood Patrick's camper van. Quickly he pulled his keys from his pocket and started to open the door. He took a quick peek behind him . The horde couldn't be much further than 100 meters away. In rapid succession he opened the 4 locks that kept the door in place, and pulled it open. Ludvig barely passed through the opening and as soon as he stepped inside the floor shook a bit. Günther signaled to him that he should sit down on the bed, in fear that he might just wreck the floor with his weight.
Behind him, Patrick pulled the door shut, and had put two of the locks back in place when the zombie horde had reached the van. They started banging their hands against the walls, desperate to get to the three men inside.
"Bloody hell that was close."
"Let us get back to Engineer."
"You mean Dell." Patrick corrected Ludvig
"Care, I do not." Ludvig had grabbed Patrick's cushion put it against the wall so that he could lean against it.
"Zere must be at least zwenty of zem. Perhaps even a hündred." Gunther observed one of the zombies through one of the small windows. "So fascinating, and yet so deadly..."
Patrick finished locking the door and sat down on the sofa on the other side of the small room. There was barely enough room to let Günther sit down as well.
"I can't reach the cabin from here, which means that we will have to break out. " Patrick reached for three beers in fridge. Günther peeked inside and could see that at least they wouldn't die of thirst...for the coming week.
"How about ve open ze door, and let zem come in. Only one can enter at ze time so ve can take zem al on one after one. Should not be too hard."
"I don't really want to risk it. These things are so desperate I see them pushing in here three at the time. Perhaps if I can open that ventilation there we can get on top and easily take them out from there." Patrick pointed at a very small ventilation shaft above him, which would barely be able to let them through.
He nearly jumped when he heard a loud bang and the slow, agonizing sound of deforming metal.
"BLOODY HELL THEY'RE COMING IN!" Patrick reached for his SMG and aimed it at the door while Günther did the same with his two pistols. When nothing else happened the two slowly lowered their guns.
In the time that Patrick and Günther were considering ideas Ludvig had come up with a far better one. He smashed two of his fists through the thin metal wall that separated them from the cabin and used the openings he had made to create a man sized hole.
Patrick wanted to yell at Luvig for destroying his property, but considering the circumstances he had done him a big favor. "Thanks." He muttered, as he crawled through the hole into the cabin.
It had a difficult start but it wasn't long before the van had made short work of the zombies in front of them. Patrick maneuvered the van out of the dirt onto a nearby road.
"Zey are still behind us." Gunther and Ludvig had opened the large window on the back of the van as wide as they could. The plastic window shook heavily, as if it was about to come off, but it did allow them to fire through the opening.
"Should have gotten Sasha." Ludvig grumbled at how little damage his shotgun seemed to do.
"Ve vill talk about zat later, I promise!" Günther adjusted his glasses, lined up his shot and turned another zombie head into a pink cloud of death.
It was quickly obvious that Günther was the one that was dealing out meaningful damage. Ludvig had gotten so angry that he decided to simply throw his shotgun at the chasing zombies. He chucked it so hard that the unfortunate zombie that got hit by it now lost all connection between his head and his legs.
Günther stared at Ludvig with an unsure look, before starting to laugh.
"Zat is indeed aonzzer vay of killing zem!"
"I have more!" Ludvig smiled as he started to apply pressure to the hinges that kept the back window in place. He moved them forward and backward until they snapped and the window came loose. It floated shortly before crashing into the group of zombies that was chasing them, taking out the bulk of them. Günther quickly counted only 4 zombies remaining, and one revolver clip later they were safe again.
"You can turn around now, zey are done."
"The Sniper looked around, and finally behind him. He immediately grumbled at the damage Ludvig and Günther had caused. "Do you two yobbos want to blow up my home while you're at it.
"We live." Ludvig answered. "Is more important."
"How am I going to drive around with a van with a bloody HOLE IN THE BACK!"
"Dell is vaiting for us, ve should go back."
Patrick let out a sigh and started to turn the van around.
"We're not going back until we've picked up that window."