Chapter 4: Cleaning House
Location: Ruins of Time Square, New Brooklyn
Date: May 4, 194 A.S.
Thirty soldiers, or the likenesses thereof, congregated around an old theater. Ten more had taken up positions on the rooftops of various buildings surrounding it, guns at the ready.
“Shame we don’t have any combustable ammo.” GG sighed, looking up at the sniper positions.
Wert nodded. “Yeah. Well, as soon as Kampo or ClothHat finds an ammo dump, we’ll try and rectify that. Is Omega team in position?”
GG looked up again. “Yessir.”
“Alright. Delta team, if anything that has green skin and/or tentacles leaves the building, I want it fried before it hits pavement. Bravo and I will take the party home.”
Nessa nodded in comprehension as her team took up positions.
“Alright, lets torch the place.” Twenty soldiers in two teams, armed mostly with light weapons and spears, entered the theater.
“You alright?”
Owwwwww… my head is killing me. “No I’m not alright. I just had my head beaten in.” I opened my eyes and focused them on Weiila.
“Actually, no, you fainted.”
“I fainted?”
She sighed, another one of those “Why are you so slow” looks. “You fainted. So I dealt with the bumps on your head and took you to your room.”
I sat up. Well the bed was comfotable. I would think it would have been hard after… how long was it? Oh yes. 200 years. I had to resist the urge to pass out again.
200 years. 200 years in a post-apocalyptic future… On the good side, the assholes I had to deal with were all gone. On the bad side, so what everything and everyone I cared about.
I have this slight tendency to to focus on the bad.
Ok, Wesley. Focus. You don’t know how you got here, you don’t know what you’re going to do here, and you’re three steps from blind panic.
Blind panic seems so comforting right now.
“Ugh. I think I’ll be alright. It’s just…” I rubbed my head lightly.
“Just what?”
I thought for a moment about telling her. But on reflection, she would see it as crazy. Certainly people don’t come here with stories of time travel, especially in their sleep. How exactly to you explain to someone you were around almost two centuries before they were ever concieved? “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
She frowned. She kept quiet, but she didn’t seem to buy my excuse. Oh well. “About that tour?”
I got up from this bed (I seem to be in bed a lot…), and let her lead me out.
“Bravo team, are you in position?” The message wa broadcast via spell to GG’s ear. They couldn’t risk a lot of sound when they were about to enter… or at least flush out the Dhroma nest. Not yet.
GG turned to the nearby mage and nodded. The mage started to speak, but no soud escaped her lips: it would be transfered to Wert’s ear.
“Alright then, let’s rock.” Wert gave the signal to Nessa, and she pointed at the ground. Almost as if a small charge was placed there, the ground, ten feet away, exploded. Loudly.
“Bravo team, hold your ground for now.” Twenty ment and women, flame throwers at the ready, aimed at two doors: Alpha on the west wing, and Bravo on the east.
It didn’t take long for the Dhroma to start stampeding out, enticed by the prospect of food. Fotunately for the soldiers, they tended to be rather stupid.
As soon as the first Dhroma burst through the passage, flame poured out of nozzles toward the door. And the first Dhroma to leave were the first to burn.
I followed Weiila around the complex. Mostly vertical, I figured it would be an old skyscraper. The dormitories, training areas, armory, cafeteria…
Wow. I hadn’t thought of how hungry I was.
Breakfast wasn’t what I was used to: It consisted of a scant portion of meat, and mostly vegetables. The meat I could understand. Edible meat would probably be rare. I doubted I’d want to know where it came from. But the vegetables… how did they grow them in a large city?
“Oh, we have farmland. Just not out in the wilds, it’s too dangerous. Mutations and Children tend to ruin what crops we try to grow there.” Mutations and Children? I’ll ask later. Right now I’m hungry and curious.
“So where do you grow them?”
She pointed up. “On the roof.”
Uhm… yeah. “That doesn’t seem to be the best place to grow food.”
She shrugged. “No it isn’t, but we make do. But it’s all we can do for now. It keeps them pretty safe. I’ll have to show you later.”
Yeah, you would. “Alright. So what are mutations and Children?”
Weiila thought for a moment. “Mutations are creatures that as far as we or Trillian know, have never existed before the Second Sun. Don’t know how long they’ve been around. Before my time, really.”
“What about the Children?”
She looked incredulous. This was starting to get to me. “You never heard of the Children?”
“No.”
She sighed. “The Children of the Second Sun. Don’t know much about them, they’re a bunch of lunatics that worship the Second Sun. Nessa could fill you in better on that.”
Oi. Now, nicely fed (if not abundantly), I stood up. Weiila had finished long ago. She took our dishes to the kitchen as I waited for her by the door. “Now you promised to show me the roof?”
She smiled a bit and I followed her out.
After the first wave of Dhroma, those who still had fuel in their flamers went deeper into the nest. Alpha and Bravo had met now, and were clearing out portions of the nest.
“Gotta love the smell of roast mutant in the morning,” one of the soldiers next to GG quipped.
GG smirked. “It better be the only thing we smell once we finish here, or Wert’s going to have our hides, Simms.”
Simms grinned. “We could always throw him to the Dhroma.”
“I heard that!”
If the sounds of flamers weren’t enough to attract Dhroma attention, Wert’s shout was. A few more left the tunnels, and GG and Wert turned quickly to meet them.
“Yeeeehaw! I’m handin’ out beatings and pie, and I’m all out of pie!”
Wert laughed. “Where the hell do you come up with these things?”
“No idea. Less talky, more roasty.” GG smirked, turning back to the issue at hand.
Three more had left now, returning to the surface to refuel, leaving a troop of twelve. Wert shouted out to the remaining soldiers “If anyone leaves, we all go! We can’t afford to stay with any less!”
“How many do you think we’ve wiped out?” Simms called out.
“Maybe a hundred. I’m not counting.” Another soldier, about ten feet away called back.
“You too?” GG laughed.
“SHIT!”
“What’s going on back there?” Wert did his best not to turn back to face the shout.
“Mutants coming in behind us sir!”
“FUCK! Fry them and let’s get topside. We can’t afford this!”
“I’m out!”
GG still grinned, although his voice was just a bit nervous. “Just can’t get worse, can it?”
“NO! Help!”
Wert looked at GG as he turned to look at Simms, who now seemed to be quite entangled in Dhroma tentacles. “GG, why don’t you shut up?”
GG stepped back, blinking, thinking to himself, <i>Aw shit. If that thing’s about to infest, we better get him out before…</i>
It was too late. One of the tentacles shot out from the Dhroma and into a place that things normally left.
“Oh… my… god…” GG pulled a sword from his back intending to cut Simms free, but it was too late. Bulges started going from the Dhroma’s body into Simms. Simms screamed as each bulge entered his body. The Dhroma was pumping it’s eggs into him so his body heat would incubate them.
There was only one thing to do, and it was out of mercy.
“I’m sorry, Simms. You did good.” GG sighed as he swung the blade across Simms’ neck. Simms could only nod, blinded by pain before he took his last breath.
“Somebody ice him, make sure they won’t hatch!” Wert called out, resisiting the impluse to vomit. He’d NEVER get used to seeing that. The closest mage pointed at Simms’ body, which ended up quite stuck to the invading Dhroma, as they were encased in ice.
GG turned around and checked the fuel gauge to his flamer. No time to mourn right now. He didn’t want to end up like his friend. “Got enough to get us out Wert, we better get moving.”
Wert nodded. “GG, you go up front, clear out a path. I’ll hold the rear. Send a message to Nessa, we’re going to need backup, now.”
The message was relayed, and Nessa’s voice sounded in his ear. “No can do, Wert, we’ve got a problem.”
“What sort of problem?” Things just got better and better.
“Several coaches coming in, guns blazing. Thought they were bandits, but they’re Children! We need help out here!”
Wertigon groaned. “We better get out of here as soon as possible. Our guys topside are under fire by the Children!”
GG swore. Profusely. As they started to make their way back to the top, they could hear gunfire. Things just couldn’t possibly get worse.
<strike>waits for</strike> hopes to have an appearance in this
Amazing, simply amazing.
Does this slightly remind anyone else of Blue Gender? Either way it’s awesome.
Good work!