NationStates Jolt Archive

Ruben nodded at DWAR's comment.

"Aye, but not just soldiers."

Ruben seemed to of taken on a more relaxed attitude now. Even if their situation wasn't looking too good, he remained calm. If he died he would but otherwise he would attempt to get out of here and make note never to come back to The Goldern Simatar.

Turning back to Rikan, Ruben questioned his old aquaintance.

"So what convinced you to come... besides the prospect of a good hunt?"

Rikan tossed the knife into the air, catching it by the blade between her finger and thumb. She deposited it into its sheath.

"I came for the pay. Not to mention that there were going to be morons who didn't know how to deal with these asswipes of science."

She gestured to Nathan, "As did he."

Dirk looked at Plisken and lead him to a computer. The soldier typed in several commands and a blueprint of the building appeared. Numerous rooms covered the front half of the first floor, while the back half was the labatory. Dirk pressed another key and the second floor came up, same as the first.

"Okay...the labs are the safest bet. Pair of thick metal doors with four deadbolts as wide as your fist to seal it if you need to. There is also an emergency exit tunnel...runs from the bathroom in the labs for about a half mile. Tunnel is big enough for you to stand in. Best we can do right..."

Dirk froze as he heard smashing glass, from the upstairs. He handed Plisken his grenades spare for one frag.

"Thermite grenades would work the best against the door in the tunnel."

Dirk turned and sprinted up a staircase. Five infected were at the far end of the hallway, they turned and ran at him.

Dirk brought up his rifle and opened fire.


At the same time, lobby windows on the bottom floor began to be smashed in as the infected began thier assault.

DWAR heard the sound of shattering glass. He lifted his rifle as he turned towards the sound. He opened fire on the group of 5 infected that broke through the glass.
BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM
Click
click
click

"Fuck!" he yelled "God dammned clip!" he dropped his rifle so it was hanging by the sling and reached for his pistol, running backwards. He aimed the pistol at the head of the nearest infected, and ran into a chair. He stumbled, sending Zephyr flying off his shoulder. The large bird tried to flap it's wings, but didn't have enough room in the confined space. DWAR regained his footing, and shot at the nearest infected, lodging a bullet into it's head. He moved towards Zephyr who had fallen to the ground near by, and picked him up, quickly turning towards the threat, and remembered Arthas and Ruben were still nearby, and probably had taken care of the other 3 infected.

As soon as the infected started breaking through, Rikan had her bracer-blades extracted and held at the ready. She looked over to Ruben, "Come on, old boy! Let's do this one for posterity!"

She immediately moved to the next room, where the infected would be funneled through the only doorway. She hacked down the creatures with stunning viciousness, caring not if they were men, women or children.

They were all dead, and fucked up in the head.

"Come on, doctor's got your fuckin' treatment right here!" she screamed as she delivered another flurry of blades. The bodies began to fill the doorway, and she suddenly got an idea.

"Sandbaggin'! Gotta love those fuckin' Floridians!" she cried as she hacked more of the infected down.

Ruben jumped to his feet, bringing his G36 into action. Gracefully dodging the charging creatures, Ruben disposed of them with quick bursts to the head as they slid by or fell short due to his agile step. They may be able to run, yet these creatures were hardly agile.

There was no expression upon his face as the G36 clip ran out and Ruben withdrew two pistols. Arms outstretched, Ruben moved into the next room with Rikan and immediately unleashed several shots into the skulls of approaching zombies. His aim with a pistol had improved over the last year, allowing almost every bullet to make a kill.

Sliding to his left, Ruben pressed his back against the wall and slowly picked off the creatures as they attempted to break through.

Taking the information laid out on the computer he absorbed it quickly, the plans a permanent fixture of his mind and as Dirk practically threw the grenades in to his hands he began making for the escape tunnel, as an afterthought he called over his shoulders, “I take it you people can handle this little incident, I’ve got some work to do.” He never even paused to look for agreement but then he more likely to receive a hug from the infected.

Following the blueprint in his mind he jogged towards the lab in the rear area of the complex, he passed by an external door its emergency release bar buckled but the door seemed relatively intact otherwise but considering he had the munitions available he rigged a sturdy trap for anyone who happened to burst the door open. Taped to the wall he had placed a concussion grenade, assuming he’d read the markings correctly, if someone burst the door open they were going to wrench that grenade from the wall along with the lever safety device.

Not passing any other doors or windows that lead outside he reached the lab complex itself, the doors were as solid looking as Dirk had said, considering no one was around he placed a fist against the space the dead bolt would occupy. It was wider than his fist and deep enough to take most of his forearm. “No one said they weren’t ready for lab accidents, the killers are in the details though.”
Placing a series of grenades in a ring around the hallway five metres in front of the first metal door he’d rigged it that as the first metal door finally closed it would pull the releases on the grenades and then anyone caught in close would be shredded by fragments and burned by white hot phosphorus smoke. He stepped through the door way, careful to make sure that the release mechanism for the explosives was secured on to the ceiling and then down t the door, scarcely six metres along was the second door and it was equally severe looking and just as open.

Soon, the bodies filled the entire doorway, tightly wedged into place by each body that fell upon them. Rikan stopped, and held her hand up to Ruben.

She whispered, "If they can't see us, they'll probably go away..."

She turned and made her way toward the others elsewhere in the compound to assist them in dealing with the infected.

Content with their work in this part of the complex, Ruben reloaded his pistols and made his way towards another are of action. And so he took up another position against a wall and began unleashing once again...

OCC:Sigh. I'm back, and it looks like I have quite a bit of reading to do.

Hootington stood still in the lobby, watching as the infected started breaking the windows and crawling inside. What wonderous creatures these infected are, He thought. Still, hardly a match for him. Hootington took a moment to fiddle with his pistol, quickly changing it's ammunition to one that suited the situation:Explosive bullets.

Hootington turned as a window behind him exlpoded into small shards, and the first of the infected came dribbling towards him. The first to die was a gastly looking women. She was so close that Hootington's pistol actually hit her head as he raised it. The women growled once, then her head exploded in a shower of blood. He whipped into action a moment later, wielding his pistol expertly. The next shot imbedded itself in the body of a ten year old child, exploding viciously. His third shot passed through the throat of one, then the pelvis of another, finally destroying a third's left leg in a bloody mess. Hootington shot again and again with chilling precision. Soon, however, his pistol clicked empty.

Edwardo Hootington grinned madly as he swung his Yo-Yo around and around, slicing open already dead skin and severing limbs. In a particularly skillful move, he somehow got his string to wrap around a trio of infected. He simply pulled, and all of thier bodies collapesed into piles of blood and gore. He gave a sharp kick to the face of an Infected that had tried to jump him from behind, shattered another's skull with a powerful elbow slam, quite litteraly "Knocking His Block off." Soon, however, Edwardo realized that there were alot more infected than he had sense to attack. He jumped for the stairs of the the first level, thinking of heading for Dirk, who was hopefully upstairs.

Suddenly, an oppertunity appeared right before Hootington's eyes. The undead had started to funnel up the stairs, grasping for Hootingtons flesh on the top step.

"Fools." He said out loud. When the first undead was so close that he could see his nostrils flaring, Hootington, in a breathtaking show of force, lunged his Yo-Yo forward. The deadly weapon swam through the bodies of no less then a dozen infected, effectively stringing them on the wire, then burying itself in the wall below. Hootington waved his arm up once, then brought it down. Like a wave, the string rose up with his hand, and drove the wire through the heads of the infected. Pop, Pop, Pop. Each pop was followed by a satisfying thump of bodies. Hootington took a moment to admire his handywork, then dashed off to find Dirk.

Arthas set back up one of the metal desks and drew his pistol, shooting at the infecteds coming through the door as he rammed the ones climbing through the window with the desk, his face lighting up at the crunching bones.

Placing the remaining grenades in various pouches, he levelled the AKIN which had been hanging impotent against his body, stepped over the frame of the door and finally in to the beginning area of the lab but this section was simply a few desks and computers, something for Dirk to look at but Plisken was more concerned with finding the emergency exit.

Looking around he saw a sliding door to his left, which bore a biohazard sign and a keypad box, whilst to the right was a standard looking office door and the universal sign of a man and a woman. Kicking the door open with his left foot the panel of the door crumpled at the point of impact and wrenched backwards, two more doors were ahead.

“I always wondered what the ladies toilets were like, see everything and deny it all Jared.” Quipping to himself he made for the ladies door, his hand rested on a panel on the door itself and he froze.

Dirk fired his rifle, a single shot blasting through the forehead of one of the infected, blowing red slop out of the hole in the back of the woman's head. The soldier threw out the spent magizine and slapped in a fresh one. As more began to pour through the window, Dirk advanced, firing burst after burst, knocking over the zombies and killing the ones who had not fully turned.

A zombie child stood and charged him, Dirk swung the butt of his rifle around, an audible crack ushered from the blow. The child fell to the ground, not moving. Dirk looked out the window to find a crude ladder, and the half decayed face of a man. The soldier fired a burst, blood and brains splattered against the side of the building and Dirk pushed the ladder away from the window with the muzzle of his gun.

Dirk leaned out the window and chuckled at the crimson blood on the side of the building. "Very interesting color, hint of brain. Gonna decorate my flat like that."

He turned back and brought the rifle up as he heard pouding footsteps. Hootington burst into Dirk's sight, but the man held his fire.

Dirk lowered the rifle.

"Next time, radio me first."

The metal panel was obviously meant to guide people as to where to push and it looked much nicer than leaving the door bare, regardless if the panel had not been there he would of probably missed the blur present in the metal. He didn’t freeze for long, snapping his head around he realised his shadow had an altogether solid form, strangely though his shadow did not lunge at him in an attack or even make a move. Almost as though a challenge had been issued.

Unable to effectively manoeuvre in tight space Plisken momentarily considered attempting to duke it out old-fashioned style but the wickedly curved blade that was drawn convinced him otherwise and he considered how likely it was he’d kill this sicko by diving through the bathroom door whilst shooting. The shadow did not adopt a fighting stance or even hold the sword in an offensive manner, this was getting more curious but Plisken had been moving his body to face the threat.

With a clatter the sword bounced and slid along the floor in to a corner, Plisken could barely believe it, “You bastard, you actually want to get my fist inserted through the side of your head.” He wasn't annoyed, just suffering from incredulity.
Typically Plisken spoke in an accent that never really had much that was distinguishable, now he was speaking in his native Inesian accent of his childhood. The figure simply brought his hands together, the skin on each finger looked far to loose to be a part of this body, it looked more like sickening clothing. Despite the fact that this disgusting creature wanted to duel in a hand-hand melee Plisken decided it was not the time to be careless , “Not today karate kid”, firing from the hip the AKIN barked through six rounds and the robed figure crumpled to the floor without having made another wilful move after dropping the sword.

When he stopped firing Plisken couldn’t help but wonder why this one had gone for another tactic when according to the rest of the group these guys were bloodthirsty and maniacal in the attacks.
He flicked his radio to transmit, “Boys and girls it’s time to make for the bathroom, Dirk you know the way so you better start leading. Watch out for the exit close by the reception corridor because it’s rigged but after that you’re all clear as far as traps from myself goes.”
Never taking his eyes off the body whilst he spoke he continued to wonder quite what these people were all about and why they were doing some freaky shit with the locals, as if technological humanity wasn’t bad enough these musket firing, sword wielding fucktards were trying to get on the map. Again.

Dirk smiled when he got Plisken's tranmission.

"Roger. Okay everyone, back down to the reception room."

Dirk quickly moved down the stairs and back into the lobby where he found the place covered in blood and rotten body parts. The attack seemed to have stalled and the humans had regrouped. He grabbed the case with the virus and carefully lead the group down the hall, hoping not to trip one of Plisken's traps. He heard snarling and moaning behind them. Dirk picked up the pace and reunited with Plisken, the soldier looked at the corpse on the floor.

"Shit, them again. Okay lets go."

He opened the panel for the underground tunnel and looked back the way they had come.

"Alright everyone, get moving. The tunnel will lead to the woods, wait at the end. Those fucks are right behind us."

Upon hearing Drik's command over the radio, Ruben reloaded his pistols and G36 before making his way back down to the reception room. Most of the creatures were outside whilst those inside weren't living.

Back with the others, Ruben moved to Rikan's side.

"Do you ever get bored of this?"

As everybody started moving down the passage he counted them off in his mind and nearly had Dirk follow him as he went to close the door, “This is my area of expertise, now get moving down the tunnel.”
He began heaving the first door shut, aware that the calls of the dead who had begun to break through was getting ever closer, until he saw the control mechanisms, the door began to swing shut and he turned back to do the same with the secondary door. Before he made it through the doorway he heard the clank of metal and then explosives detonate, if they didn’t take anything out coming down the hallway at least they might bring the walls and ceiling down.

* * *
The tunnel was big enough to stand up in but forced wasn’t really high enough for Plisken to be running properly, still at a fast jog he caught up with the others and avoided getting shot by radioing ahead. “Doors are sealed and I closed up the tunnel entrance, anybody hears footsteps behind them it’s just me, so exercise a bit of self control.”

OOC:Everyone else just include a back in time section of your post, I just wanted to move things along

Arthas came running down the hallway, still satisfied with the crunches of the infecteds' ribacges in between the desk and the window frame "D-d-did you see the frightin' ones? D-d-did you see the falling bombs" He rolled across the tile floor and into the hatch, landing on his feet, still running, Mr. Lanky Gymnast continued "The flames are all long gone but the pain lingers on"

Dirk moved quickly down the tunnel, wanting to put as much space between the infected and his group. He felt better that the doors were sealed and that the infected couldn't get through, but he wouldn't let his confidence overrule him.

Several minutes later he reached a large door. He carefully opened it and was greeted by the fresh scent of pine trees. He walked outside and motioned for the group to get out.

He looked and across a grassy plain about a half mile away was the compound. Dirk stepped back deeper into the woods and spoke into his mike.

"Plisken hurry up and do what voodoo you do."

Ruben remained silent as he followed the group quietly. The door may have stopped the zombies for the moment, but he doubted it would be the last time they ran into them. Then of course there was the matter of these sacrificial guys. Every step further made Ruben more irritated. He wouldn't have been in this situation if he had been more careful and not been caught.

Rikan had cleaned her blades off a dead body earlier, and now they were back in their sheaths. She followed the group down the tunnel, keeping her ears and eyes open for sudden trouble. For now, they were undisturbed in their passage.

Breaking it in a little faster he made it up to the exit, concealed enough, “Alright, I’m going to need some more explosives, I may of gone a little overkill on the other door but it’s better safe than… getting eaten. I resent the idea that this is voodoo, I’m a skilled practitioner of blowing the shit out of stuff” He cocked a grin at those looking, it wasn’t met with anything to pleasant.

“Come on campers, we’re in the woods now and that just means we got to look out for bears and not stepping in wolf shit.”

Rikan looked over at Plisken and mocked him, "Oooh! Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!"

She kept walking, muttering to herself, "Asshole..." As she did, she tossed a grenade backward toward him.

Hootington checked his person and threw a small bit of plastic explosive at Plisken's feet, Shrugging.

"That's all I have. Do your work, Plisken."

Dirk pulled out his canteen and took a swig. He looked into the forest, happy to be under the shade of the trees.

"I gave you all my grenades Plisken, spare for a few for my launcher. Rikan, the only animals we will have to worry about is maybe a bear or a mountain lion."

He looked over and tossed his canteen to her.

"Check your weapons everyone, get a drink of water. Five minutes rest before we have a nature hike."

Rikan looked at Dirk incredulously, "It was a joke, you idiot."

She pulled out her canteen and drank some water as well, still watching the woods around them. It didn't hurt to be constantly attentive.

DWAR streched his arms out. Upon hearing Pliskens request he plucked a few grenades off of his jumble of supplies and tossed them at his feet. He reached his hand up to his shoulder, and grabbed Zephyr. After stroking his feathers for a little bit, he tossed the large bird into the air.

Deftly catching the grenade he slipped it just as smoothly in to an open pouch, stooping to pick up the explosive he rolled his eyes, “Children, children aren’t we in a bad mood today, you’d think everybody’s humour had been surgically removed.”

With a groan he turned back to the doorway and ran a few metres down the tunnel, once he was sure that he was now partially underground he began fitting the plastic explosive, “Taking you out of my pill box..” as he worked Plisken did so to feisty little tune and when finished came to the door. Using a bit of tape he fixed Rikan’s grenade to the inside corner of the door and then ran a wire down in to the tunnel.
Speaking to no one in particular he addressed those closest, “This door will hold a hell of a lot, I would be very concerned if this little dinky grenade made a dent in the door but anything that trips the wire will get torn apart. Course I don’t see how anything is going to get in or out of this facility without codes, you secured up all the rooms you could, right Dirk?”

Whilst he waited he spun the ring from the grenade around his finger and taunted Rikan by tossing the ring towards her, “I’ve seen dogs that talked, birds that swam but I’ve never seen a tiger walk on two legs.”

Rikan turned swiftly as she heard the faint humming of the ring spinning around Plisken's finger cease. In that swift movement, a bracer-blade had extracted and slashed toward the ring, slicing it in half. She looked up to Plisken and grinned, "You're looking at one..."

The blade slid back into its sheath and she turned to Dirk, with a quick glance over at Nathan, "Time to go. I don't know about you, but I'm not sticking around to see those poppers blow..."

Arthas was leaning against a tree, continuing singing "Gooooodbye, bluuue sky, goodbye, goodbye" All he had other than the ones for the rifle were molotov cocktails, which hung opposite the bottles of wine in his coat. He saw everyone quibbling but decided to stay out for once, just watching them, smiling.

"Yeah, I secured the upper level. Now, just blow your little trap and lets get the fuck moving. It'll be dark in a few hours."

Dirk looked back into the forest, he moved up the mountain several meters and climbed onto a large rock. He couldn't see any signs of human life, just a few chipmunks and squirrels running about.

Looking at Rikan incredulously he walked towards Dirk but stopped short of the rock, “Alright, just lead the way chief. All my stuff is set to go off if someone happens to trip anything, so no need to blow anything just yet." It was a little chilly outside and the adrenalin of combat was starting to leave him with the shakes, only in fingers and toes but it was still there.

He had been looking up at Dirk as he gave his report but began looking out across the forest like Dirk, “At the school I found some tracks not far from where we parked, they were on top of the vehicle tracks, curious thing about the tracks is that they were facing in to town and judging from the depth of each track it was two people walking in each others tracks.”

Dirk simply nodded and looked up into the sky, it would be dark soon and they needed a place to rest. He looked down at Plisken.

"You would have been loved back in the old days of city states for your tracking. As you might know, common practice to walk in a comrades footprints to hide thier numbers. Defintaly not the zombies, too stupid for that. Looks like our black clothed friends again. Come on everyone, it'll be dark shortly. There are some caves a mile or two from here."

Dirk lead the group for a full half an hour before reaching the mouth of a cave. He pulled out a flare, lit it, and tossed it down into the cave. The cave had gentle slope for about fourty feet before stopping at the rock wall. Dirk carefully entered and looked around inside, no sign of habitation. He walked back out.

"Right, gather big bits of dead fall and logs...we'll make a wall at the mouth of the cave."

Another fourty five minutes later, a crude waist high two foot thick wall of branches, logs and leaves was at the entrance of the cave. Dirk sat behind the wall and looked out into the forest.

"Okay, we'll rest here for the night. I got first shift."

Rikan walked around inside the cave, inspecting various sections carefully. Finally, she saw something that favored her preferences. She climbed the wall and settled atop a ledge that overhung the interior. Pulling out a flashlight, she shone it into the abyss beyond to ensure there were no unwelcome inhabitants. The ledge was seven feet up off the ground, allowing her an excellent perch to both rest, and observe the cave below her. She watched as the others settled themselves down, before lying down herself and falling into a light sleep. The slightest sound other than their regular movements, and she would awaken quickly to determine the source and threat.

Stepping into the cave, Ruben immediately took note of where everyone seemed to be settling down and made for a dark corner as far away as he could. He didn't like soldiers one bit and never had, especially after the bullshit he went through at America. All that mattered to Ruben was getting out of this zombie plagued mess alive and leaving the country.

Finally coming across a dark portion of the cave that was relatively smooth, Ruben set himself down and quickly passed into a state of relax. He wasn't asleep, yet his body was completely at ease. And so Ruben sat in silence, contemplating his future and where he would get the much needed funds.

As Dirk moved to watch over the immediate area round the cave entrance Plisken stepped outside, “Just going for some essential exercise, fear not chief I’ll be back soon enough.” With the parting remark uttered softly audible he walked through the cave mouth and up the slope, the sounds of owls and the last insects filled the air around him. It felt good to be back amongst it all, away from concrete monoliths and individuals who knew as much about living their lives as they did about hearing the tell tale snort of breath.

He froze on the spot, his left leg comfortably resting on the outside edge of his boot whilst his right bore the weight, the snort had come from ahead but with the difficulties of depth perception in the darkness and the added trouble of actually seeing he could not make out a definite target. Where nature had its flaws mankind had an answer, with slow and delicate movement he brought his rifle around from his back all the while keeping his eyes ahead and constantly moving, taking advantage of his peripheral vision.
Through the robust little scope on his rifle he was able to see a good twenty metres clearly, it was a wolf or perhaps even a wild dog not that it mattered for the animal had perhaps sensed now was not a time to probe further.

Plisken returned to the cave, sending out his name via Morse code on the radio using the transmit key, Dirk was still there maintaining his vigil, “Not much about tonight, caught a glimpse of a wolf and that was about that.” Although a little uptight, which was understandable given the situation, Plisken still felt comfortable in Dirk’s presence as despite his mercenary profession now he had once been a professional soldier in a manner like Dirk.

Arthas followed the others around and did his share of wood gathering, all in silence. Once they got the cave going and Dirk announced he was first, Arthas walekd over to him "I call next shift or last shift, I'll be awake anyways." He walked back about halfway down the cave and sat down along the wall on the ground. At first he kept his head down, but then he started watching everyone, one unblinking minute at a time, no expression on his face, no one missing his gaze.

Dirk looked out into the darkness, off in the distance he heard the howl of a wolf. A small smile broke across his face, he loved the outdoors, loved the sights and sounds. The moon broke through a large patch of dark clouds and cast eeire shadows across the forest. Dirk watched carefully and picked up a shadow.

It moved quickly and quietly, towards the cave. He quickly made it out to be human, and the thing it was holding in it's right hand was a rifle. Dirk brought the shadow into his sights and fired a quicky burst.

The report of the G36 broke the quiet of the night as the figure gasped and crumpled to the ground. Flashes and gunshots from flintlock weapons began to go off all across his front.

Dirk fired down at the flashes.

"WAKE UP EVERYONE! Our old friends are back!"

Gunfire immediately brought Ruben out of his trance like state and into action. Whilst he didn't particularly care about this whole mess, he did want to get out of here alive and these black clad men were not helping.

Prepping his G36 for action, Ruben found himself a nice little nook to take cover within whilst he placed his weapon around the corner and began releasing short bursts towards the enemy fire.

Rikan had awoken upon the first gunshot and had pulled out her pistols. She lay where she was, and aimed from her perch, firing quickly. The ledge provided an excellent angle to shoot at the incoming black-clad men...

DWAR woke up at the first sound of gunfire and immediatly reached for his rifle. 'I'm a much better shot with this anyway,' he thought to himself. He moved towards a position as far back from the entrance he could go and still see outside. He sat down and took aim with his rifle, bringing the scope to one of the beasts heads and squeezing the trigger. He quickly brought his hand up to the bolt and slammed it back before bringing it foreward again, ejecting the brass casing. The empty shell ricocheted off a nearby wall, and fell to the floor with a tinkle as he had the rifle aimed at another one.

The guns fired, Dirk roared the alarm, not that anybody had failed to realise the situation after a moment, moving to the side of the cave mouth he looked through the robust little tritium gas containing sight on his rifle and began attempting to find something to actually shoot at instead of just flashes of light and shadowy movements that could have been anything.

Unsettled by the apparent ineffectiveness of the fire being brought to bear, these were guys with flintlocks after all and should have been totally suppressed by the volume of fire available amongst the group, “Pick your targets, we’re not hitting anything!”

Rikan muttered to herself, "I'm not missing my targets..."

The pistols barked once again in succession, dropping another one of the incoming men.

"Ain't that hard!" she called out to Dirk. Her tone of voice might have made him think she was offering a shooting challenge. Either way, the enemy was dropping in numbers one by one...

Dirk smiled at Rikan as he brought his rifle back up again and fired a grenade into the trees. Screams followed the explosion, the battlefield was lit for several seconds, showing at least another twenty men armed with flintlock rifles.

Suddenly, something shot past Dirk's head and rolled deep into the cave. An explosion and a flash of light came from the bowels of thier hideout.

"The fuckers got grenades!"

Dirk ejected his spent magizine as he put a fresh magizine in a black clad man emereged from the darkness in front of him and tackled Dirk. Both men went tumbling down into the darkness.

Arthas had been shooting at the muzzle flashes with pistol, crouched down behind a boulder in the cave. The loud clink-clinkclink of a metal object could be heard about 10 feet in front of him, he dropped to his kneees, a grenade. He popped up behind the rock. "Tossers aren't playing fair, someone toss me a few frag grenades, please." He shouted, running for the front, drawing his sword. On his way towards the front, he saw a tumble, one of the enemies was on Dirk. "Dammit" Arthas cursed under his breath, bringing his sword back and diving fro the pile, aiming for the black cloaked figure.

The figure on Dirk tensed and grunted as Arthas's sword plunged into him, the dark robes became even darker as blood poured out of his body. Dirk rolled the man off of him and watched as the body disappeared into the darkness. Dirk looked up at Arthas.

"Thank you."

The gunfire suddenly ceased, the crack of flintlocks and chatter of automatics died away. Dirk stood and carefully moved forward and picked up his rifle. He stepped outside of the cave and moved into the bush. He returned a few minutes later, shaking his head.

"No bodies, a few footprints...that is all."

He turned on his flashlight and headed down into the cave. Dirk shined the light around the cave and couldn't find the body of his attacker. He scratched his head and felt a draft on his leg. He turned and in the corner, a small opening, slightly more than a meter wide and a few feet tall was in the rock. A boot of his attacker was sticking out.

Dirk walked forward, pulled the corpse out and shined his light down the tunnel. There was a small stone landing, then a long flight of stairs leading into the dark.

"Shit...everyone come here, I got our way out. Question is..where does it lead?"

Getting up from behind his now severely battered crevice, Ruben noted all the bullet holes around his position and wasn't sure whether to consider himself fortunate or not. On one hand, he would be dead and not have to go through this bullshit mission, on the other hand he would live and hopefully get away from this bullshit mission.

Sighing in resignation, Ruben reloaded his weapon and made it over to Dirk, watching as their commander poked around in a new passage. Highly excited and primed for crawling around in a cave, Ruben stepped back and relaxed against the wall, waiting.

Dirk climbed into the hole and stood on a stone landing. The air quickly got cooler as he stood there and he shined his light down a flight of stone stairs. He headed down, the stone wall was smooth as glass and this alone slightly disturbed Dirk.

He reached another stone landing at the bottom of the staircase, looked around and found another flight of stairs heading upwards. Dirk's flashlight beam followed the path up to a large statue, the statue of the dragon and snakes. He keyed his mike.

"How is it up there?"

Remaining in his position he continued to wait for something further act upon, as far as Plisken was concerned they’d hit nothing in the darkness and to try to believe otherwise was arrogance of the highest order. “All quiet up here, what’s your situation?” Plisken replied before anybody else had a chance, yet never stopped looking out of the cave mouth.

Whilst he waited Plisken turned his mind if not full attention back to the robed attackers, it was like they'd been sitting in these mountains for decades and then suddenly come to life right when things were going to hell. Muskets, swords and god knows what kinda messsed up complexes inside their minds.

Rikan kept an ear out for what the others were saying, but she kept her eyes glued to the cave's entrance. She didn't want to see them caught unawares, like they had almost been.

"Too quiet now..." she muttered, for she had noticed that the forests had gone deadly quiet.

Dirk stodd in the cave for several more minutes before it dawned on him where he was. He was inside a damn temple. He cursed under his breath and moved back up the staircase and into the cave where everyone was waiting.

"We stumbled on a fucking temple of thiers...human scarifices all that shit. We gotta move now."

Rikan turned her head for a split second from the entrance, when she turned back she was facing a barrel of a Baker rifle. Nine more men dressed in black appeared from the darkness, aiming thier weapons down at the group. One of them started to bark out orders in a strange language. Dirk stood there for several minutes before looking at the group.

"They are speaking a very old, very different version of Ancient Simatarian. The head honcho is saying to put down our weapons or the dead will drink our blood. I think he means that he will unleash the zombies against us. Okay everyone...play it cool. Put down your weapons."

OOC: GS...be careful how you're using my characters...it's not something Rikan would have done, turning her head as she did. I'll let it go.

IC:

Rikan snarled silently, keeping her face straight. She spoke to Ruben with a dark tone. "Hey Ruben...remember Merrin and his boys?"

She glanced sideways at Ruben and knew that he would see a similarity in this situation.

With a nod, she looked at the black clad men, glaring at them. She spoke to them in Tarlachian, knowing her crytic words would baffle them.

"Woe to you, for you have challenged and you shall fail."

She reached behind her back to pull her pistols out slowly and tossed them to the ground. As she did so, she hooked a finger on a grenade and pulled it free, pulling the pin in that same movement. It dropped to the ground and rolled behind the black clad men.

"Anyone got a light?" she asked cynically.

She snapped her wrist, bringing her bracer blade to lock into its infamously deadly position and slashed toward the arm of the nearest man, who had obviously glanced down at the grenade, knowing the danger present.

She turned and ran, screaming to her allies, "Live grenade!" She dove behind a large boulder.

Ruben couldn't help but grin as he remembered back to their adventure in America and how Rikan had handled things. Violently. In his opinion, violence was perhaps one of the best ways to deal with things and it tended to work most of the time as well. It was just a matter of being smarter and willing to go that much further.

As the grenade dropped to the floor, Ruben slipped a dagger from out of his sleeve and launched it into one of the black clad men before diving behind the rock wall, hoping it would be enough to block any wild shrapnel.

Arthas ran back, doing a hand plant on the top of the boulder. As he went over Rikan, he commented "Very nice, ma'am, horrorshow." He hit the ground right behind her and let himself roll across the cave floor, hopping up and leaning into a crevice in the wall, loading his pistols.

The grenade had barely clanked around behind the group, the pin whistling faintly away and Plisken had tugged back on the trigger of his rifle whilst turning back, then launched himself over an embankment. With no undue loathing, “Hey Rikan, remember the long walk at Camp Currie?” He paused long enough to let the grenade detonate, “No? You keep fucking around like that we’re going to end up getting stabbed in the back because you had a trip down memory lane, case you forgot this is a team trip. Amateur.”

Rikan took one glance at Ruben, the snarl on her face present once more, before she launched toward Plisken, her two bracer-blades dangerously coming close. Her foot slammed his rifle down, and held it down while her two blades pressed into Plisken's throat and torso. She brought her face close to his, speaking with a deadly cold.

"Listen to me you fucking asshole. I don't give up, I don't lie down and play dead. That is not my game. My game is to kill or be killed. So far, I've only killed. You'll just be another statistic on my record if you keep up your goddamn bullshit. I did what I had to do to keep us alive, to keep us from becoming their prisoners. Got it, amateur?"

She took a glance over to where Dirk had gone and then back to Plisken. "Those fuckers out there, I'll kill for money. You, I'll kill for free."

She returned to Ruben's side. Nathan chuckled slightly to himself. He knew that Plisken had gotten off easy this time. Next time, he might not be so lucky.

OOC: Where is Outer Heaven MK II? He's supposed to be in this thread controlling Nathan (who I've been taking the liberty of keeping with the rest of us).

Arthas slid down to the floor of the cave in his little crevice, watching the argument, giving a pretty displeased look at the ungrateful Pliskin. When Rikan snapped back at him, a smile came across Arthas’ face as he lightly clapped, bowing his head.

Nathan chuckled slightly to himself. He knew that Plisken had gotten off easy this time. Next time, he might not be so lucky.

Edging over, Nathan leaned toward Plisken.

"You'd better be careful. I know Rikan better than most people, and she will kick the shit out of you, and eat you for breakfast,” Nathan then grabbed Plisken's hair, and pulled his head millimetres away from his mouth, "And if you insult her again, I'll be more than happy to blow you away, or rip you apart. Goddit?"

Not waiting for a reply, Nathan shoved Plisken away. Smirking, he walked over to Rikan.

"These guys don't get it do they?" Nathan said to Rikan, shaking his head. Nathan looked over at Ruben, and then nodded.

"You've been quiet Ruben, not even going to greet me?"

Rikan scoffed. "A bloody fun game ain't it Nathan?"

She took a glance over the rock wall carefully. It had been quiet since the grenade went off. She didn't know if the black-clad boys had gotten out. It was too dark in the cave to tell for sure. She leaned back down and spoke,

"I think we should see if there's bodies...but, it's up to him." she indicated Dirk with a hand.

DWAR dived behind a rock as soon as the grenade was thrown. Hearing the argument, he decided to stay out of it and instead reloaded his G36. Silently he waited for some form of motion from the area that had just gone boom.

In a moment of ennui, Arthas reached into his coat and pulled out one of the bottles of wine. Popping it open, letting the cork hit him in the chest as to not make any noise from it hitting the cave walls, he whispered "Anybody want a sip here?" Pulling out a pack of Dixie cups.

Dirk dove as the grenade went off, a tiny piece of shrapnel cut through his pants, missing burying into his ass by millimeters. He stood and checked himself over as Rikan went on a verbal rampage. There was something about her he liked, but he had sworn himself never to love another woman after his girlfriend had been murdered.

He looked over at Rikan as he pulled out his Para automatic. "Course we are going to check for bodies."

Dirk moved slowly forward and gently looked over the tiny wall where the men had stood. His face twisted slightly as he stared over the wall before he slunk over the wall. Dirk reappeared less then a minute later, a bloody scimatar in his right hand. He looked at Rikan.

"You certainly have a way with men, several of them had thier balls torn apart. The others were twitchers...until I parted thier heads from the necks. Okay, we are going to go into the temple down there. It isn't much, a scarafical alter..that is about it. There should be a way out from there. We can't risk moving through the woods."

The Simatarian froze as the wind from outside carried in a familiar sound into the cave, a low moan. Dirk grabbed his rifle and his pack. He pulled out some flares and handed them out.

"No time for drinking Arthas. Unless you want to stay and get torn to bits by zombies. Everyone, into the hole and down the stairs. Wait by the alter."

Nathan flipped his DE's about.

"Okay, I'll cover you guys while you get down there." Nathan said. Not waiting for a response, Nathan jogged off to the stairs, and knelt, his DE's aimd upward, the hammers retracted.

Arthas shrugged and oulled out his canteen, filling it up with the fermented grape juice he always seemed to carry with him. He hurried down the stairs, pistols out and ready as he headed past Nathan into the temple, looking around with the same look he had while back at the high school gym.

Dirk was the last one through the small hole and he headed down the stairs to join the group. Most were looking at the temple around them, the massive statue of the dragon, several scarafical altars, and stone statues of warriors in armor lined the stone walls.

A deep voice filled the large chamber when the group had assembled.

"Da say you come with guns and flame...da say you come to kill our Gods. Tell me why...Mister Soldier.."

The group looked around for the source of the voice. Dirk turned around and around, seeing nothing. Footsteps were heard, echoing through the halls.

Dirk looked and saw a man standing near a burning torch. The man was clothed in the same dark robes as all the other men, a black scimatar at his waist, his face was tattooed and he had long black hair and a short, neat, black beard. His eyes burned with the flame of the torch.

"Why you come to kill soldier man? You come and descecrate out temple...our scared ground."

"You brought this upon yourself." Dirk said. "You unleashed Rebecca and kill hundreds of people."

The man gave a cruel laugh. "And..who is dis bunch? Your group of whores and bastards? You all will leave now...and maybe you will live."

Rikan glared at the man, muttering to herself under her breath, "One more word, one more insult...I've had it with men degrading me and my friends..."

She however, kept her cool, instead asking the man, "If this is your temple, then why the hell did your asswipes of pawns try to kill us far from here, at the stadium? Give us a good reason why we shouldn't be retaliating for that!"

Arthas glanced over to Rikan, quickly adding after she finished, pacing the room, speaking in a voice that'd match the cloaked man's "My collaeague has a point. Also, we have faught against you and what you have done essentially nonstop since the light of day came, and now you expect us to give up based on your cocky attitude and doomsaying? Well, I don't know about my allies, but I for one am not in the mood to comply to hollow threats." He was pacing about, listening, waiting, getting ready to fight.

OOC: I want to keep it out of the main thread so check the signup thread.

The man stared back at Rikan, his dark eyes looking at her. A smile crossed his tattooed face.

"You are indeed a great warrior, now I can see why some of my men didn't return. We are now defending what was once ours, this new nation has gone astray from the basics of life and death. They do not know the dark half of the world and we will show them."

The man looked up at Arthas and then turned to Dirk. He spoke something in a strange language and it took Dirk a few minutes before he responded in apparently the same language. The man's face scrunched up and he spat on the wall. The man looked at Arthas.

"Your attitude will get you killed one of these days. You would make a fitting meal for our God. Death...is the greatest thing a man can achieve. Being resurrected and continuing the fight...to devour your enemies flesh....is an honor of the highest order."

Rikan could almost have laughed aloud. This man's words sounded a lot like the vampires back home. Especially the rogue ones that thought no law applied to them.

It was those vampires she was paid to take out. And she did it most effectively. She wasn't known as the Viper for no reason.

She kept silent, studying the man carefully, watching his moves with even more cautious approach.

"Yes, my attitude is going to get me killed one of these days. If my attitude changed though, I'd still die. Being resurrected however, ruins that death, making mortality a pointless thing. Death would become but a nap. Now, about me being a fitting meal for your God? I'm afraid I'm too stringy. Perhaps I'd make a fine jerkey." Arthas was starting to have fun with this, but stayed on his guard, still pacing.

Ruben remained silent throughout the whole encounter, keeping his eyes upon the men before him. He didn't care for their talk about death being glorious and coming back as a mindless beast even better. In Ruben's opinion, life was a battle that you must continually fight for in order to get what you want. Death meant defeat.

Not one to draw unnnecessary attention to himself, Ruben remained still and silent.

The room was strange statues, altars and burning torches certainly fit the motif of some disturbed underground cult of a few hundred years in age. The surroundings were new, certainly unlike any of the other places Plisken had ever seen, when the voice spoke though a peculiar sense of déjà vu afflicted his senses and in a fraction of a second he found himself hearing, feeling and smelling an altogether similar yet altered version of the same room, then he found himself seeing a totally different place.

Outwardly he remained silent, unmoving and of no interest to anybody standing in the back of the room, inside his mind though he was the centre of a racing mind and a multitude of thoughts. His first experience had been of the temple being used, the people were non-descript and so were the events yet they carried an energy of a powerful nature but totally indescribable. His second vision had been the corridor back at the facility, he’d realised this because the trips he’d laid were visible and then a surge of anger overtook him, then his view was moving and he realised that he was going to set off the explosives.

The emergency door groaned under the impact of bodies, then grenade slipped once and then again, before falling to the floor, it bounced once up to knee-height and exploded. Its fire reached out, tackling bodies to the floor and then left them smouldering in its wake, lumps of charred flesh were scattered all over the walls and then it happened again as more of the bodies race forwards to the vault door. It clanked shut with a firmness you feel inside, the explosives ripped through the walls and the bodies, it brought down the ceiling and crumpled the area in to an impassable mound of rubble extending in to the complex. The bodies lay underneath the mounds, the limbs frantically struggling to move in a vain attempt to continue the madness that had existed in the minds.

Plisken came back to it all, the robed figure was familiar and in his eyes he saw something distinctly fleeting rather like a child hiding amongst the trees of an orchard. The others spoke yet their words seemed so distant as to be inaudible except for when Dirk answered in a strange language the robed man had begun talking in, the words made no sense yet they had a distinct clarity.

An impossible grin fought its way past Plisken’s subdued body, it stretched and pulled his features in to a sickening grin that would have been slightly amusing at first but would of soon become strange and then unnerving, that was when he spoke, “Been looking for you we has, waiting for you to speak with us, yet you not come till now.” He’d spoken like the robed man yet it had a singsong quality to it that did not match the hoarse scratchiness of his voice and then he switched to a whisper, “Where you been dread man?”

A soft click answered Plisken. Dirk turned and saw a robed figure hidden behind one of the pillars, a Baker rifle leveled at Plisken. The leader waved his hand and the other man lowered his rifle, but kept his postion behind the pillar.

"You are extremely lucky. Escaping our men in de town and our forces. Now, your luck as run out."

More clicks came in the temple, other robbed figures appeared, all point thier weapons at them. The leader caught Dirk moving his hand to the AG36's trigger, he raised a flintlock pistol he had hidden in his robes and fired. The bullet smashed into the barrel of the grenade launcher and bounced off into the temple.

"Don't soldier man. Any of you reach for weapons...all will die. Put them down and we will test your skills...see if you are worthy enough to survive."

ooc: Bumping for resurrection

Rikan growled slightly, "Luck had nothing to do with it."

She stepped forward, "It's about time you all came to your senses..."

She unclicked her bracer-blades and held them downward, "Let's go..."

Upon hearing the soft click Plisken turned his head until his chin almost rested upon his chest, still he grinned now more disturbed in appearance by the tilt of his head, “Luck be a lady tonight, no?” Chuckling he straightened his head and stuck his jaw out, then adjusting his footing to an even shoulder-width spacing he eyed up the leader, “You know those robes would make fantastic curtains, except for the smell I’d take some straight away, right from your amputated resurrected hands.” Using a single hand he lifted the sling of his rifle above his head and let the weapon clatter to the floor, placing the same hand upon the handle of his knife he continued to grin.

Ruben remained silent as he gradually edge a small pistol down his sleeve. He'd had the weapon sitting in an arm holster and spent the last several minutes gradually moving it down his long military sleeve and close to his hand where it could serve a useful purpose, such as blowing a hole through the head of the cult leader.

All he needed was the right moment.

The man barked something in the same language he had been using. His men appeared from the shadows, keeping thier guns aimed at the group, moved them out of the temple and deeper into the mountain. Dirk couldn't see much of the passage, but it did grow cooler as they marched. Finally, the group found themselves in a small arena, a fighting pit in the center and a holding pen off to the side above it.

The leader dropped down into the pit and his men pushed the group into the pen, and locked the thick iron door; but kept Plisken out. He was moved over to the edge of the pit and the men backed off. The leader pulled out his scimatar and said a quick prayer. He looked up at Plisken, his eyes ready for battle.

"Come down and we shall begin warrior, see if you can live up to what you have said."

Holding his grin throughout the little journey he was none to surprised when the others were caged and his challenge was accepted, warriors cultures were always ready to fight especially those who thought they were some harbingers of almighty doom. Shrugging off a few other items he glanced briefly at the cage, “Have fun kids, its time to earn my five million, think I can get that in cash or would that be difficult?”

Cackling away at his own joke the grin dropped from his face reluctantly, looking at the leader, resplendent with gleaming scimitar and dreary robe, pulling the knife from its sheath he compared the two weapons ever so briefly, “Nuts, I’m going to need something bigger to tackle your compensator.” Drawing a second knife he twirled it across his hand until the handle rested in his hand, blade facing over his shoulder, with a deep breath followed by a quick whoop and a lunge he sent the knife flying towards the leader then moved off to flank him. Just in case he missed.

The leader dodged the flying knife with ease, he swung his scimatar, knocking Plisken's next attack away. He gave the man a swift kick in the buttocks as he went past him.

"You fight with a smaller weapon, I am holding an unfair advantage."

The leader tossed his scimatar up to one of his men and pulled out a long, curved dagger, the handle was encrusted with valuable gems. The man smiled sinisterly as he slowly moved towards Plisken, making a few quick jabs, several meters away from the man to test his resolve. He gave a slight nod, this was going to be a fine battle.

"You should also know, you might need to fight more than one opponet."

Behind Plisken, the sand lying the bottom of the pit shifted as a form slowly rose out of it. Dirk's eyes widdened as a large zombie standing nearly seven feet tall emerged. It was clad in black armor and stood several meters behind Plisken.

"PLISKEN! Behind you!"

Unsurprised at the knifes miss Plisken had been moving to flank around the leader only to be knocked aside with the scimitars flat side, as it clattered away after being discarded he could not resist a chuckle at the perverted sense of honour being displayed. At the mention of several opponents Plisken’s features turned in to a look of revulsion, “I’d of preferred it if you’d of kept the…” his words were interrupted by Dirk bellowing at him, with a leap and a lunge to the side he rolled off to the pits far side and saw the monstrosity flexing itself and shaking loose sand.

It was one of those times Plisken fancied himself as having less than good odds, then again he did still have a kilo of explosives about his person and a sidearm plus he was saving the world, the good guys don’t die often. The leader chose this moment to come for his person, shifting the dagger from his hands and making short jabs at Plisken to which the response was equally short reposts delivered from his feet or his own blade, and then the zombie stirred properly from its trance.

Decayed flesh visible in gaps of the black armour it smelled equally appalling, deciding enough was enough Plisken rushed forward constantly stabbing, thrusting and parrying the efforts of the leader now finding himself overwhelmed by a man with nothing to lose, “Always some, jerk off, know it all piece of shit, trying to run me through with bombs, bullets and now ZOMBINES! I’ve had enough of all this, I ain’t got nothing left because of punks like you! Now you gonna‘ die.” The anger coursed through his body, his thrusts and counter-thrusts interjected with abusive monologue all the while becoming more frenzied and faster in pace.

Then Plisken broke his intensity intermittently to fumble for an item upon his person, his eyes remained fleeting between zombie still caught in watching him and making circling moves to the leader now engaged in a true fight.

The leader smiled and barked something. The zombie stopped its advance and stood still. The leader turned back to Plisken, his dark eyes looking over the man.

"You seem a bit tired. Would you like the blade bitch to come in and help or take over? I am not really that tired at all? You want the bitch in or not?"

He gave Rikan a dismissive wave with his dagger.

"Kick his ass Plisken, before I kill it instead..." Rikan encouraged Plisken, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the leader.

"You can go to hell. If Plisken doesn't take you there, I'll give you the one way, first-class trip..."

Seizing his chance to do some damage whilst Rikan and the leader discoursed, Plisken launched another renewed offensive against leader whilst he waved to Rikan, ceasing the fumbling to focus his efforts he trotted straight at the leader left arm raised in a block whilst the right hung low about his waist, as he neared Plisken swung his right foot at the leader’s own leg and brought up the knife to slash at his arms.

In Plisken’s mind his knife should of connected with the leader’s arm whilst the creature tried to avoid being knocked over by the incoming foot, even if he missed Plisken planned to use his inertia and blocking arm to spin himself around and complete a boot to the head with his left foot. He also heard Rikan's encouragement, probably just given to make sure the fight would end with their victory, assuming that lumbering piece of offal stayed where it was, "I wouldn't want to let you get humiliated if Rikan tore your head off dread man."

The leader grunted as Plisken's knife cut his arm. He dodged another attack and back pedaled. He looked at the dark blood that came to the surface, a smile crossed his face. The man jumped out of the pit and smiled at Plisken.

"Let us see you against our Lord."

Dirk raised an eyebrow and turned to the massive zombie in the pit with Plisken. He then looked up as two of the black robed men appeared carrying objects in thier hands.

"You have gotta be fucking kidding."

The man tossed down a massive black shield of hard iron with the dragon symbol on it and a large black scimatar. There was a pause as the creature slowly bent down and picked them up. The zombie seemed to pick up its pace as it hammered the scimatar against the shield and attacked Plisken with a swipe to the head.

Letting a smirk cross his face as the leader scuttled away, “Run along dread man, this world isn’t for you no more.” Giving a short bow to the cage he turned, the smirk fell away, the zombie picked up its tools and immediately swung for his head. Ignoring the thought to freeze and fight he dived to his right and came to his feet in a clean roll, as he’d rolled the item he’d apparently been searching for had come lose.

A grenade. The clear stencilled characters of TH5521 on its side were visible to Plisken, as though some gift from god they were sharply clear, their meaning known only to a factory listing and perhaps Plisken.

The zombie had put a lot of force in its swing, failed swing Plisken reminded himself, slightly unbalanced and encumbered by its armour it had frantically spent a few seconds looking at its feet and then to the side, then finally spotted Plisken near the wall knife still futilely clutched at the ready. It lurched forward, scimitar swung back for another slash against his suddenly very vulnerable person, “Somebody better have a good idea, like getting your fucking ass down here!” Plisken sprung lightly from foot to foot and waited till the creature committed itself to a swing, then dived forward faintly catching the side of the shield against his midriff. Instead of neatly diving between the legs of the creature Plisken reached half way before being knocked in to the creature’s leg. Scrabbling away he considered now was a good moment for last ditch strikes, so he thrust the dagger hard into the creatures groin, right where a gap should be present.

Rikan watched the battle with an almost animalistic glint in her eyes as Plisken fought against the zombie. It was a cheap trick by the black men, but it only served to affirm that war was unfair.

She smiled broadly as Plisken made a shot toward the zombie's groin. It made her think back to Merrin and his treachery, as well as how she repaid him personally for his cruel malice.

She kept a discreet eye upon the leader of the black men, who stood in the shadows to the side. He was a coward, much like Merrin had been, for he hid behind his weapons, his troops rather than see the battle to an end. She slid her hand to her thigh, unlatching a small dagger she kept on the inside of her thigh. With a sudden movement, the dagger flew with spinning viciousness toward the leader's head...

The dagger drew closer to the man's head for the kill. At the very last second, the man's hand shot up and caught the dagger's handle and the tip of the blade stopped barely a milimeter from his head. His eyes turned to look at Rikan, then his whole head turned to follow. The man chuckled slightly and dropped the dagger on the ground.

This was his terf, he knew what to do and what to expect. The leader turned to watch the match.

******************************

Dirk edged closer to Rikan and whispered to her.

"Rikan, I hope you don't mind doing something that will spring us free. If you got another knife hidden somewhere on your body, get it close to your hand, move up to the door, try to lure the guard over. Maybe flash your tits and then drop him. He has the keys so we can bust outta here."

Dirk nearly recieved a suckerpunch, had it not been for Rikan noticing that the other guards were watching her. Instead, she gave him a glare and muttered under her breath, "I don't flash for anyone, pervert."

Then she smiled as a better idea came into her mind. She suddenly took hold of Dirk and swung him around toward the guard he had intended for her to flash. As he flew toward him, and just before she released him, she whispered, "Get the keys."

At the same time, she spun about and attacked some other guards, her blows landing ferociously and heavily against their faces and torsos.

The guards doubled over as Rikan's blows came through the bars. Several more guards rushed over and grabbed thier comrades and pulled them back a safe distance. As Dirk slammed into the bars, he was able to gently lift the keys from the guard before being knocked back into the pen.

The soldier fell on the ground and kept the keys hidden, he slid them into his pocket as the leader moved forward. He stood away from the pen, smart enough to keep away from a person like Rikan. He glared at her.

"You are strong now...but you will be submissive in a while. A nice play thing for me. The women we have taken from the towns are losing thier spark. I will take great pleasure in fucking you till the morning."

Arthas sat in the middle of the cage, a look of calm on his face. He was disgusted by the turn of events the journey had taken, disgusted at Dirk's suggestion of what Rikan should do, and disgusted at the leader's comment of what to do to Rikan. He laid back, somewhat sprawled out, humming to himself.

The knife plunged into the dead flesh, Plisken suddenly wondered if he was going to cause any kind of damage to a creature that was already dead and thus would keep trying to kill him, or worse eat him, until he cut it into little pieces. Tugging down on the blades handle he withdrew it from the sucking effect the flesh was having, rolling backwards he once again narrowly avoided being caught by a quick slash.

Plisken was forced to move right past the grenade, still sitting there with its stencilled letters, he weaved and ducked against the zombies quickening movements, several times he caught blows from the shield and the wounds mingled blood with sweat. As possessed as the zombie was Plisken was entering his own state of detachment, his thoughts became simpler, quicker and more defined, he was able to step out, to a degree, of his mind and continue fighting whilst also thinking of how to get that grenade and stick it right in that walking, lunging, stinking piece of offal.

The fighting by the cage was lost on him for the most part, he did hear the leader speak though and it was astonishingly clear as though he was standing beside him as he spoke, “You ain’t man enough to fight me you little bitch, I doubt you could get it up in front of Rikan.” His comment almost cost him dearly, the scimitar swung across his chest and the edge of its tip scored across his chest. Reeling away he clutched at the wound, not wanting to make another mistake he didn’t pause long enough to let the zombie strike again instead of found the grenade at his feet.

Once the grenade exploded, Dirk rammed the key home and unlocked the door. He bolted from the caged and rammed him knee into the guard, the men tumbled and the soldier rolled and grabbed a Para from the pile of weapons. The pistol barked twice, knocking over two of the guards into the pit. Dirk continued to fire and began sliding weapons to his group and chucked a rifle into the pit for Plisken.


The leader snarled and darted into the darkness.



Inside the pit, the zombie slowly stood, its legs mangled the creature stood unsteadly and looked down at Plisken and started to move for him again.

Rikan immediately burst into action, her well trained mercenary skills immediately aiding her as she gave a rapid chase to the leader. She scooped up a pistol as she ran, with the blade of her bracer gouging the dirt floor with considerable force. She ignored it, and kept her momentum.

She too disappeared into the shadows. The hunt was on, and she was well familiar with hunting in the dark. After all, she killed vampires on a regular basis...

With the door now open, Ruben decided it would be best to get out of the cage and take things into his own hands. This whole situation was a bloody mess and at this point Ruben didn't really care about the mission, he just wanted to get out alive and never return to this nation again.

One of the guards approached the cage door bearing a musket, obviously intent on launching several bullets into Ruben. Obviously Ruben had other ideas and so his the dagger within his right hand spiralled through the air until it slammed into the man's throat, causing him to gurgle and clutch at the wound as he went down.

A single bullet from his retrieved weapon finished the job. Looking down to the arena, Ruben decided he should probably help finish off that beast before it became a true problem.

"Hey Plisken, need some help?"

Arthas sheepishly stood up and began walking out of the cage, appearing unaware of what was going on. He drew his pistol and shot down another guard that was charging towards him and Ruben leaving the cage. He pulled out one of his bottles of wine and shot off the top with his pistol, putting that away and taking a swig while pulling out his MAC11/9. He didn't really care that his enemy wasn't human, after all, after killing people his whole life, many of them innocent, he wasn't that human either.

The zombie stood, its legs mangled and bleeding something distinctly bloodlike however the problem for Plisken was that it was still able to move, when he’d reeled away from the scimitar strike he’d found the grenade and placing his faith in explosives more than mere steel he’d launched the grenade and himself up to the zombie. As it advanced on him Plisken decided now was a good time to run like a mad thing, then he heard Ruben call out and so he replied, “Give me a fucking gun you blustering buffoon, does it look like I’m having a picnic down here?” The scimitar blade swung at him although the force behind it was limited by an unstable base upon which to stand, through the mounds of rotting flesh Plisken saw browned and blackened bones which didn’t look particularly strong.

He ran, ran and then swung his foot straight in to the zombies left kneecap, the noise was a sharp cracking followed by a splintering sound that was altogether lost on everyone except Plisken as the sounds of battle did sunder all.

Ruben laughed to himself as he watched Plisken's predicament.

"By the looks of things you're not doing too badly."

Drawing his pistol, Ruben took aim and unleashed several rounds into the chest of the massive zombie, distracting it for enough time to allow Ruben to grab one of the guns upon the ground and send it down to Plisken.

"Finish it off and let's get the hell out of here."

Not waiting for anything further Plisken caught the ungainly assault rifle, pulled back on the bolt and ducked down to avoid the shield as it tried to made contact, then he sprung back up as the zombies head came into view and bringing the rifle up to his shoulder he squeezed the trigger several times in short bursts till the magazine ran dry. Stunned by the blows the zombie was unable to respond, as the bullets continued to rain on its face some scored dangerous hits in the exposed flesh and those rounds worked their way into the back of its head.

Beating a hasty retreat, whilst the zombie still tottered, he held a hand up, “Get me out of this damn pit, it’s really cramping my style.”

As Rikan tore into the darkness, the leader suddenly appeared and swung his scimatar at her head. She ducked and delivered a punch to his stomach, the man dropped the sword and kicked her hand, knocking the pistol out of her hand into the blackness. Both started sparring, blocking punches and kicks, few hits were landed.

The man back flipped and stood a few feet from her. He smiled.

"Come a bit closer...I want to get you in a nice position for a fucking."


***************************************

Dirk now had a rifle in his hands and firing as quickly as he could at the enemy. He looked around, Rikan was gone. He blocked that from his mind and went to the edge of the pit and reached down. He grabbed Plisken and hauled him to the surface and thrust another rifle in the man's hand.

"Have a nice time?"

Gratefully accepting the offered hand, then turning an equally grateful look he found his own true rifle in his hands, “We’ll discuss hazard pay another time, what’s the plan Dirk?” Looking around he spotted one the black robes about to thrust one of those wicked looking knives in to Ruben’s back, with a snap shot he took the creature down and the knife clattered to Ruben’s feet, “We’re even now.”

Turning back to look at Dirk he impatiently waited for an answer to his original question, the wounds in his chest were beginning to tighten up and the acrid feeling of pain was seeping through his body with a vengeance.

Ruben didn't flinch as Plisken fired above him, dropping one of the black clad men. Calmly turning around, he noted the corpse and picked up the knife, placing it into his boot before holstering his pistol and picking up an assault rifle of his own. Cocked and fully loaded, Ruben returned his attention to Plisken.

"So we are."

Arthas walked about, the submachine gun in one hand and the wine in his other, drinking away at it like he was stranded in the desert for years. He heard the leaders words from in the darkness and frown a bit, walking towards the voice.

Dirk looked around, Rikan was missing. Where the hell did she run off to? Dirk checked his rifle before answering.

"We get the group back together and get the hell outta here. My best guess is that these fucks released the virus...God knows why. If we run for it...we can hit Creswell in about three or four hours and grab a car from the town and make it to the containment line by mid-morning. First thing first. Plisken remove your shirt, let me see your wounds."

“Get the fuck out of here man, Creswell is a death trap and we don’t have the ammo or the support to make it through without some asshole with a goddamn musket putting a piece of lead up our collective ass.” He was angry, his tone was rising in agitation and Plisken’s began stepping backwards and forwards uncertainly, “However, we ain’t got a choice so lets go find Rikan, forget the wounds Dirk I’ll make it out of here to take your money, I promise you.”

Pausing long enough he slapped a free hand on Dirk’s shoulder then turned to exit the chamber, rifle resting against his neck and boots scrapping on the floor intermittently, knocking the odd body part and all too many spent casings.

Rikan's face tightened into a scowl, but it was hardly noticeable in the darkness of the cavern. She thought for a moment before doing the unexpected. She stood straight, bringing a puzzled look to the leader.

"Well, if you want to fuck, all you have to do is ask."

She held her arms out to the side at an angle. She gave him a smile, "Well? Now's your chance. Just ask."

Dirk nodded, but he didn't agree with Plisken in the sense Creswell was a death trap. It was the only place they could make a run for.

"Lets go grab Rikan and Arthas."

**********************************

The leader cackled and pulled out a flintlock pistol from behind him and drew back the hammer.

"Women will always be the lesser race than men. I had my fill of the women and girls from the town. You should of seen the scientist's faces as we appeared and released thier virus. Goodbye."

A sharp crack shattered the silence, the leader's body twisted. Two more cracks sent him down on the ground. Rikan turned to see Dirk, followed by Plisken, Ruben, and Arthas appear. The leader tried to lift his pistol, but it fell from his hand.

"You....you all will..."

Dirk sent full burst into the man's face, blood and gore splattered on the ground.

"Yeah...I know die. Go to hell."

He looked over at Rikan.

"Mind telling me why you were gonna let him rape you and you wouldn't flash your tits to free us?"

Rikan looked over to Dirk with a sly grin upon her face.

"Haven't you learned by now that women are one of nature's most dangerous creatures?"

The bracer-blades opened up to their full length.

"I was about to show him the true meaning of rape..." she stated at long last with a smile. She looked down at the body, "Unfortunately, he couldn't 'keep it up' long enough."

Arthas stood there with a frown on his face, it mostly directed at Dirk, taking one last drink out of the shattered top of the wine bottle, leaving a little bit left in the bottle. Yawning slightly, he knelt down next to the leader and stabbed the wine bottle into the leaking nub that his head used to sit, the tip of the bottle pointing diwn his esophagus. He slowly poured the last of the wine into the leader's body.

Ignoring the mercenaries last rites for the leader he kicked the body hard in the ribs a couple f times, satisfied with the crack of a rib he looked at those around, “Just making sure he’s dead, so anyone care to join me in getting the fuck out of this place or are we going to find another hole to crawl inside?” He flashed a salesmen like grin at Dirk, full of false charm and amusement he added to it by cocking a thumbs up as well.

"No...we are getting the hell out of dodge before those bastards reform and attack."

Dirk ran like a demon with the group close behind him. The passage was tight and black, but a dim light was seen at the end of the tunnel. The group ran for a full ten minutes before bursting into the cold pre-dawn air. Dirk sucked it in, the smell of pine and dew refreshing him.

He let the group rest for several mintues before they headed down the mountainside and into a medow. Another half hour march landed them at a road, just over a mile away was Creswell.

"Alright...plan is simple. We go into Creswell and steal a truck and drive to the army. Should be there by early afternoon if all goes well."

Ruben wasn't phased by the run at all. Whilst he seemed to have a bad habit of getting stuck in these outrageous situations, he had always kept fit no matter what, knowing it was something he would always use.

He couldn't help but laugh at Dirk's words about getting back to safety easily. It was never easy, it was never that simple.

"We can try, but I guarentee you something will happen to make things much harder than we would hope for."

((OOC: Hmmmm, didn't see this for a while))

DWAR grabbed his rifle from a pile of weapons that had been discarded near by, 'luck' he thought as wiped a few clots of dirt that were stuck to it off. He ran with the others until they got within a mile of Creswell. When they stopped he looked at the skies and a saw nothing. He made a short whistle. Nothing. DWAR decided to speak up.

"At this point, considering the luck we have had, I'm sure that all of those....Bastards have heard about the death of their leader. I'm sure they have decided to fortify any and all escape routes. With that in mind, we shouldn't rush into the town, we should take it slowly and as concealed as possible. We should send groups to flank the town on either side, and one up the middle. Personally I think that the group that goes up the middle should arrive first to attract any attention, while the other two groups will be able attack the enemies from behind. I personally think myself and Arthas as a team would work well."

DWAR stood their and waited for the response from their 'leader'.

Dirk looked at Ruben as he took a drink of water from his canteen. The soldier smiled and gave a laugh.

"This trip wouldn't be complete without one more screw up."

Dirk turned to DWAR and listened. The man considered the idea. The group was small and the manuever would not be workable.

"No, look at us. We are too small to attempt that kind of manuever. If we had a platoon or company, I would give that a go. But with only about a squad, the groups would be too small and would easily be destroyed. We go in. The road is not flat terrain on the other side of town, its a dike and we will be exposed for a few miles cause that is the direction we need to go. Hopefully, all goes well and we can link up the 11th Infantry Division by late afternoon."

Dirk made sure a loaded magizine was in his gun. He lifted it and studied the town with his sights as best he could.

"Looks quiet. We go in low and fast. Stick close to the ground and stay off the road."

Dirk moved onto the grass, bent down and made a dash for Creswell.

As they all checked their gear and got ready to go, Arthas started talking to whoever was bored enough to listen. "That plan wasn't bad, although the whole town is a bit big, we're all some of the best. Maybe taking a portion of town would've been effective. Especially if we all made a big ruckus. Like Sun Tzu siad, where you're weak, appear strong. Well, Sun Tzu said alot here, that I think would be quotable here. But, I guess another headlong assault is going to happen." During this time, he reloaded his Mac and pistols and opened another bottle of wine, leaving one left, offering anyone a drink. He whispered to DWAR while giving his offer "But, if it wasn't for the fact the bastard is paying us well, I'd mutiny and adopt your plan." a slightly twisted smile on his face.

The scenery was tranquil, its refreshing cleanliness after the fierce fighting in the chambers struck Plisken as suddenly as the scimitar blow to his chest, “Creswell is going to eat us alive, we’re small in numbers and even if we can take those robe wearing freaks in a one on one situation, walking through a goddamn city in the hope of getting some vehicles is going to get us killed. I say we go through rough country, the ground is tougher and the route is longer but I’d personally rather be fighting in terrain I know I can at least dig into, unless you folks fancy battling it out in houses and shopping malls?”

Dirk was moving off, Plisken simply stopped and watched his back, then he turned to look at the others, “Course… maybe you don’t want us to make it out Dirk, that’s a lot of money your government would be paying out and there’s always the risk one of us would talk, doesn’t seem too far fetched that getting rid of us all, now that the job is done, would solve those two problems.”

Dirk stopped and turned to Plisken, he didn't like what the man was saying one bit. He knew his goverment had every intention at paying the mercenaries. The problem was to convince the mercs that they were going to get paid.

"You will be paid Plisken. My goverment will not want you dead unless you spill the beans. President Kimble will make an announcement when the time is right. I can say that there are no Simatarian troops in that town waiting for us. Now, are you going to come with me to get out? Or are you going to wander around till you find your own way out?"

Plisken nodded, even smiled at Dirk in a warm enough fashion though the warmth never reached past his cheeks, “You think wandering about in the woods is a bad idea compared to doing exactly the same thing inside a city where every window could have one of those musket shooting, sword wielding bastards? If you say we’ll be paid though, I’ll follow you just about anyway, unless you’re really going to get me killed in which case I’d just as sooner shoot you then let that happen.”

He looked to the other mercenaries, trying to catch their views and opinions in uncontrollable shifts of their eyes and spasms of the facial muscles, he didn’t get to stand and stare for long though.

Arthas started laughing, sitting down against a tree and watching the whole thing play out. Of course the GS government could be just planning their deaths at the end to welch out on payment. Hell, it could just be one big conspiracy to eliminate all the top mercs in the world. That's what it is about to be a freelancer, you take what jobs are offered to you, and try not to think beyond it. It was quite juvenile how Plisken was acting, which was probably providing the humor for Arthas. "We could just do what I always would plan back in my mob days..." he smiled nostalgicly. "...we could always just take to the rooftops, that is, if everyone is good on their longjumps." There was a sarcastic tone to his voice, so it was hard to tell if he was serious.

Rikan sighed as she listened to the others debate over what to do. Finally, she stood, the bracer-blades extraction silencing the group. She looked toward the buildings in the distance.

"Well, you can sit here, and wait for them to snipe you off, or you can take the fight to them. Personally, I'm going to kick some fuckin' ass."

She began walking toward the town, scanning the area carefully. It reminded her of her hunts for the vampires, yet at the same time she knew this enemy was not damned. It would be easier to take these pawns out.

Where are you, big boy? she asked silently to whomever was leading this battle against them. Of course only the howling wind answered her.

Dirk sighed at the mercs, they were getting paranoid. He was about to say something when the sound of Rikan's blades silenced him. The soldier stood and followed her, he quickly brought himself a few feet to her left. As they moved forward, Dirk scanned the windows to reveal nothing. He didn't bother to look behind him to see if the others were following.

Dirk slammed himself against the wall of one of the outmost buildings as Rikan did the same across the street. Dirk looked into town, nothing. Bits of paper, dirt, and leaves floated through the streets. A small bus sat five blocks away, near the town square.

He moved slowly down the street and stopped. The soldier took cover behind a mailbox, not from the strange men, but from a zombie slowly staggering through the streets. Dirk brought his rifle up and scanned more of the town through the sight, he counted at least fifteen zombies. He keyed his mic and there was a soft crackle at the other end. He heard Plisken's voice saying something.

Dirk made one last peek around the mailbox before talking.

"Plisken, you have nothing to worry about. Just zombies in the town. They haven't smelled or seen us yet. Come on in, slowly. There is a bus near the town square, hopefully we can steal it without alerting them till we gun the engine."

DWAR looked at the path ahead, shrugged his shoulders, and said aloud for the others to hear.

"Anything we do at this point is suicide, so what does it matter."

He picked up his rifle and whistled, a screech followed and Zephyr swooped in landing on his atm, and was guickly transfered to his shoulder. He pulled out a cigarette and set in his lips, not lighting it. He followed the others to the town.

Keeping out of the petty arguments over payments and conspiracies, Ruben checked all his weapons and gear to be sure he was more than prepared to defend himself when the time came. With all that in order, he left the bickering mercs behind and followed the pair of Dirk and Rikan.

Ruben remained silent as he followed Rikan along the side of a building, keeping his eyes open for any sign of enemy whether it be zombie or cult member. Opening a link on his radio, Ruben spoke to Dirk.

"What do you think about that bus? It would be pretty sterdy and good to plow through all these bastards."

Arthas was one of the last few to start moving, but instead of walking, he started sprinting, asking for a cigarette from DWAR on his way past. Taking high strides like he was in a hurdles race and lightly humming, going for the closest building and grabing onto the gutter system, climbing up the side quietly and swiftly and up onto the roof. He pulled out his binocular-goggles and slid them on. He whispered into the mic of their headsets "Alright my fellow Spartans, I can see Thermopylae, and I don't see the Persians yet."

Ruben laughed at the attempted reference to Greek history.

"It was the Spartans, not the Trojans."

At the historical references he suppressed a smirk of superiority, his voice piece was unknowingly active and he muttered into it, “It was the Greeks and the Spartans and they were betrayed, then outmanoeuvred by a larger force. Sadly we may well become this nations Spartans.” Bringing his rifle to the fore he adjusted the sling, letting it drop to the smoothly only for him to bring it back up again.

When Dirk replied he thought back to the pit with that giant zombie, the creatures rotting insides still covered him in places especially its brains, “Just remember to shoot them in the head, Dirk, these things are dead after all.” Bringing up the rear he walked slowly, like a mouse in the pantry he remained alert for the inevitable soft crack of a musket or rattle of automatic fire.

Dirk keyed his radio. "That is what I was hoping for."

The soldier couldn't help but chuckle as Ruben corrected Arthas on his ancient history. He brought up his rifle again and took aim at a group of zombies apparently feeding a hundred feet away. He moved his eye to the extra sight situated on top of the G36's primary sight. He only saw for a brief second through the horde of corpses seven black robbed bodies being torn apart. Dirk brought down his rifle.

"Okay boys and girls, whatever control thier leader had over the zombies...they apparently don't have. They are now the main course...lets not be dessert."

There was a moaning behind Dirk. He turned and fired at a zombie that had lumbered out of an alleyway. The bullet blew a chunk from the skull and crimson blood and gore splattered against the wall. Dirk turned and looked at the group that was feeding, they slowly stood and began to make thier way over.

"Oh shit they spotted us, get moving the the damn bus ASAP. First one hotwire the damn thing!"

With their cover blown, Ruben threw all subtleties out the window and broke into a dead sprint for the bus. A few rounds unleashed at the main pack of zombies managed to down one of them and slow a few of the others down. Almost halfway there now, Ruben keyed his radio.

"What direction are we driving this thing in?"

Dirk took off after the group, firing a few rounds at the zombies, none struck the vital head shot, but all slowed the corpses down slightly. He was the last to climb in.

"Drive us northeast Ruben. We should be able to link up with the 11th Infantry division in a few hours."

Dirk shut the door and broke one of the windows on it and kept firing.

After fiddling around with the wires relating to the bus ignition, Ruben smiled as the sweet sound of the engine roaring to life filled his ears. Making sure everyone was onboard, Ruben shifted the bus into gear and began swinging the big vehicle into the correct direction.

A few zombies attempted to get in the way of the roaring bus but were promptly ploughed down with ease and crunched under the large rolling tires.

"Alrighty, let's get the hell out of here."

Dirk lost his footing as Ruben's foot greeted the gas pedal. He stumbled in the tiny stairwell as the bus barreled over several zombies. I would hate to be this guy's driving instructor. Dirk regained his balance and stood. The smell of burning rubber was in thier wake, along with dead zombies and brass casings.

Four Hours Later

"Slow down Ruben."

The bus slowed to a stop just beneath the creast of a small rise. Smoke and the smell of burnt flesh greeted the noses of the group. Dirk climbed out of the bus and walked over the creast. Rows of barbed wire greeted him, corpses twisted in the coils, several burned and the earth was scorched; the work of napalm and flame throwers.

"HELLO!?"

"Who is that?"

Dirk looked around and spied a tall pill box made of sandbags and crates. A figure was behind a Browning M2 HB .50 machine gun. The young soldier stared at Dirk.

"Who are you?"

"Captain Dirk Wofle! 17th Airborne Division!"

"Are you infected?"

"No!"

"How many are there?"

"Myself and a few more."

"Go get them, see that path through the wire? Only place mines ain't put. You'll go through a examination when you get through."

Dirk nodded and turned back over the creast. He walked back down to the bus and smiled at the mercs.

"Okay, we are home free. Just a quick examination before you are debriefed and flown back to Clarence to board your planes to whereever you wish to go...and your last chunk of cash too."

Ruben grinned for the first time in this entire operation. He was finally getting the hell out of here and he was still alive. Before he stepped off the bus, Ruben dropped his clip and check there were sufficient rounds inside before replacing it and cocking it once again. He didn't want to get caught off guard by some zombie a few metres from freedom.

Happy that everything was in order, Ruben jumped off the bus and began a casual walk towards the friendly forces.

Taking the ample opportunity to catch some sleep whilst they sped away Plisken was woken not by the sudden halt, the rattle of spent casings as they were ejected or even the odd curse but rather by the gradual lack of noise, “When does the chef arrive, I could eat him and the menu?”

Unimpressed the others filed off the bus and he did as well, it was an impressive series of entanglements, well layered and about chest height in length, just as it should be and with those mines providing a helpful warning should anyo- he stopped his thoughts midstream, there wasn’t anything worth saving or anyone left in that town. Not now and not for a long time.

"How much do you think islands are going for these days? Small ones I mean, nothing lavish."

Dirk looked at Plisken. "If you found yourself one deserted and there is no claim to it, I think you can claim it for yourself...course you have to build everything."

The group was met on the otherside by a group of soldiers armed with G36Cs and wearing white bioharzard suits. The shuffled the group into a large pale blue tent structure. Rikan was taken to a seperate area for female privacy.

A voice came in over the PA system. "Deposit your clothing and gear in one of the baskets and proceed down the hall for examination. Your clothing and gear will be sterilizied."

Dirk undressed and piled his things into a basket and headed down the hall, his feet tingled from the cold metal of the floor. He went into a room and listened and obeyed the voice from the room's PA.

"Place your feet on the markers and hold your arms out, fingers spread. Close your eyes and take a deep breath and hold." Dirk closed his eyes and held his breath. His body felt warm for several seconds before he felt suddenly cold again. He didn't feel the prick in his arm from the needle injecting him with a serum, just in case. The needle retracted into the wall as the voice came on again. "You may relax and collect your things."

Dirk smiled and let the room. Shaking from the cold, he was glad to find his fatigues cleaned and sterilized for him. He left the tent through the other side and sat on a crate and waited for the mercenaries. It was another half hour before all emerged, he knew they were clean. If they werent, an alarm would have sounded and troops would rush in.

When the group got closer Dirk spoke up.

"Okay, here it is folks. I'm glad that you all came and helped out, the rest of your money is being transferred now. You have two options open. One, you can stay in Clarence for the rest of the day, go to the airport and leave. We have Gulfstreams waiting for you, one each. They will take you where ever you want. There is a Chinook for you. I must go and debrief the Joint Chiefs."

As Dirk passed Ruben he paused. "I suggest you leave now...and don't set foot in this country again. The soldier you knifed was from this unit and a few of his buddies recongize you. You make any trouble...you won't live. Just hop on the chopper and you'll be fine."

Dirk then turned and walked towards a waiting Humvee, he climbed in and it took off down the road. The quiet thump of blades was heard overhead as a Chinook landed several meters from the mercs. The back ramp opened and carted the mercs off to Clarence.

ooc: Okay, I would like everybody to please do a closing post for thier char to help wrap this up. I will post again to tie up everything. Thank you everybody, I know this was troubled..but I enjoyed it. Thanks, hope you did too

After going through the tedious checkup, Ruben emerged back in his civilian garb yet still holding onto the weapons. He'd noticed several of the soldiers had given him dirty looks and gathered that he's probably killed one of their buddies. Just happy to be over with this mess, Ruben approached Dirk to get the final debriefing.

Ruben nodded as Dirk confirmed his suspiscions. He had no intentions of hanging around at all.

"You won't see me again Dirk."

With that Ruben moved off into the chopper, ready to leave The Golden Simatar and never return.

Rikan followed the instructions to her decontaimination tent, and was soon stripped completely of all her belongings. She was reluctant at first to relinquish her bracerblades but she eventually let them take it upon threat that someone would die if they were tampered with.

Soon after that, she had pulled her clothes back onto her slim, slightly muscular figure, but now it was clean, and it fit her curves well. She grinned as she thought about how the boys would react to seeing her washed and in clean clothes. Undoubtedly, they would be taken back because their hormones did such things to them. She breathed in deeply for a moment as she emerged and was in the process of tying her hair back in a ponytail as she approached the rest of the mercenaries.

Finished, she looked to Dirk and shook her head. "Get your damn projects under control, because I won't guarantee I'll be here to wipe your ass of the shit you spill."

She turned and headed to her chopper.

The unpleasantly familiar feeling of decontamination, if mildly different from previous encounters, completed and mildly pleased to have some clean if overly sterile clothing he grinned at everybody, “Don’t it personal folks but if I ever see you again I hope it’s in a body bag. Dirk, drop me a line if you ever need a professional anytime.” He waved farewell, trundled off towards the helicopter and promptly fell asleep in an unwelcoming chair.

The only concern Arthas had through the decontamination process was whether it would spoil the last bottle of wine he had. He sure hoped not. Once through with it, he came back out looking just like he had going into this mission, his mind thinking back to the hotel room, where they all had sat around the table, the music lightly playing, everyone getting to know each other. Oh how short the party had been. He ran to the mess tent and came back with a pack of dixie cups, setting them down on a folding table with the best bottle of wine he had, a particularly bittersweet wine from his own homeland. A taste perfect for the mood he was in.

He popped the cork straight up into the air, flicking his wrist back and catching it. After spreading out some cups, he poured the wine into each of the cups, making it look like some picnic. He gestured to the table at each of the fellow mercs, offering them one last moment in honor of what they'd done, but would not be credited for. Soon after, he'd be the last to leave, he'd fade into the shadows with the fortune he had earned in the currency of his choice, which was whatever had the highest value against others. As the helicopter slowly lifted into the sky, Arthas thought that maybe he'd have a decent night's sleep tonight. Maybe.

As DWAR emerged from the beaten up van, he looked to the skies and made a whistle. Several seconds later a screech came as a reply, followed by the large bird swooping onto his shoulder. DWAR stepped into the tent, handed Zephyr to one of the decontamination officials, and stripped his clothes revealing a heavily scarred body. He stepped through the process of sterilization, and redressed himself. He stepped out of the tent and brought his arm up for the bird to step on it. He started stroking the birds feathers as he walked past Arthas's little 'picnic.' He bummed a cig off of one of the soldiers and commenced smoking it. When he saw Dirk he said nothing, a well trained assassin holds no emotions for anything but the job and his tools for the job. DWAR stepped into the helicopter and waited for it to leave.