" I placed supplies around the city. We need to get them, now that you guys are here," Pyut pulled out a paper map the size of 3 A4 papers together.
" We're currently nearing the south-eastern side of the city. There'll be an ammunition shop nearby, right before Central Park."
" How do you know we're coming?" Night Cat asked, already peeping down Pyut's city map. It was like any other civilian map, compeletely colored and tagged with landmarks all over. Above that were black crosses made by a marker pen over a number of buildings around the city. Obviously, the city council did not plan on tagging armories and medical supply stores in hope that an event like this would happen.
" You guys are here, aren't you." Pyut folded the map, and was already beginning to look for stores' signboards.
" We don't really need to stock up, do we? I mean, we only needed to go get the information disk or what ever is it that you used to store the information and leave," Kheez suggested, while checking the gauge strapped around his wrist to see the remaining gas available in his tanks.
Pyut made an abrubt stop, and turned to face Kheez. Kheez felt the uncomfortable atmosphere appearing suddenly, and raised his head to look forward. In front of him, a pair of eyes blared at him.
" I lost all my men throughout the week here. What you saw back there were shit loads less than what roams the city. And I hope that I do not have to start giving out orders to you guys." With that, he turned back to searching for signboards.
He lost all his men? He lost...... Sam? Night Car suddenly losthis cool and pulled Pyut to a halt in front of me. Pyut did not turn around. He stood there silent, as the rest of us were exchanging looks in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Chris. Things had to happen, and it happened."
"What do you mean, 'it had to happen'?! He was your best friend!"
Pyut turned, eyes engulfed in flame. "And that makes me feel any better?"
There was a silent moment with two pairs of eyes locked at each other- Night Cat's and Pyut's, and he turned back the other way, shaking Night Cat's hand off his shoulder.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 9: Tarnished Hope
Crucist was out at the helipad, alone. He was a rather less talkative one, comparing to Night Cat and Kheez. I knew him even before we were in the military, dating back to the school days when we were 10. My father was on assignment for an oil rig company in Southern Arabia, and I was sent there a month later to join him. He had to have me migrated there, because the job was going to take years to complete. Working with oil rigs were a well paying job, because the demand for petroleum energy was off the scale as compared to the supplies the world could muster. Petroleum was fast running out, yet the world was not fast enough in adapting to other means of energy consumption. Synthetic white gasoline has been introduced at that time, but the price was still too high for more than half the world to afford.
I signed up in a school near where we stayed, and the first person I met sitting next to me, was a dark-haired kid who introduced himself as Mikel Raikov. We went on to be the best of friends, and we hung out alot after school where he'd show me around the city I was relatively new to. He was a bubbly fellow, with endless jokes to entertain and we could talk about anything or nothing at all. That was before the little political 'glitch' happened. War broke out between two giant oil rig companies, which ended up with high unemployment and low salaries as the new way to operate. Monopoly was never the way to go, as proven by Adam Smith. But because the political power of these multi-millionaires, the government couldn't contain their desires for wealth.
There were fights and demonstrations within the city areas which led to many innocent deaths. Mikel's family were razed in a terrorism attack in the city, killed in front of his eyes. They were going for his father, at that time a very hated person for his position in the oil company. A man held his crying head up as the rest of them sank multiple bullets into his parents and his 5 year old brother. That was the last I heard of him, until the day when I enlisted into the UWA's Ghost Team.
" Hey," I signalled my presence from behind him. He let out a slight nod without turning back.
I went on and sat beside him. The asphalt ground was still cold and clammy. I stared into the dark horizon, purple linings were already visible. Around the linings were still dark bluish textured lanscape.
" Do you think we could've done things differently when we were in the mission?" Crucist whispered.
" You mean saving the all the people we were supposed to save?" There was no answer, but of course. It sounded a little rhetorical.
I adjusted myself into a comfortable ball, wrapping my hands around my legs. " Maybe."
The sun was already creeping up from behind a row of hills and mountains, casting more and more purple and lighter blue shades to the lovely portrait we were both admiring. Being the team leader, I was more concerned about the mission failure than Crucist was. Not that my position was in jepordy, but the fact that I could not do anything to save the people we were supposed to save.
The explosion was followed by a stream of machinegun shots, both coming from the northern end of the junction. We started concentrating our firepower towards the northern side whenever possible, knowing already that it was not time to die yet. From behind the stack of falling monsters, was a familiar face. Standing to about 5'8 at height, the gun he was holding overwhelmed him in size.
" Pyut!" Night Cat immediately recognised him. I sighed a deep relief inside me, knowing already that I had accomplished two things at one time now: to find and save Major Pyut, and to get out of this place alive. Although I thought that the former was a little different situationally, now that he saved us instead.
The Major swung his hand thru and fro while having his gun slung by his side. Kheez made his way ahead of us, and lit his flame thrower again. Waving a massive stream of fire across the road, spreading to every approaching entity catching them on fire. A path was then opened.
" Go!!" Kheez moved aside for the rest of us to barge through. The mutated human-like monsters that were attacking us was already burning on the ground around us, while we tried to run pass them towards Pyut.
" Don't worry about them, just keep coming up. I'm gonna blow them," the Major commanded as he pulled out a string of explosives that seemed like cluster munitions. We increased our speed, and paced pass Pyut as he launched the chain of small explosives with a special weapon. He aimed high up in the air, facing the crowd currently coming toward us. Pyut pulled the trigger that ejected the explosives into the air, while the gun recoiled backwards. The chain of grenades flung into the air, entangling each other while landing down again within the crowd, exactly where Pyut intended them to land.
" Go go go!!!" Pyut did not even stay long enough to see where the explosions would land, he was already picking up his stuff and taking off northbound. Kheez blasted the Arclite at oncoming creeps, buying us more time to grab distance. I was already making a sprint forward, trying to catch up with the rest of them ahead. Crucist and Night Cat was currently clearing the monsters for the rest of us as we gained speed northwards. I turned around to find Kheez behind me. He was already packing the flame thrower over his shoulders and coming to me, when behind him I saw the chain of explosives landed and ignited. One by one, the grenades blew themselves up, lighting the sombre night with fireworks. Flying along the explosions were bits of scattering body parts and blood. I was taking my time, waiting for Kheez to catch up to me before I continue my run. The sound of tapping claws were heard suddenly, this time from an unexpected direction. It was close by. I threw my eyes at my left, swearing that the sound was coming from that direction, and saw a brown animal staring dead at me. It was pacing slowly towards me, its razor sharp teeth glowing from the darkness. At a distance of less than 2 feet away, the monster was already preparing to pounce on me. I desperately swung my gun over as I was looking at it taking the leap. It was taking too long, my gun. I couldn't make it in time to plant the end of my barrel into the animal. I forced a fall backwards to buy myself more distance, and before the animal reached me, a bullet slammed into it from my left. It fell lifeless next to me, and behind him was Night Cat pulling the lever of his gun to eject an empty shell.
From my right, Kheez held out his hand for me to pull myself up, while keeping his attention at the oncoming crowd. I took it and we ran up north to meet up with the rest of the team.
" We'll find the Communication tower to patch radio to base so that we can call for transport. Crucist.." I looked over to Crucist for his directions, when Pyut interrupted. " No. I can't go now."
Eyes were fixed at him now.
" Sir. My orders are to.." " To rescue 3 marines and 3 scientists, correct?"
I nodded in silence.
" They sent you guys here for information. I won't leave this place without that."
We were on the northeast corner of Boston City, already pacing at a more relaxed speed, trying to keep away from the monsters on the lookout for us. Rain was still pouring all over the city, but it was quiet now. Still, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were echoing in my head, confirming to myself that having Kheez around was nothing less than the most helpful.
I signed up in a school near where we stayed, and the first person I met sitting next to me, was a dark-haired kid who introduced himself as Mikel Raikov. We went on to be the best of friends, and we hung out alot after school where he'd show me around the city I was relatively new to. He was a bubbly fellow, with endless jokes to entertain and we could talk about anything or nothing at all. That was before the little political 'glitch' happened. War broke out between two giant oil rig companies, which ended up with high unemployment and low salaries as the new way to operate. Monopoly was never the way to go, as proven by Adam Smith. But because the political power of these multi-millionaires, the government couldn't contain their desires for wealth.
There were fights and demonstrations within the city areas which led to many innocent deaths. Mikel's family were razed in a terrorism attack in the city, killed in front of his eyes. They were going for his father, at that time a very hated person for his position in the oil company. A man held his crying head up as the rest of them sank multiple bullets into his parents and his 5 year old brother. That was the last I heard of him, until the day when I enlisted into the UWA's Ghost Team.
" Hey," I signalled my presence from behind him. He let out a slight nod without turning back.
I went on and sat beside him. The asphalt ground was still cold and clammy. I stared into the dark horizon, purple linings were already visible. Around the linings were still dark bluish textured lanscape.
" Do you think we could've done things differently when we were in the mission?" Crucist whispered.
" You mean saving the all the people we were supposed to save?" There was no answer, but of course. It sounded a little rhetorical.
I adjusted myself into a comfortable ball, wrapping my hands around my legs. " Maybe."
The sun was already creeping up from behind a row of hills and mountains, casting more and more purple and lighter blue shades to the lovely portrait we were both admiring. Being the team leader, I was more concerned about the mission failure than Crucist was. Not that my position was in jepordy, but the fact that I could not do anything to save the people we were supposed to save.
The explosion was followed by a stream of machinegun shots, both coming from the northern end of the junction. We started concentrating our firepower towards the northern side whenever possible, knowing already that it was not time to die yet. From behind the stack of falling monsters, was a familiar face. Standing to about 5'8 at height, the gun he was holding overwhelmed him in size.
" Pyut!" Night Cat immediately recognised him. I sighed a deep relief inside me, knowing already that I had accomplished two things at one time now: to find and save Major Pyut, and to get out of this place alive. Although I thought that the former was a little different situationally, now that he saved us instead.
The Major swung his hand thru and fro while having his gun slung by his side. Kheez made his way ahead of us, and lit his flame thrower again. Waving a massive stream of fire across the road, spreading to every approaching entity catching them on fire. A path was then opened.
" Go!!" Kheez moved aside for the rest of us to barge through. The mutated human-like monsters that were attacking us was already burning on the ground around us, while we tried to run pass them towards Pyut.
" Don't worry about them, just keep coming up. I'm gonna blow them," the Major commanded as he pulled out a string of explosives that seemed like cluster munitions. We increased our speed, and paced pass Pyut as he launched the chain of small explosives with a special weapon. He aimed high up in the air, facing the crowd currently coming toward us. Pyut pulled the trigger that ejected the explosives into the air, while the gun recoiled backwards. The chain of grenades flung into the air, entangling each other while landing down again within the crowd, exactly where Pyut intended them to land.
" Go go go!!!" Pyut did not even stay long enough to see where the explosions would land, he was already picking up his stuff and taking off northbound. Kheez blasted the Arclite at oncoming creeps, buying us more time to grab distance. I was already making a sprint forward, trying to catch up with the rest of them ahead. Crucist and Night Cat was currently clearing the monsters for the rest of us as we gained speed northwards. I turned around to find Kheez behind me. He was already packing the flame thrower over his shoulders and coming to me, when behind him I saw the chain of explosives landed and ignited. One by one, the grenades blew themselves up, lighting the sombre night with fireworks. Flying along the explosions were bits of scattering body parts and blood. I was taking my time, waiting for Kheez to catch up to me before I continue my run. The sound of tapping claws were heard suddenly, this time from an unexpected direction. It was close by. I threw my eyes at my left, swearing that the sound was coming from that direction, and saw a brown animal staring dead at me. It was pacing slowly towards me, its razor sharp teeth glowing from the darkness. At a distance of less than 2 feet away, the monster was already preparing to pounce on me. I desperately swung my gun over as I was looking at it taking the leap. It was taking too long, my gun. I couldn't make it in time to plant the end of my barrel into the animal. I forced a fall backwards to buy myself more distance, and before the animal reached me, a bullet slammed into it from my left. It fell lifeless next to me, and behind him was Night Cat pulling the lever of his gun to eject an empty shell.
From my right, Kheez held out his hand for me to pull myself up, while keeping his attention at the oncoming crowd. I took it and we ran up north to meet up with the rest of the team.
" We'll find the Communication tower to patch radio to base so that we can call for transport. Crucist.." I looked over to Crucist for his directions, when Pyut interrupted. " No. I can't go now."
Eyes were fixed at him now.
" Sir. My orders are to.." " To rescue 3 marines and 3 scientists, correct?"
I nodded in silence.
" They sent you guys here for information. I won't leave this place without that."
We were on the northeast corner of Boston City, already pacing at a more relaxed speed, trying to keep away from the monsters on the lookout for us. Rain was still pouring all over the city, but it was quiet now. Still, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were echoing in my head, confirming to myself that having Kheez around was nothing less than the most helpful.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 8: The Reception Party
Everyone of us were made to explain in detail the occurrences of that night to the higher authorities. Kheez was still in the room, expressing his piece. A day ago, Night Cat was seen by Crucist storming out of the debriefing room, furious. They couldn't handle us failing to complete our mission objectives. They couldn't handle us not being able to perform as well as they'd expected. But they were asking some other questions. Questions regarding that other party of Marines we encountered in Boston City.
" This sucks," Kheez motioned to me, on the other side of the hallway of the room he got out from. He gave a long sigh, and pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket. Cubancrafters. I could even remember the distinct smell of it lingering in my memories, back in my grandfather's old cottage by the woods. A fine 6 incher with a thick golden tag imprinting the brand. He then pulled out a black Zippo from his left shoulder pocket and snapped it open.
" These guys are definitely not happy with the way we worked."
" Now I know why Night Cat burst out of the room yesterday," Kheez mumbled with the cigar held in his mouth, and then dragged a long and heavy puff.
" So what did you tell them?"
" All of it. Everything they asked."
" You think they're suspecting us of something?"
Kheez played with the heavy smoke for a while, and his eyeballs rolled towards me. " For sure".
" I don't blame them. Those mercenaries did cause quite a havoc," I said.
The hallway was now dark. Only a few fluorescents were lit, causing a partitioned visibility along the corridor.
The thumping got louder. Night Cat was already closing in on us. His face looked awed somehow.
" Its huge, man! We need to start moving. There're at least 50 of them."
" What is huge? 50 of what?" Kheez was already nervously biting his cigar.
" I have no idea, but I bet they're the ones killing the people around here."
Kheez lit his Arclite up, but kept the flame at minimum. We were already unlocking the safety clips of our guns.
" Where are they coming from?" Crucist asked, already planning an escape route for the team.
" Everywhere. But I reckon we should get away from the huge thingy. He's coming from the southern end."
" Wow. So does he have a name, too?" Kheez let out a chuckle.
Night Cat gave Kheez a not-so-cynical look, and began digging into his lightpack behind him for another scope lens.
" Somehow I knew the flares we shot up are not all that good," Night Cat was already starting to whine.
From the fogged up distance, a constant tapping and crackling sound began escalating in volume. It sounded like long nails tapping against the tarmac; an enormous set of nails, this sound. All of us got our guns aiming at eye level towards that direction. It grew louder, the sound. I could already hear my own breath deepening, from the anticipation. We had no idea what anything looked like. All night Cat could picture were shadows moving around towards the garden, and nothing more.
The sound grew louder, as I adjusted my gun and await the arrival of the city's new hosts. Suddenly, the sound scattered. They're now coming from the other sides. The north, the east, the west. We're already being surrounded. I paced back from the team, taking aim at another road junction. Night Cat did the same, taking the east junction, and Crucist went for the last junction.
" I can't believe we're just gonna die like this!!!" Night Cat screamed out, and took his first shot. The roar of his gun ricochet pass the four buildings around us, and a copper shell bounced off the ground with smoke still coming out of it. Before the echo of the first shot subsided, another trigger was fired.
" They seem like lame and easy kills. But there's like a truck load of them."
I turned back to my junction, and was beginning to see the first few unveiling from behind the curtain of fog down the street. From the other side, Crucist was already firing away, letting out a stream of empty shells tapdancing on the ground. About a minute later, the group before me was already within my firing range. I switched into fire-at-will mode, and was taking down those things like they were dummies.
20 minutes passed. We were still firing at what seemed to be a never ending stream of monsters. We caught sight of them, alright. They weren't the ones that killed the people of Boston City. They were the people of Boston City. Lifeless zombies and mutated animals charged mindlessly toward us, one by one by one, and the queue did not seem to have an end at all. What was worse, was that the loud prominent thumping sound grew significantly louder now. We were getting worried. It was about time we planned for an escape route.
I turned to Crucist, and he was already looking for my eyes.
My ear piece crackled static, and Crucist spoke: " Guys. We're evacuating this garden. Start pushing the crowds further back so that we can get some room to group up at the top spike of the diamond."
Replies of confirmation repeated itself 3 times, including mine. We started boosting our firepower in hopes to clear a bigger area so it could buy more time to run for the top. Kheez's flamethrower was a rather short range firing weapon, so I had to back him up to get more clearance.
The thumping grew louder now. It was as if that monster was just beyond the end of the street. " We need to go now!" Crucist yelled out. With that, we started moving top. Kheez made the first move, while Night Cat and me helped keep the monsters behind him. Crucist placed his binoculars eye-level, trying to get a glimpse of what lied directly behind the fog just ahead of him. What he saw, awestruck him motionless.
" Crucist!" I called for him. I was already pouring my bullets in front of him, and my gun's Ammo Warning light illuminated. Night Cat and Kheez ran ahead to provide us cover, and their barrels were pointed at the stream of monsters from up top.
" Crucist! Come on, man! Lets go already!" Crucist suddenly regained consciousness and turned to face the rest of us. His feet began to work their way over to us, and when I was looking his direction, I saw what got Crucist petrified for a moment there. It was large, at least the height of a 3 storey building. It was..... I had no idea what words to put there, and thinking was not the thing I could afford at that time, so I turned and tailed Crucist toward Night Cat and Kheez.
" Its no use! We can't open a way from up here!" Night Cat said while he had his eye kept in scope. I looked for an alternative way to escape, but the crowd was already drawing in from all sides. At the bends of each junction, we couldn't even see the tarmac below the pursuiters. They were so cramped up it was simply impossible to have a path created without anything less than 10 minutes!
They were drawing near, and my gun clicked empty of ammunition. Shit! It'll take me at least 15 seconds to reload this gun, and we don't have that luxury. I pulled out my handgun and fired away, as I lowered myself and the gun to the ground to reload it with the other hand. It was as if we were already crippled.
As I was half way through my reloading, another gun clicked empty.
" Fuck!" I heard Crucist over the radio. This was it. 1 suppress-fire gun down was bad. Another Machine gun down, spelled death to us all. Inevitable death.
They clambered pass the curbs of the garden, and were already hot on our tails. We couldn't run any further up, as the crowd above were already unbreakable. We were already taking aim at animal type monsters jumping in at us, and Crucist was still reloading his gun.
From our completely broken spirit knowing for sure we'd die here, a loud explosion was heard all of a sudden. We all turned toward the sound and found it coming from the north street.
" What more do you have to show before you kill us?!" Kheez screamed out loud with his teeth firmly clenched, while trying to afford a few more kills....
" This sucks," Kheez motioned to me, on the other side of the hallway of the room he got out from. He gave a long sigh, and pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket. Cubancrafters. I could even remember the distinct smell of it lingering in my memories, back in my grandfather's old cottage by the woods. A fine 6 incher with a thick golden tag imprinting the brand. He then pulled out a black Zippo from his left shoulder pocket and snapped it open.
" These guys are definitely not happy with the way we worked."
" Now I know why Night Cat burst out of the room yesterday," Kheez mumbled with the cigar held in his mouth, and then dragged a long and heavy puff.
" So what did you tell them?"
" All of it. Everything they asked."
" You think they're suspecting us of something?"
Kheez played with the heavy smoke for a while, and his eyeballs rolled towards me. " For sure".
" I don't blame them. Those mercenaries did cause quite a havoc," I said.
The hallway was now dark. Only a few fluorescents were lit, causing a partitioned visibility along the corridor.
The thumping got louder. Night Cat was already closing in on us. His face looked awed somehow.
" Its huge, man! We need to start moving. There're at least 50 of them."
" What is huge? 50 of what?" Kheez was already nervously biting his cigar.
" I have no idea, but I bet they're the ones killing the people around here."
Kheez lit his Arclite up, but kept the flame at minimum. We were already unlocking the safety clips of our guns.
" Where are they coming from?" Crucist asked, already planning an escape route for the team.
" Everywhere. But I reckon we should get away from the huge thingy. He's coming from the southern end."
" Wow. So does he have a name, too?" Kheez let out a chuckle.
Night Cat gave Kheez a not-so-cynical look, and began digging into his lightpack behind him for another scope lens.
" Somehow I knew the flares we shot up are not all that good," Night Cat was already starting to whine.
From the fogged up distance, a constant tapping and crackling sound began escalating in volume. It sounded like long nails tapping against the tarmac; an enormous set of nails, this sound. All of us got our guns aiming at eye level towards that direction. It grew louder, the sound. I could already hear my own breath deepening, from the anticipation. We had no idea what anything looked like. All night Cat could picture were shadows moving around towards the garden, and nothing more.
The sound grew louder, as I adjusted my gun and await the arrival of the city's new hosts. Suddenly, the sound scattered. They're now coming from the other sides. The north, the east, the west. We're already being surrounded. I paced back from the team, taking aim at another road junction. Night Cat did the same, taking the east junction, and Crucist went for the last junction.
" I can't believe we're just gonna die like this!!!" Night Cat screamed out, and took his first shot. The roar of his gun ricochet pass the four buildings around us, and a copper shell bounced off the ground with smoke still coming out of it. Before the echo of the first shot subsided, another trigger was fired.
" They seem like lame and easy kills. But there's like a truck load of them."
I turned back to my junction, and was beginning to see the first few unveiling from behind the curtain of fog down the street. From the other side, Crucist was already firing away, letting out a stream of empty shells tapdancing on the ground. About a minute later, the group before me was already within my firing range. I switched into fire-at-will mode, and was taking down those things like they were dummies.
20 minutes passed. We were still firing at what seemed to be a never ending stream of monsters. We caught sight of them, alright. They weren't the ones that killed the people of Boston City. They were the people of Boston City. Lifeless zombies and mutated animals charged mindlessly toward us, one by one by one, and the queue did not seem to have an end at all. What was worse, was that the loud prominent thumping sound grew significantly louder now. We were getting worried. It was about time we planned for an escape route.
I turned to Crucist, and he was already looking for my eyes.
My ear piece crackled static, and Crucist spoke: " Guys. We're evacuating this garden. Start pushing the crowds further back so that we can get some room to group up at the top spike of the diamond."
Replies of confirmation repeated itself 3 times, including mine. We started boosting our firepower in hopes to clear a bigger area so it could buy more time to run for the top. Kheez's flamethrower was a rather short range firing weapon, so I had to back him up to get more clearance.
The thumping grew louder now. It was as if that monster was just beyond the end of the street. " We need to go now!" Crucist yelled out. With that, we started moving top. Kheez made the first move, while Night Cat and me helped keep the monsters behind him. Crucist placed his binoculars eye-level, trying to get a glimpse of what lied directly behind the fog just ahead of him. What he saw, awestruck him motionless.
" Crucist!" I called for him. I was already pouring my bullets in front of him, and my gun's Ammo Warning light illuminated. Night Cat and Kheez ran ahead to provide us cover, and their barrels were pointed at the stream of monsters from up top.
" Crucist! Come on, man! Lets go already!" Crucist suddenly regained consciousness and turned to face the rest of us. His feet began to work their way over to us, and when I was looking his direction, I saw what got Crucist petrified for a moment there. It was large, at least the height of a 3 storey building. It was..... I had no idea what words to put there, and thinking was not the thing I could afford at that time, so I turned and tailed Crucist toward Night Cat and Kheez.
" Its no use! We can't open a way from up here!" Night Cat said while he had his eye kept in scope. I looked for an alternative way to escape, but the crowd was already drawing in from all sides. At the bends of each junction, we couldn't even see the tarmac below the pursuiters. They were so cramped up it was simply impossible to have a path created without anything less than 10 minutes!
They were drawing near, and my gun clicked empty of ammunition. Shit! It'll take me at least 15 seconds to reload this gun, and we don't have that luxury. I pulled out my handgun and fired away, as I lowered myself and the gun to the ground to reload it with the other hand. It was as if we were already crippled.
As I was half way through my reloading, another gun clicked empty.
" Fuck!" I heard Crucist over the radio. This was it. 1 suppress-fire gun down was bad. Another Machine gun down, spelled death to us all. Inevitable death.
They clambered pass the curbs of the garden, and were already hot on our tails. We couldn't run any further up, as the crowd above were already unbreakable. We were already taking aim at animal type monsters jumping in at us, and Crucist was still reloading his gun.
From our completely broken spirit knowing for sure we'd die here, a loud explosion was heard all of a sudden. We all turned toward the sound and found it coming from the north street.
" What more do you have to show before you kill us?!" Kheez screamed out loud with his teeth firmly clenched, while trying to afford a few more kills....
Monday, February 13, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 7: Terra Firma?
2nd Lieutenant Khezz sat there alone on one side of the long table, and the facing side sat four men, all looking at least 50 years old. The room was rather dim, save the green and blue lights emanating from the surface of the tabletop screen. The chair Kheez was on, was cold and metallic.
"2nd Lieutenant Kheez," one of them spoke, having his eyes locked onto a clipboard in his hand.
" Sir." Kheez lifted his stooped head to face the second man from the left of him. He had a worn out look, clearly from years of warfare. The flickering light could only cast momentary visibility onto their faces, shadowed their eyes from Kheez. The Exit sign from way behind him could not even shed the slightest illumination there.
" Your drop point was supposed to be the West point of Boston City, by the city stadium. Could you explain to us why you did not make the drop point?" The man moved the white arrowed cursor in the tabletop screen using a ball-like mouse, scrolling over to the designated drop point in the projected map of Boston City.
Kheez could already hear the commotion that night in the helicopter. it came so suddenly, the problem.
" The pilot was already signaling a Terra Firma in T minus 7 minutes. It was dark and it was raining that night. The fog did not help our flying that well. The co-pilot suddenly yelled that something large was coming our way."
" Something large? Could you detail this lare thing better?" The man on the extreme left asked. His voice hollow, almost chilling. He sounded a whisper, but the clarity broke through the room like a sharp knife. His face concurred to many years of military exposure.
" A bat. A very huge bat. We concluded that they were clearly going for our helicopter with hostility," Kheez explained.
" Your team abandoned the Gazelle after that?" he spoke again, the man on the extreme left of Kheez. Kheez nodded.
It was still crystal clear in Kheez's head. Ixate had called for the jump. The weather was too aggressive for all of them to jump together, so each of them took a 30 second jump gap time. They were to meet up in the middle of Boston City, in the diamond-shaped garden, as commanded by Crucist. As a result of this, they were scattered all over Boston City, in which a considerably long time was gone to waste.
" Communication was distorted from time to time. It took a little longer than expected, but we managed to regroup at the designated position."
" What happened to the two pilots?" The man second from left asked. All eyes were fixed on Kheez, he thought. He couldn't see them, but he didn't need to see any of them. He could guarantee it.
" Where're the pilots?" Crucist yelled as soon as he caught vision of me. I lifted both my shoulders, and we turned to yet another appearing figure. Kheez radioed over a negative answer as well. I turned to look around the buildings surrounding the diamond-shaped garden. Nothing Above ten story's, I thought. Then my eyes crossed Night Cat's barrel. He was already scanning the two pilots and possible hostilities from one of the buildings.
" Night Cat. Beware of your six. You're unguarded," I urged.
" I know what I'm doing," he replied, and static ended that conversation.
I turned to Kheez and Crucist now.
" Crucist and Kheez, you guys focus on the eastern and southern junctions from the garden. Me and Night Cat will take the other ones. The only way for us to rendevouz with the pilots is for us to wait here."
Three simultaneous replies of affirmation echoed in my ears, and we all immediately took our positions.
The night was dark and stormy. Fog was billowing across all parts of the city, limiting our visions by drastic proportions. 10 minutes had already passed. Crucist had already shot up 3 rescue flares in hope that the pilots would follow them to us. I rested my gun over my shoulder, and the other hand ran across my face, clearing rain water and sweat. The place was silent. Almost too silent. All ringing in our ears were constant taps of raindrop crashing onto the asphalt. The street lights were bright yellow. I could see every single droplet of rain streaming down. This is not working out, I thought. We cannot simply abandon our mission and wait here for two pilots we were unsure survived the landing.
" Guys.." I broke the silence that hung for almost 15 minutes now.
" Can we wait for a little while more? Say 5 more minutes? That'll round our time up to 20 minutes." Kheez turned to face Night Cat from a distance, and from his scope lens he could clearly see Kheez's middle finger.
" Ok. But we should already be getting into our mission soon. I don't want to lose more casualties while we're waiting here," I finalized.
The muting silence around was once again broken, a little before we were about to move out.
"2nd Lieutenant Kheez," one of them spoke, having his eyes locked onto a clipboard in his hand.
" Sir." Kheez lifted his stooped head to face the second man from the left of him. He had a worn out look, clearly from years of warfare. The flickering light could only cast momentary visibility onto their faces, shadowed their eyes from Kheez. The Exit sign from way behind him could not even shed the slightest illumination there.
" Your drop point was supposed to be the West point of Boston City, by the city stadium. Could you explain to us why you did not make the drop point?" The man moved the white arrowed cursor in the tabletop screen using a ball-like mouse, scrolling over to the designated drop point in the projected map of Boston City.
Kheez could already hear the commotion that night in the helicopter. it came so suddenly, the problem.
" The pilot was already signaling a Terra Firma in T minus 7 minutes. It was dark and it was raining that night. The fog did not help our flying that well. The co-pilot suddenly yelled that something large was coming our way."
" Something large? Could you detail this lare thing better?" The man on the extreme left asked. His voice hollow, almost chilling. He sounded a whisper, but the clarity broke through the room like a sharp knife. His face concurred to many years of military exposure.
" A bat. A very huge bat. We concluded that they were clearly going for our helicopter with hostility," Kheez explained.
" Your team abandoned the Gazelle after that?" he spoke again, the man on the extreme left of Kheez. Kheez nodded.
It was still crystal clear in Kheez's head. Ixate had called for the jump. The weather was too aggressive for all of them to jump together, so each of them took a 30 second jump gap time. They were to meet up in the middle of Boston City, in the diamond-shaped garden, as commanded by Crucist. As a result of this, they were scattered all over Boston City, in which a considerably long time was gone to waste.
" Communication was distorted from time to time. It took a little longer than expected, but we managed to regroup at the designated position."
" What happened to the two pilots?" The man second from left asked. All eyes were fixed on Kheez, he thought. He couldn't see them, but he didn't need to see any of them. He could guarantee it.
" Where're the pilots?" Crucist yelled as soon as he caught vision of me. I lifted both my shoulders, and we turned to yet another appearing figure. Kheez radioed over a negative answer as well. I turned to look around the buildings surrounding the diamond-shaped garden. Nothing Above ten story's, I thought. Then my eyes crossed Night Cat's barrel. He was already scanning the two pilots and possible hostilities from one of the buildings.
" Night Cat. Beware of your six. You're unguarded," I urged.
" I know what I'm doing," he replied, and static ended that conversation.
I turned to Kheez and Crucist now.
" Crucist and Kheez, you guys focus on the eastern and southern junctions from the garden. Me and Night Cat will take the other ones. The only way for us to rendevouz with the pilots is for us to wait here."
Three simultaneous replies of affirmation echoed in my ears, and we all immediately took our positions.
The night was dark and stormy. Fog was billowing across all parts of the city, limiting our visions by drastic proportions. 10 minutes had already passed. Crucist had already shot up 3 rescue flares in hope that the pilots would follow them to us. I rested my gun over my shoulder, and the other hand ran across my face, clearing rain water and sweat. The place was silent. Almost too silent. All ringing in our ears were constant taps of raindrop crashing onto the asphalt. The street lights were bright yellow. I could see every single droplet of rain streaming down. This is not working out, I thought. We cannot simply abandon our mission and wait here for two pilots we were unsure survived the landing.
" Guys.." I broke the silence that hung for almost 15 minutes now.
" Can we wait for a little while more? Say 5 more minutes? That'll round our time up to 20 minutes." Kheez turned to face Night Cat from a distance, and from his scope lens he could clearly see Kheez's middle finger.
" Ok. But we should already be getting into our mission soon. I don't want to lose more casualties while we're waiting here," I finalized.
The muting silence around was once again broken, a little before we were about to move out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
