Advancing (Part 3)

[tweezers 1,034]

Crackle (Part 1)

Crackle (Part 2)

 *

 

James staggered into the shaft hidden in the middle of an earthy bank that served as the headquarters of the Blacksmiths. He half fell, half walked down the stairs into a steel door set in the earth and banged his fist on the cold surface, almost dead with exhaustion. The last thing that he remembered before he hit the ground was the door scraping open and a gasp of shock from above him.

                                                                                       *

Normally, half dead people falling at her feet was something that Sophie was used to, being the expert at martial arts that she was. However, when she hadn’t actually done anything to them, she tended to get a little panicky.

 

‘What the-Luke, help!’

‘What is it? Soph, put that gun away before someone ge- James!’

 

Luke Bender pushed past Sophie and hauled the limp body up from the floor. ‘Oi, Dan, get the med kit out!’ he shouted. He pulled James across the small but cozy room and deposited him on a couch in the corner.

Another two people came galloping through a small doorway in the middle of the far wall. A long haired girl wearing a faded old T-shirt stopped next to Luke. ‘Who is he?’ she asked with her eyes wide open.

‘An old friend, Sarah’ said Luke grimly. He grabbed the hand that was hanging off the couch onto the floor and felt for a pulse. ‘He’s got a pulse, but he’s going to need patching up. Bob, where’s Dan? Did you see him on your way here?’.

 

A tall floppy haired guy answered.’ Yeah we passed him. He said something about the med kit and went towards the kitchen’.

At that moment, another person entered the room. ‘I got it. What’s the trouble?’ asked a tubby, round faced guy as he stretched his arm out and passed the kit to Luke.

‘This guy just collapsed onto my feet’ said Sophie. She was pale and seemed to have trouble getting the words out.

At that moment James stirred.

                                                                                 *****

Opening his eyes showed him an unfamiliar room and lots of brightly coloured shapes all around him. James decided to keep them closed. A sharp jab in the arm had woken him .He tried to move it, but it seemed to have been glued to whatever he was lying on.

 

Later, much later, he decided to give opening his eyes another go. He found that now everything was in  sharper focus, and that he could look around without everything leaping at him. He was lying in a bed, straps around his wrists and ankles fastening him to it. A girl with large brown eyes and a crop of black hair was sitting in a chair near the only doorway, wearing a look of concern on her face.

 

‘W..Water’  was the first word that came out of his mouth, as his senses caught up with him and he realized that his mouth was completely parched.  

 

The girl scrambled out of her chair and reached for a glass of water on a small table next to him. Almost apprehensively, she said ‘Ok, tip your head back a little and don’t struggle’. Half wondering why she was afraid of him he did as he was told and soon was feeling decently hydrated. He looked at her again. ‘Is hello a conversation starter around here?’ he queried and was rewarded with a half smile from her. ‘I suppose so’ she said. ‘How are you feeling?’

 

‘A little tied up. Also wondering why I’m tied up.’

 

She looked apprehensive again. ‘Hang on, I’ll bring someone who can explain that better than me’. Before he could reply, she had vanished, only to return half a minute later with an average height guy with long hair tied back with a bandanna. ‘James! So you finally woke up eh?’ Luke said with a smile on his face. He came up to the bed and undid the straps that were fastening him down.

 

James sat up slowly and stretched his arms.’ Luke, it’s good to see you again’ he said.

 

‘And you’ he replied.’ But why did you collapse against our door yesterday? And where are Ben and Alice?’

 

The events of the past few days returned to James. He shivered and clasped the side of the bed.

 

‘We got ambushed Luke. The alarms went off but they came at us from behind. I got hit. And Ben and Alice….Luke...they’re dead. Both of them. They were hunted down and I…I should’ve been there. But I screwed up and now they’re gone.’ James rested his head on his palms, his fingers clenched into his hair.

 

Luke stared sadly at him for a moment. ‘James, do you know why you were strapped in? Last night when you woke up you were thrashing around screaming their names. We had to take your gun away because you would’ve shot us, or yourself. James, I know what Ben and Alice meant to you. I know that given the choice, you would’ve put yourself in front of a gun to save them. None of this was your fault and you can’t blame yourself for any of it.’

 

James didn’t move. He didn’t say a word.

 

But Luke’s words didn’t mean a thing to him, nor did the soft arm that was around his shoulders, put there by the black haired girl. He knew that it was his fault. If he had been a little more attentive, more alert, they would still be here. But he hadn’t and now they were gone.

He promised himself something that day. He promised himself that he would never let anyone down again. He would never forget his friends. He would hunt down those who took away his life.

 

And he would kill them.

                                                                                 ***

 

James raced through the corridors of the factory, heart pounding, and sweating from everywhere it was possible to sweat. His recently repaired Mark II Hornet skidded slightly as he took the corner at high speed, Bob and Sarah right on his tail. His turret was still warm from the shots he had fired before turning and running. While he navigated through the black floors and white walls, he wondered how on earth they had got into this situation.

 

                                                                                  ***

 

It had been four months since he had collapsed in the Blacksmiths doorway. In that time, he had lived  and fought alongside them. He had also got to know them better and was now an accepted part of the team.

Their leader was Luke. He knew James from the time they had been in training to join the army, and though they had been separated for the past few years, they had both been doing the same things to fight against the government.

 

Luke’s brother was Jack. He was a bright, upbeat, techy guy who had been in a wheelchair since an attack on a convoy had gone wrong and both his legs rendered useless. He was now the one who gathered intel from a series of well placed associates and occasionally hacking the officials systems with an ancient laptop. He still rode in Luke’s upgraded Hunter when they went into battle.

 

Dan was the general mechanic, the one to go to when their tanks needed fixing up. He was the one who had earned them the name ‘Blacksmiths’ by being able to repair their tanks with the aid of a forge and some hammers.

As a result, most of the metal on them was blackened, but it was stronger than the usual shielding.

 

Sophie was the close range expert. As she knew a wide variety of martial arts, and could be extremely stealthy when she wanted to, she was usually the one who took point during raids that required going under the radar. She also had a sneaky crush on James, though she had never told him that.

 

Bob and Sarah were the teams two accepted lovebirds. They had met when Luke had organized the team, and ever since then they had been together. It was to these two that James felt the closest, and even in combat, whether on foot or by tank they made a flawless team, which meant that whenever an attack was going on they immediately grouped up and took out anything and everything that stood in their way.

                                                                                        

Today was a routine attack on a Wasp factory that had recently sprung up. Jack had poked around and found the best time to attack, when the security was at its lowest and the conditions for attack optimal. They had successfully taken out the first guards and had proceeded to the center and planted a bomb.

 

And then they had heard the muted roar of something dangerous charging towards them. 

 *

 

Home (Part 4)

[GoldRock 6,165]

Bump. Great series so far!

[ToHoYoNTaDa 1,147]

Nice!

Good Luck!

[NERF836 202]

Another gud one