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A section starting with x-X-x-X-x is set in the present. A section starting with o-O-o-O-o is set in the past(?).
Taaaaaaaank!
It felt like forever since she had last seen one, and Divine almost forgot just how buck wild terrifying they were. Big, mean, and muscle bound. And despite being so high up, it caught sight of her easily, and its beady little eyes locked on-
God, they were so full of anger and hatred. And her gun was lying in the street a block away. Divine watched in horror as the Tank dug his fingers in the street, and pulled up a huge chunk of concrete. She quickly slapped Zach's shoulder, go go go go!
The chunk of street came flying at them, and no one really knew where to run. Divine felt herself fly through the air- Zach tossed her out of the way. The chunk crashed into the rooftop where the three of them once stood, and the survivor bounced along across glass window panes. Except the panes weren't all that strong, not enough to withstand the tremors nor hold her weight.
There was a crack, and Divine went plummeting down. With a shower of glass, she rained down a few feet onto a metal catwalk, and landed hard. She gasped in shock and pain, temporarily winded. From outside, the Tank roared still. Dark shapes fell over her, and then Toni grabbed her arm and hauled her up to her feet.
Even with the shadows obscuring most of his face, she could see the absolute terror in his eye. He started to open his mouth to say something, but Divine quickly shushed him. They all stared up at the hole in the roof. Maybe the Tank thought they were dead or gone, and would hopefully move along-
The catwalk rattled as the Tank blasted a hole into the side of the building.
"ARAAAAUGH!"
"Fucking shit dude," Divine cursed under her breath.
"Get out of here," Zach ordered them. "I got this."
"No you don't!" Divine cried. "Let's- No, Zachary!"
It was too late, and he hopped over the rail. Below the catwalk, there were rows and rows of shelves. Various crates and boxes still sat on the shelves, having gone untouched the last few months. Zach bounced between them effortlessly towards the Tank.
Their enemy had taken notice, and some of the shelves, despite being made of sturdy heavy metal, went toppling down as the Tank swatted them aside. Dust kicked up like a cloud as wooden crates went crashing to the ground, and Zach's lithe form danced around them.
Divine's head whipped from side to side, looking down towards the floor, looking for something to use… There! By some metal garage doors, a large forklift sat idle. She grabbed Toni's arm and pointed towards it, his gaze following her finger. He sucked in a sharp breath of air, but wordlessly crouched down a moment later. She jumped onto his back, wrapping her arounds around his shoulders, and they leapt through the air together.
The Tank bellowed as it caught sight of them moving across the top of the shelves, and Zachary flew in towards its face like a cannonball. It roared and shrieked as its meaty fists waved through the air in an effort to rid itself of him. And eventually he would, which meant time was of the utmost essence.
Toni dropped her off by the forklift, and urged her, "Be quick."
He bounced away a second later to join the fight. Divine climbed up into the seat- And froze for a moment. Uh, shit. Okay, only so many buttons and levers, one of them had to be "start". Ahhh, wait! A key with a tag sticking out of the ignition, much like a car. She grabbed the key and turned it once- Twice- Three times, and the engine rumbled to life. She was in business.
Another shelving unit crashed to the ground.
Divine quickly fiddled with a lever and stomped on the pedals. Go! No wait, stopped, no come on go- Not backwards needed- Yes forward! There! She slammed the gas pedal down and sped off. It went faster than she thought it would, but still felt slow. It didn't matter, she just needed the power. Divine navigated around the shelves and went straight in.
The Hunters darted out of the way as she gunned it, aiming to skewer the Tank in its belly. The Tank turned towards her, and started to charge at it. Divine held on for a few seconds more, and then let the steering wheel go to jump out of the small cabin.
She hit the ground with a roll, as the forklift and the Tank crashed into one another. Hissing in pain, she rolled over to see the damage, and for a moment, it seemed like the Tank had stopped. But then she saw it, the outstretched arms, the giant hands that clenched the forklift's arms.
Oh, god…
With a strained cry, the Tank tossed it aside. Its frontside had been, at least, somewhat gouged in, blood dripping down from its chest. But that didn't seem to really stop it, just made it angrier.
And now she was on the floor, completely exposed.
The caterwaul of the Hunter echoed through the room, and Zach came flying back in for round two.
"Ey over here!" Toni called to her.
Divine hurried to her feet and took off towards him. She scrambled over a pile of fallen shelving, and reached out for Toni's hand. He grabbed onto hers, and pulled her close, ready to jump her away again- But the Tank had slammed into the shelves again, and the whole unit surrounding them started to buckle.
"Oh fuck!" Divine cried, and then suddenly, Toni pushed off and shoved her- The shelves crashed down and moments later, they were sheltered in a small alcove. Two of the units had crashed into each other, and some of the crates had fallen out and stopped each other, creating a small space beneath it where they were currently sheltered.
She realized she had slipped out of Toni's arms, and when she whipped around, she saw him… A smaller wooden crate had broken apart on top of him.
"Antonio!" she screamed. Divine quickly crawled over to help him up. He was breathing still, but groaned in pain as she brushed broken boards and stringy packaging off him.
"Fuck," he spat out. A giant splinter stuck out prominently from his forehead. Divine plucked it out, and a tiny stream of blood fell from the mark.
"We gotta get out of here, come on," Divine urged him, pulling him to her shoulder for support. There wasn't much room to work with, and the only way out…
She could see a gap large enough for one of them, not both at the same time. And through it, she could see Zach still fighting the Tank.
x-X-x-X-x
The giant hole in the wall was his first clue as to where everyone had gone. The crashing and the bellowing of the Tank was his second. With a tired wheeze, Ryan scrambled in through the Tank shaped "door", and into the warehouse.
It was an utter disaster inside, and the culprit of the mess was still at large. He skirted past an overturned forklift in time to see the full scope of the problem. Big, industrial shelves had been toppled over, their contents all over the floor. From where he stood, he saw Divine slip out from between a gap inside the mess. She looked beat up, and he watched her turn around to pull an green clothed arm free-
Antonio.
Ryan rushed over and wordlessly helped free the smaller Hunter. He looked even more beat up than Divine did, with blood lightly flowing from his head. God, this was the worst.
"Get somewhere safe," Ryan ordered them. "Where's Zach?"
They didn't need to answer, the Tank roared, and another caterwaul answered it. Fuck.
Ryan looked past the mess, and he could see a doorway to the far wall.
"That way," he pointed, and shoved the two towards it. "Just hide, please."
"But Zach-" Divine started to protest, but one look from him shut her right up. No time to argue, they just needed to go.
"I'll get hi-eh-ehm, now move it!" he coughed, and whirled around to catch up to the fight.
He ran around the pile of debris, to see that Zach had goaded the Tank away from the pile, and into the open floor space between this room and the next. The Hunter was losing wall space, but to his credit, he was expertly using the Tanks broad backside to springboard off while also slipping under its legs.
The Tank didn't seem to be slowing down, and it swung its fists around trying to catch him. One fist came a little too close for Ryan's liking, and without thinking, he shot his newly re-grown tongue out and wrapped it around the Tank's fist. The Tank bellowed in shock, and when it turned around-
Well he hadn't really thought that through, and his tongue snapped off- But only after he was thrown to the ground from the force. He slammed into hard concrete, stars dancing across his vision for a moment. So, that went about as well as he had planned.
He had the Tank's attention though, and it took two steps over, hand open flat-
An angry scream from Zach rang in his ear, and the Hunter came flying back in. But the Tank seemed to anticipate it, and Ryan watched in horror as it batted Zach out of the air. His heart dropped as the Hunter spiraled and crashed into the floor with a hard crunch.
Zach made a strained noise and then slumped over. From this distance, it was hard to tell if he was still conscious or not.
Ryan exploded into more coughs as he jumped to his feet, and through breaths, he screamed at the Tank, "Hey you ugly bastard!"
The Tank gave him the evilest eye ever. He didn't care though.
From behind the Tank, he could see Divine's small face peek around a corner. Shit, what was she doing back here? Think think think, keep the ugly monkey's attention-
He spat at it. A really impressive loogie with an even more impressive range, the fact that it landed. The Tank seemed just as surprised, but then just as insulted. To add on, Ryan quickly reached into his pocket, pulled out a lighter, and threw that too. It didn't hit, but the idea was the same. And then he started running.
"Fuck you, you dumb shit!" he goaded over his shoulder.
The ground trembled under his feet as he ran, the Tank giving chase. Ryan didn't really have a plan per say, just that he needed to keep this ugly lugg's attention on him for as long as possible. The Tank roared as it slammed its way after him.
"That's right, over here!" Ryan waved his arms. "Come on, follow the wa-wal-coughcough-ing gasbag here."
It felt like his insides were shaking worse than anything. They really had been living a soft, cushy life on the road with almost nothing to stop them huh? His lungs felt like they were gonna melt, every small breath another lance of pain that raced through him. But he had to keep going. His insides could become his outsides later. Just had to get out of here….
Open floor turned into a small workspace, tables laden with tools and other bits and bobs. He scooped up what he could and tossed them the Tank's way. He made an incredible shot with a wrench, and it pinged off the Tank's barn-door sized forehead. The Tank continued to roar as it swatted the tables and tools out of the way.
Shit shit shit, what to do? He was running out of places to go here. He ducked through a wide entryway into another room, surrounded by conveyer belts and machinery. His head snapped left and right, looking for the best avenue of escape. An angry snarl and the crushing of concrete from behind propelled him forward.
Meaty fists flew wildly as he ducked and climbed across the machinery. The Tank simply crashed through them without a second thought as if they were made of cardboard.
Fuck, fuck, fuck-
Ryan scrambled up a conveyor belt, climbing higher to avoid the Tank's reach. And he felt pretty proud of himself about that, for a moment anyway. There was a metallic screeching as the Tank ripped one of the machines from the floor, and Ryan went faster, trying to grab for a metal pole to inch himself up with-
The whole belt jumped under his feet as the steely ball of gears and screws came crashing down. He fell to the ground in a shower of shrapnel. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, ignoring the bits of metal sticking out of his arms. But he was now trapped in a tight corridor, and the only way out was… Through the Tank.
"ARGH!" it roared. "RAAUGH!"
Ryan coughed ferociously as he backed away, trying to find a way out of his between gasps for air. The Tank swiped away the conveyor belt, and it didn't take much to cross the short distance and swipe him away too.
It felt like being hit by a truck. Hard and fast, barely saw the flash of the Tank's hand, just felt it smack into him, and suddenly he was sailing through the air. He didn't even have time to scream, the wind sucked right out of him. Ryan barely felt the impact of landing, suddenly light headed and dizzy.
And like he couldn't breathe. Probably thanks to the metal rod and other bits protruding through his chest. He had landed in one of the machines, and the impact had broken the hard outer shell. Even if he hadn't been impaled, it felt like every single bone in his body had shattered. Or at the very least, he was paralyzed.
Either way, he wasn't going anywhere.
Ryan desperately gasped for breath as smoke billowed out from the protrusions in his chest. The room felt like it was still spinning. He could barely focus on anything else beside just breathe, breathe-
Everything rattled as the Tank stomped over. It towered over him menacingly, beady eyes staring down at him with hot fury. It huffed and puffed, like it couldn't believe he was still barely kicking. And Ryan could honestly sympathize with that.
'Shit,' was all he could think.
He wasn't surprised when the Tank lifted its arms up, fists at the ready. Ryan sighed and closed his eye. It was gonna be like this, huh? Go figure. At the very least, the others had a chance to get away while the Tank was busy mutilating his body… Further than it already was.
And that sucked. Everything sucked. But this sucked especially harder than normal.
Goddammit. Fuck. Shit. Motherfucker...
He didn't want this to be the last thing he ever saw, the slow fall of pink gorilla hands. He conjured up a last mental image, the only tangible thing his mind would let him focus on. Something far more pleasant than this.
Without really meaning to, the last thing he thought of was-
o-O-o-O-o
Her.
Just her.
It had always been her, huh?
There.
In the back of his mind.
Waiting.
…
…
...
"I love you," she had whispered into his ear before.
"I love you too," he had whispered back.
And he felt it.
The way she looked at him.
Longing glances.
Soft smiles.
Her gentle touch.
Even when he was weak, brought to his knees, the sickness ravaging his body-
She was there-
Wasn't she?
Rubbing his back.
Holding his hand tight.
Stroking his hair.
Always there.
Like she promised.
…
…
...
"You'll stay with me, right?" he had asked.
And she said, "Always."
And he supposed, when she first said that to him-
Well he'd just have to marry her, wouldn't he?
Even if the ring never made it out of the box, stuffed into his sock drawer-
He'd just have to.
If he lived.
…
…
...
But he had lived-
Hadn't he?
And he asked Her, "You'll stay with me, right"
In the same broken and scared voice as the first time.
And then She said, "Of course."
'Cause they had to stick together.
And that was good enough for him.
He didn't have the ring anymore, whatever that was.
He supposed he didn't need it anyway.
'Cause she had been with him the whole time.
…
…
...
Hadn't she?
Well, She had been with him the whole time.
Like She had promised.
Her gentle touch-
Her fingers through his hair-
Hand in his-
That was all the same as before.
Wasn't it?
…
…
...
It had to be.
She was good enough for him.
(Even if She wasn't Mia, whoever that was.)