"What took you so long?" Dell checked that nothing was nearby until he hit a button and the large door on the side of the building opened
"We ran into some difficulties, be glad we're here in one piece." Günther carefully parked the Engineers truck next to the decaying conveyor belt, while signaling the Sniper to follow.
"What happened to your van? I thought you always kept it in pristine condition?" Dell laughed.
"A heavy and zombies don't make a good combination. Can you fix up the two holes in my van, please?"
Dell didn't even bother to look at the damage, and closed the gate again"That will only be five dollars and five minutes, please."
"This is my home, be happy I don't ask for rent." Patrick handed Dell the keys, and a stack of plastic that used to be his rear window.
"Yeah, whatever." Dell threw the shards into a bin and parked the van next to his improvised workbench. "Let me work my magic for a while. How about you go out and set these babies at vital locations."
Dell had surely spent every second of his time on perfecting a device hell-bent on destruction. It was like the Pyro and the Demoman had both gained immense engineering experience and worked together to create the ultimate weapon…outside of nukes, of course.
Günther shivered a bit. He couldn't help but feel disturbed at the image of the pyro. In his mind he quickly remembered how painful it was to die by incineration. He had always felt that he would rather be stabbed in the back or shot in the head then to face the pyro. In that short moment between life and death, a short, quick burst of pain almost felt…nice. To have your insides and outsides burning was hellish Every single time his body caught fire he wished he could pop his über or die already.
The Sniper seemed just as disturbed as he was. Did they think alike, or was he worrying about his parents.
"Patrick, are you Oké?" Gunther put his hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, not really. Me parents live quite desolate, but it's only a matter of time until a zombie gets to them." He pulled out a map. "We are about…here." With his finger he drew out an imaginary route. "And Yarrawin lies here. Assuming we have nothing blocking our way, I estimate a traveling time of 3 days, if nothing is blocking us. At worst, it could be a week, or even two weeks. From there I suggest we get ourselves a ship."
"Why a ship?" Ludvig put his own large fingers on the map, pointing at Sydney airport. "Why not air o plane?"
"Does any of you know how to fly a plane?"
"Nein, I do not think zo, but I vould be able to perform it with anough practice."
"Same here."
"I do not fly planes. Controls are too small for me." Ludvig broke the beer bottle in his hand to illustrate his point, flinching at the damage the glass shards caused.
"Ludvig! Vhat ZE FAK are you doing?!" Günther pulled Ludvig's hand open, and started pulling out the shards one by one.
"I was showing point. Small planes not made for real men."
"Ludvig, ve all know you are ze strongest here, you do not need to show zat off every time. In fact, if I had not been zere zese wounds could have started to infect. Leading to eventual rotting and death of your hand, and your own life would follow." Günther took out a srynge and inserted it into Ludvig's blood vein.
Ludvig started to flinch his right arm and made a low growling sounds
'Don't be such a baby. Zis vill only hurt a kleiner bit."
"I AM NOT BABY!?" Ludvig grabbed Günther with his still bleeding hands and lifted him into the air, all while letting out a ferocious roar. He wanted to crush the German's skull, the pain in his hands whipping him into a large burst of strength and rage.
"PUT HIM DOWN! NOW!" Patrick had reached his sniper rifle and was now peering through his scope.
The short moment of confusion on Ludvig's face was enough for Günther to take advantage of. He wrestled one arm free, and reached inside his coat for another syringe . This time has was going to make sure he pulled out the right one, and quickly jammed the syringe into Ludvig's neck blood vessel.
Ludvig fell onto the ground, and Günther let out a small chuckle. "I believe I gave him some adrenaline, instead of ze alcohol I wanted to use to clean out his wound. Ah vell, at least he is out now." He reached for his medigun and healed all of the Heavy's wounds. "He is O-kay."
"Next time you pull out one of your srynges make sure it doesn't turn the Heavy into a rampaging bezerker!" Patrick grumbeled.
"I vill, I vill." Günther stared at Ludvig. "Entschüldigung für zat."
2 days later…
Dawn of the third day of preparations.
For the last two days the four men ahd been preparing to leave the compound and venture into the world beyond. Everyone had been busy with their own tasks. Patrick was mapping out their route and helping Ludvig with moving the explosive barrels into strategic locations, while Dell was armoring their vehicles while teaching Günther on the finer points of engineering. Of course, Günther's expertise was in the field of biology, but that didn't stop him from building his own weapons and mediguns.
Last night they were finaly done. Günther and Dell sat down and once again shared a beer.
"Ve are running out of zem, are ve not?"
"Fraid so. But we're not staying here, so it doesn't matter. "
"I feel like ve have built Uns a tank. Und einer…mini-tank?"
The Sniper's van now had armored plating on all sides and had two rocket launchers at the front end that could be reloaded through a tube that led into the inner cabin. On the inside they had stripped out most of the "luxuries" the van offered to make storage space. Dell had created a system of crossed iron bars to create boxes of space to store ammo and food in. The driving section of the van had been left untouched, but they added a pillow so that Patrick could sleep there. They had also reinforced the small room above the driving section so that it wouldn't collapse under the weight of a non-specified sleeping Russian. The only other function they added was a small ladder that lead to a opening in the roof. On the roof they had duct-taped multiple weapons and ammo boxes down so that in case of emergency they could always flee to the roof and fire on the zombies that threatened them. As well as double duct-taping down a small mattress on the Patrick's request. Dell figured it would allow for more comfortable sniping, or something.
Now he turned his gaze to his own truck. Plating all around, and in the back they had replicated the box of metal strips they had created for the inside of Sniper's van to allow for more storage. On the back of driver compartment there was a small door that led to the top of the box. On top of the compartment stood one of the Engineer's level 2 sentries, with an odd pair of handles on the back end. Closer inspection revealed that he had removed all tracking electronics and that the sentry had to be controlled manually. He didn't want to count on the wiring inside the sentry lasting too long (you never knew when or how it failed, and besides most of his sentries were blown up a few minutes later then the moment of their creation) On all sides of the box they had attached a small "wall" that ended in spikes to ensure that you could only reach the "sentry" from the inside of the vehicle. In the box itself a small sleeping space was kept that Dell had isolated with some of the materials ripped from the camper van's insides. The room was tiny, but big enough for somebody to sleep in. Probably Dell, since he was the smallest one out of all four.
"I slept like bear. And you, doctor?"
"I tried out Dell's truck. Und, to be fair, for what it vas it vas quite comfortable." Günther started warming up a new soup can to share with Ludvig."
"All the supplies are inside. We're ready to go." Patrick stepped out of his van and closed the door.
"After we finish zis, ve will leave." Gunther began cutting open the soup can to rip open the top. Somewhere in his mind it reminded him of opening up a new patient on his operation table. With a faked smile he handed the warm can over to Ludvig, while opening up a new one for himself.
It was just before 12 o' clock when Patrick finally did his final checks and gave the green light to leave. Ludvig and Patrick in the van, and Dell and Günther in the truck. Günther climbed behind the sentry, eager to try out the bigger kind of firepower. Perhaps he could even start to see what Heavy saw in his gigantic choice of weaponry. Now that he thought about it, the Heavy always seemed to have an issue with size. Big, bigger, he always wanted to be the biggest in the group. Not to mention he called other people small. He put those thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand.
For the final time they drove outside the still-opened gate. Shortly after Dell stopped his car and climbed onto the top of the van, inviting the others to join him. Even Ludvig managed to climb on top.
"Safety one off." Dell ripped off the plastic case surrounding his customized trigger.
"Safety two off." He put a key in the back end of the device, and unlocked the large antenna.
"Armed, and ready to go." To finish his procedure he lifted up the two red levers in the middle of his device. "Who wants to do the honors?" He gently nodded Patrick.
"Sure, why not." He reached for the device, examining the work Dell must have put in it.
'Just pull those two levers down at the same time, and the place will go boom."
Patrick took a deep breath. "I've always hated that place."
With a slight delay between each other, three large explosions erupted all throughout the compound. Debris was sent flying everywhere and fires quickly spread.
"Demo would be proud." Ludvig widely smiled at the thought of the explosives expert reacting to such large explosions.
"Let us go." Ludvig added . "We are done here."
"Agreed. This place is behind us, and now the road is ahead."
END OF PART ONE