Chapter 25: Pyre

After he finished patching up Dutch, Rock headed back to the driver's seat and drove the Lagoon to a safe and secure spot in the water, where he knew it wouldn't be found. After parking it, he grabbed his weapons and got off. He circled around to the entrance of the base camp.

But suddenly he dove for cover into the bush. From there, he saw a jeep entering the camp, and they would've surely shot him they saw. But then he looked to his left and saw a guard tower. "If I can get up there, I could set up a sniping position. Plus, I'll also have a bird's-eye-view of the entire camp, make it easier for me to find Revy, and the others" assessed Rock.

After assessing the situation, Rock silently moved through the bush, and around to the back of the camp. He was met with a barbed wire fence. He couldn't climb it so he decided to use his knife and cut a hole in the fence.

After finishing he infiltrated the camp, making sure to make as little noise, and to stay in cover as much as possible. When he was nearing the tower, he encountered a guard. He had his back to the Japanese man so he didn't see him. Rock snuck behind him and slashed his neck. The guard gurgled and choked on his own blood before falling into a pool on the ground.

As Rock headed towards the tower, he was stopped in his track by what sounded like a voice, a voice he recognized. He started in the direction of the sound and as he got closer he saw a bright light in front of him. Not wanting to be spotted, he sticked to the walls of the structure and stayed in the shadows.

When he rounded a corner his eyes went wide. In front of him, he saw his two companions, Benny and Andrey. Benny looked beat up but could still stand, while Andrey looked even worse-for-wear, as he was stuck the middle of a stack of large tires.

It was then that Rock saw a soldier with a severely burned face, speaking with another soldier. 'That must be the guy in charge of this place. And Freddy Krueger over there must be his lieutenant' thought Rock.

When the general was done talking to his second-in-command he gave some kind of order and walked away. The burned soldier, following the order, started to pour gasoline on Andrey. Benny was down on his knees as he watched his companion choke and spit out gas while cursing the Burmese soldier in Russian.

Then the soldier pulled out a lighter.

Both Rock and Benny went wide-eyed as the soldier mercilessly drop the lighter onto the Russian. And watched in horror as he screamed and burned to death. "ANDREY!" screamed Rock. But that was a mistake as the lieutenant turned to see the Japanese man running towards them. The Burmese soldier tried to take down Rock, but was quickly met by a swift punch to the face. Rock headed towards the pyre, but was stopped by the flames.

Suddenly the soldier got up and started to threaten Rock in Burmese. Rock, seething with rage, clutched his fist tightly and turned toward the soldier and uttered, "Bastard…"

The lieutenant unsheathed a machete and looked ready to attack the Japanese man. But Rock was not phased he was going to make this man pay for killing his friend.

The soldier swung his machete and tried to bring it down on Rock's head. But Rock quickly grabbed his and twisted it until the lieutenant loosened his grip enough for Rock to grab his machete and disarm him.

Rock suddenly elbowed him in the face, and the soldier fell to the ground. But suddenly as he started to get up, Rock kicked him as hard as he could in the head, causing him to roll across the ground. But as the burned soldier looked up, he saw the Japanese man walking towards him. Overcome with fear, the soldier begged Rock not to kill him. But his pleas fell on deaf ears as the Rock brought the machete up over his head and brought it crashing down on the soldier's neck, instantly killing him.

But Rock, still overcome with anger, started to slice and thwack at the dead body, not stopping until he cut the man's head clean off.

After the ordeal, Rock dropped the machete and started to pant and exhale, finally avenging his Russian companion. Suddenly remembering that Benny was still there, he turned walked towards his friend.

"Hey… you okay…" asked Rock while he cut Benny's binds. "Yeah, I am now… thanks for comin'…" said Benny. "Hey… I'm nothing if not loyal" said Rock. After rescuing his tech-savvy friend. Rock directed him to the open hole in the face he came in. He instructed Benny to stick to the shadows and handed him his 1911 pistol.

"Woah… hey listen… you know I'm not good with guns…" exclaimed Benny. "Well your gonna need it, you don't what you might find out there, just take it and keep it ready when you get back to the Lagoon" said Rock. Doing as he was told, Benny reluctantly took the gun and stuffed it in his pocket.

"Now listen… I want you to sync your watch with mine, I'm gonna go find Revy and get back to the boat, if I'm not back in 2 hours than something is wrong, if that happens I want you to shift the boat a=in high gear and get the fuck out of here, got it" ordered Rock.

Benny nodded his head in understanding and synced his watch. After Benny left, Rock started to head towards the tower. But stopped when he noticed the decapitated soldier's holsters. He walked over to the body and pulled out the two guns the soldier was carrying.

He examined them and quickly realized that they were Revy's Cutlasses. Rock felt more determined than ever to find the gunslinger and get her back safe. He stuffed the pistols into is holster and headed towards the tower.

'Don't worry Revy, I won't be long now… just sit tight for a little while longer' thought Rock.