Chapter 11

Rod's POV

A chill soared up my spine, as I felt the covers leave my body. Anger began to rise in my throat, but then I remembered where I was. So in hope that it wouldn't be Ben I looked up.

"Come on Rod, let's get you suited up." Tenny said. A wave of relief flooded through me. It was only Tenny. "Come on ya lazy rookie."

I was abruptly shoved off my bed. I hit the ground and was suddenly wide awake.

"Okay I'm up!" I said jolting to my feet.

"Alright, follow me. We have to take a trip over to the Whitehouse, to where a medivac is waiting."

"How are we going to get there?" I asked

"Well sense vultures can only carry one person, we will probably pick up some hellions. One person driving, the other one manning the flamethrower up top." Tenny replied. I took a big gulp. This was either going to end well or terrible. We were then approached by three men. In front was Derk holding his gun on his shoulder. Behind him on his right was another ghost that I didn't recognize. I turned my head to his left. Suddenly I froze. That I saw then was going to make this entire trip a disaster for me…. It was Crip.

"Heh, let's go pwn some Zerg, shall we." Derk said smirking. Tenny gave Derk a long and hard glare. Derk smiled back.

"It's about time." Crip said "Hey, Lifferjingle, you think you're going like that? Stop wasting time and go get your armor on."

"Um I don't really know where it is." I said feeling really embarrassed.

"Follow me Rod; I'll take you to where you need to go." Tenny said, leading me toward the barracks. "Get the Hellions ready."

He had me go into a bathroom and take off my shirt. Tenny then took me through a door and onto a platform, with mechanical machines surrounding it.

"Kay, stand onto the platform and put your feet in the metal shoes." Tenny said walking back toward the door we came through.

"Wait so what do I do?" I asked

"Just step into the shoes. They will adjust to your feat size. Then just stand there and let the machines put your armor on." Tenny said leaving the room. Great, this is going to fun. The gears started to move. Two metal arm like things grabbed my wrists. They lifted them up so my arms were horizontal in the air. Orange metal plates started to be pushed onto my skin. The freezing metal began to be welded together. After several minutes I had on this big orange suit with a gun that said, C14 Gauss Rifle across it. The machines let go and I was able to walk forward. The suit was slightly heavy. That is interesting. It doesn't weigh much. Ha and I thought all the men were strong.

"So how do you like it?" Tenny asked leaning the door.

"It is surprisingly light. Are they are like this?" I asked moving my arms around.

"No. We just know that you aren't strong enough to lift anything else."

"Uh, of course I could." I replied

"Alright Rod, whatever you say. The mechanics in the armor will enhance your abilities, such as strength. The machine can recognize certain thoughts in your brain. Like if you want the glass face shield lowered." Tenny said.

"Huh that's cool. Let me try." I did as he said. The suit responded by letting down the face guard. "That's pretty sweet. Anything else I can do?"

"No, except there is a stimpack that is located at the side of your suit. I don't however recommend using it unless you are ordered to or are in a tight spot." Tenny replied heading out of the room. "Alright now let's stop wasting time and join the others with the hellions."

We walked out of the barracks and went over to the others.

"Are you guys finally ready to go?" Derk said, leaning on a huge car like vehicle with a giant flamethrower on top. The wheels stretched out in front of the car. This must be a hellion. A golden window covered the driver's seat window. Two other hellions sat next to it.

"Okay fools, I call driving." Crip announced, pushing his way toward one of the hellions. He opened up the gold window and jumped inside the vehicle. "What are you guys standing around for? Stop dawdling and get in!"

And on that note everyone approached the vehicles. Derk grabbed his own, Mark rushed over toward the last one, Tenny jumped in with Derk, and the other ghost got in with Mark. Crap. Crip is the only one left.

"Come on n00b, get in!" Crip yelled. I quickly obeyed and jumped up on the flamethrower. I set my weapon down next to my feet and grabbed on to the big gun in front of me. I was suddenly jerked forward and almost thrown off of the vehicle. Crip sailed past the bunkers and flew down the street. The others followed.

At first being petrified by the speed we were going I strangely started to feel excited. Even with the suit on I could feel the pressure of the wind pull me back. We rounded a corner and nearly missed a pedestrian. Derk's hellion was slowly approaching. I slammed my hand on the window. Once I got Crip's attention I motioned behind us.

Crip quickly swerved over and crashed into his front wheels. Derk swerved over slightly and then veered toward Crip's other side and quickly rolling around our hellion.

I suddenly looked around for Mark. I couldn't see him anywhere, but out of nowhere I looked over to the other side of the road and saw him blazing right on top of the roof tops. I almost fell backward in pure shock. He rolled off the roofs and in front of Tenny and Derk. Crip jerked toward the side and swerved up on the side of the buildings and back on the road in front of Mark. I almost lost my stomach. We soon came to a screeching halt. There was an aircraft sitting on the ground near the Whitehouse.

"Alright guys pile in." Derk said jumping out of the hellion, followed by everyone else. Derk walked up to the guards who were standing in front of the gates to the Whitehouse. "These hellions are yours, from the most loving and caring Orange Terran. Plank Man sends his regards."

We all walked up the ramp into the shuttle.

"Strap in," A voice came on over some intercom.

"Wow, who said that?" I asked.

"Crip, did you bring your cards?" Mark asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Of course I did." Crip replied pulling them out of some kind of case. We all sat around a circular table. He put a pile of cards in the middle. "Okay everyone throw in whatever minerals you have. Jingle watch what we do and you might learn something."

Everybody searched themselves for crystals, and put them next to the stack of cards. Crip passed everyone three cards. "I'll start us off."

Crip put all of his three cards on the center pile and collected fifteen minerals.

"Kay, go Mark," Tenny said watching. Mark put a card down in the pile and collected five minerals. Tenny kept all his cards. The other ghost did the same. Derk put two cards in and took ten minerals. Then I noticed it was my turn. I hesitated but decided to just keep what I had and pass like Tenny did.

"Okay now it gets fun." Mark said smiling. Crip bought a card for ten minerals and then leaned over and whispered to me—

"Okay I am about to introduce you to the betting part of the game. I am going to give you a gamble and you can choose to agree or disagree. I bet that I will have no cards by the end of Derk's turn. Kay, simple. If you disagree and you are right, you get all my minerals. If I am right I get your cards." Crip snickered. Huh, makes sense. Pff he won't get rid of all his cards, he still has one card left. His turn is over. . . Wait he is probably trying to trick me . . . Nah there is definitely now way.

"I disagree," I whispered back smiling. I just won fifteen minerals. I was sure of it. Now it was Mark's turn, he put down another card and collected ten more minerals. Tenny kept his cards and passed. The ghost put down two cards and collected twenty minerals. And then Derk took Crip's card and gave him ten minerals. Wow what just happened! No! Crip had no cards. My heart sank as Crip smirked and all I had. It was now my turn and I didn't have anything.

"Um…" I mumbled.

"Sorry Jingle. You have to leave the game . . . with nothing." Crip said

"Okay now wait a minute—" I argued.

"You're out, now deal with it." Crip growled.

"Hey it's cool, Rod. We all had our first time playing this game. In fact mine was much worse." Tenny said, trying to make me feel better.

"All right I'll just watch now." I said folding my arms and slumping my shoulders. They continued on with the game and I didn't pay to close attention. I noticed that the more cards you had the likelier you were to have your cards taken and then on the next round traded in for more money. This is what Crip kept doing. No one could ever take his cards because he would always trade them in for more minerals.

I had also noticed that bets were very dangerous to disagree with. The person placing the bet could most of the time make it so they were right. But I soon got tired of watching and started to feel sleep creep over me. Soon enough I couldn't even keep my eyes open. So I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

A massive shove jerked me out of my slumber.

"Agh!" I yelled, accidentally slamming my head on the table in front of me.

"Wake up princess, were here." Crip growled. I looked around at everyone. Tenny was loading his gun, Derk was jumping around the exit of the medivac excitedly, Mark appeared to be practicing battle moves, and the other ghost was gazing out the window. I turned to my side and saw Crip glaring at me in my puny suit and shaking his head.

"I'll be surprised if you last five minutes." Crip snarled.

"Well then you are the one who has to watch him so he doesn't. Ben told us to teach him a lesson. Not kill him." Tenny said, retrieving a rag and started to polish his gun.

"Oh please, like Ben really cares." Crip said. Marching off toward the front of the medivac and pounded on the wall. "Okay we're ready!"

Almost immediately the giant metal ramp lowered and Crip instantaneously lit his jetpack.

"Geronimo!" Crip shouted and then was out of the ship. Derk threw me a parachute and then jumped off as well. The others followed. I slowly lowered myself over towards the end of the ramp when Mark came from behind and shoved me off the slope. I screamed in horror, seeing as the ground approaching at a rapid pace. The wind was slapping against me incredibly hard so I quickly pulled the string and the parachute sailed out. It jerked me upward and made me lose my stomach. I saw all the vomit hit the back of Derk's parachute. I decided I would not tell him.

I slowly came to a halt and landed on the ground. I let out a sigh of relief and let my shoulder's sag down.

"Rod! Wake up; what do you think you are doing!" I heard Derk yell. Not a moment before we hit the ground did I see swarms of mutated bodies stumbling toward us at a high speed. "What do you think this is, nap time! Let's move!"

Suddenly the excruciating fear was stripped away by adrenaline. I bolted after Derk, who was running after the others. What was going on! Why didn't they tell me what was going to happen! What are those things!? They were heading to a small rundown building. Now that I was able to take in my surroundings a little more, I saw that all the buildings were wrecked and damaged. There were tentacles hanging out of windows and almost morphed onto the buildings themselves. Maybe this Zerg really did exist. And plus these monsterish humans didn't look quite normal anyway.

Everyone stopped and started shooting their guns at the scary people. They weren't the fastest so we had a good distance between us, but unexpectedly the monsters started breaching through the houses surrounding us.

"Rod! For Plank's sake pull out your gun and shoot!" Mark bellowed, slicing a Zombie's throat that was coming from behind. I franticly shook my head, regaining some control over my body and pulled out my C14 Gauss rifle that I had received earlier. I began to blast at the infested people.

Out of nowhere one exploded out of the ground and scraped at my armor. I let out a girly scream and then wimpily punched it in its disfigured face. But the monster didn't let up. It raked my arms and tried to bite down on my shoulder. I realized that I still had a gun in my hand and swung it across its head. It rolled off me and I flung myself to the side and kicked it in the skull. Taking my gun I pointed it at its face and fired. Blood flung everywhere. I suddenly remembered my face shield. Immediately the gold glass fell in front of my face.

"What are doing lying down on the job Jingle." Crip growled, grabbing the back of my suit and lifted my off the ground and on my feet. "Don't you know the most dangerous place to be is on the ground?"

Crip flung me behind him and pushed me toward the others, who were inside a banged up house.

"Go take cover with them. I still want to beat these guys something they won't forget."

Crip took off back to the zombies. I sprinted over to where Tenny was, signaling at me.