I do not own Gears of War or any of the characters.
Keep Away
Joseph sprayed the turret's bullets into the swarm of Juvies, mowing them down, with help from the other four's Lancers. They were in a COG museum that they had followed the Snatcher they were chasing to, except that the Swarm had set up a turret in a broken wall, or maybe commandeered one that was already there, and they had had to clear the museum out. Fortunately, the museum included fully loaded Lancer magazines, so they were able to replenish their ammo, just before Swarm began to charge the museum. Finally, the last Juvie went down and Joseph released the turret's trigger, the barrels spinning to a stop.
"Well, now that that's over," J.D. said.
"Through here," Joseph said, opening a door off to the side.
The others all quickly restocked their ammo before they all left the museum, crossing an open courtyard quickly before heading into the next part of the ruin, heading up a staircase. Outside that building, they could see the fort's keep, where the Snatcher had been heading, but just as soon as they stepped outside into a courtyard filled with low stone walls like a garden, Joseph spotted several off the odd flesh nests the Swarm Drones had come out of before. Sure enough, Drones began to emerge from these instantly. Joseph and the others all instantly took cover, shooting at the Drones when they could. J.D. hurled a grenade into one of the nests and it exploded, taking out three nearby drones in the process. Cody leaned out just as Lizzie and Kait both fired at the closest Drone, making it duck down. Joseph sprinted over, crouching on the other side of the wall and forcing them to stop shooting. Then, as it stood to shoot, Joseph stood, pulling a knife and shoved the Drone's rifle upward before stabbing it in the face, then ripped his knife back out and crouched again just as the Drone's body blocked a spray of bullets.
Joseph put his knife away and picked his Lander back up, leaning out and firing back in between bursts, the others beginning to move up carefully. As Lizzie reached the wall he was crouching behind, Joseph managed to hit one of the Drones at the back in the head, its own shot going wild and hitting another Drone in the back, sending it staggering out of cover where the others instantly killed it.
"How many left?" Lizzie asked.
"Looks like three," Joseph said, hitting one in the foot, then the head when it fall to the ground and exposed itself. "Make that two."
Lizzie nodded and when J.D. and the others forced the two to crouch down, Lizzie and Joseph sprinted out of cover and to the small walls the Drones were hiding behind, vaulting over the walls and kicking them before finishing them with their chainsaws. The others joined them in front of the keep's drawbridge a moment later.
"Any idea how we get the drawbridge down?" J.D. asked.
"Well," Joseph said. "We could shoot the chains."
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Kait said.
J.D. shrugged and he and Joseph both shot the anchor points of the chains, breaking them free and dropping the drawbridge. Three Drones roared from the other end, but as everyone on both sides moved to cover, Lizzie hurled a grenade, the explosion killing all three Drones.
"Nice toss," Joseph said.
"Thanks," Lizzie smiled as J.D. ducked under the partially-raised gate.
"Alright Snatcher, where'd you go?" J.D. asked, just before one crashed to the ground inside the inner gate, which was still closed. "Oh shit! It found us!"
He staggered backward into the outer gate, but the Snatcher turned, heading deeper into the keep.
"Yeah!" Del said. "You're lucky this gate's between us! Right? It's, uh, it's lucky, right?"
"It's alright Del," Joseph said as everyone walked past him. "Not everyone can have both looks and intelligence. And some get really screwed over."
"Funny," Del said.
They continued through the Keep to a massive courtyard, seeing a pit in the middle filled with pods and the odd glowing tendrils of whatever. As they arrived, a Snatcher walked into a massive door at the bottom of the pit just before Drones began to fire at them, everyone taking cover again. They slowly fought their way through the courtyard, having to kill a couple dozen Drones before they finally reached the door. Kait asked who was going in first, only for Joseph, Lizzie, and Kait to all head inside together as Del and J.D. played Rock Paper Scissors for it, Del proving J.D. right when J.D. said he always chose paper.
"Glad you didn't go best of three," Kait said as they finally caught up.
"Otherwise we might have met you at the door with Marcus," Joseph said.
J.D. and Del both rolled their eyes and they all headed into what Joseph was pretty sure was the royal family's tomb. They found a huge, deep room with a winding staircase wrapping around the outside and leading down to the bottom, stepping into it just as a Snatcher scrambled down the opposite wall and disappeared into a door at the bottom of the room.
"Was that the same one?" Kait asked. "I didn't hear Marcus's radio."
"Well, only one way to find out," J.D. said.
They followed the stairwell until they found it blocked, taking a side door instead. The moment they stepped into the next room, Juvies and Drones appeared. They fought their way through the room, then took a hallway out the back. A Juvie dropped from the ceiling ahead of them, only to run around the corner and disappear into a hole in the floor. They followed it, for lack of a better idea, and entered a long room with the far side lower than the front and a railing separating them just as Juvies swarmed over the railing, rapidly dying in a hail of gunfire. They continued through the keep quietly, everyone tense as they passed through rooms and hallways filled with dozens of pods each. Swarm fought them every step of the way, and by the time they reached the end of the catacombs, Joseph had lost track of how many they'd actually killed.
"He's fancy," Lizzie said, looking up at the massive gold statue of the medieval king of the fort.
"I'll bet he was actually like four eleven with a hook nose and buck teeth," Joseph said. "He just told the sculptor to make him look pretty."
Lizzie laughed. "Honestly, after knowing what Gary was like, it wouldn't surprise me."
"Oh, he'd definitely be the one to have a statue of himself altered to make people think he was more handsome," Joseph snorted.
"There's the snatcher!" Del shouted, just as the last of them dropped off the raised walkway they were on down ten feet to the floor of the tomb just as the Snatcher jumped from the top of the statue to the walkway on the far side, where it was fifteen feet tall, then disappeared. "And there it goes. How the hell do we follow it now?"
Before anyone could answer, a Pouncer crashed down on Joseph's back, both slamming to the ground hard enough that the Pouncer rolled away from him. Joseph rolled onto his back instantly, starting his chainsaw up just before the Pouncer leapt onto him again. The chainsaw roared as it tore into the Pouncer, and after a moment, the Pouncer exploded into goo and blood, as they apparently always did. Joseph groaned and stood, gagging just as a Juvie shrieked, more of them beginning to flood over the railing of the raised walkway.
"They're rolling out the red carpet!" Kait said over the gunfire.
"Let them," Joseph said, putting his Lancer on his back and grabbing his knives.
At the same time, Lizzie grabbed her shotgun, J.D. and Kait doing the same. Then, they all began to rapidly slaughter the Juvies. Just as the last one died, another Pouncer crashed down on Joseph. He shouted in annoyance, quickly killing it with his knife and once again getting showered in its remains when it exploded. He stood, wiping his mask's eyes off and shaking his arms, slinging goo off of himself in a pair of arcs.
"That's so gross," Lizzie said.
"Don't make me give you a hug," Joseph threatened.
"Where do we go now?" Del asked.
"I don't care as long as there's a shower," Joseph grumbled, leaning on a sarcophagus, only to feel it start to tilt. "Oh for f-"
The sarcophagus screeched loudly as it slid into the hole behind it, crashing against the walls of the hole loudly, Joseph screaming as he fell after it.
"Joseph!" Lizzie shrieked, running to the hole and looking down, seeing him lying on the ground beside the sarcophagus. "Are you alive?"
"If I say no, will you give me mouth-to-mouth?" Joseph asked.
"Probably not," Lizzie said, shaking her head.
"Dammit," Joseph sighed, pushing himself up slowly. "Guess I'll have to be alive then."
J.D. shook his head. "You two are truly the weirdest people I've ever met. "Watch out Joseph, we're coming down!"
Joseph moved out of the way and they took turns dropping into the fifteen-foot deep hole. Once everyone was in, they all turned down the tunnel they were in, J.D. taking the lead again.
Leave a review.