[A02]
Chapter 2
“……………..ake…………………ru……….ey………..co…………!”
Muffled… like some sort of muffling sound… it annoyed him. It was faint at first, unrecognizable, but steadily grew as it became more and more audible as words. He couldn’t fully understand it though, but the voice sounded as one he knew. He looked about, but darkness was all he could see, not even the hand he held up before him was visible, but he had felt someone take hold of it.
“Lan………et……….ave …to ru……….!”
That’s when he saw it… a face…. HER face…. Looking down to see she gripped his hand tightly. Then he noted the panic on her expression, shear terror as she appear to be hanging from her hold of him. He braced himself immediately standing firm as he felt the weight of her pulling him downward between the open door… It made no sense to him, how he could be standing upright but she, nearly fully through the door seemed to be falling into it... into black... He turned pulled on her as he forced himself to step backward, his pulse quickening, his breathing becoming rasped by the second, his body being bulled against his strength.
"Lance! Lan..........me!"
Turning to look at her, to see if he could identify her, he saw that what it was, what ever the darkness that pulled the both of them, was crawling along her body, engulfing her in ribbons of dark mist. More than half her body was covered before he fixed his gaze to her face. He shouted at her, but he couldn’t hear his words, but he knew them, he knew the words he spoke, but no matter how he shouted them, he could not hear it. The mist, the darkness, began to grow over her head and face as she frantically screamed words at him... her grip... his grip... suddenly she was covered in it, being swallowed-
"LAAAAANCE!"
His eyes bolted open and quickly shut them from the pain of light. he dried to turn to his side but the pain that shut up through every pour of his body was intense. He began to cough violently. A pair of hangs grabbed him by his coat front.
"Lance! Oh shit hey get a medic over here!" The man shouted.
Lance, squinting now, had to really focus to see the man's face more clearly. "Brad?"
The soldier looked down at him, as the medic arrived beside him. "Don’t move," came the medic's voice. Lance looked at him, knowing who he was but couldn't remember his name. The medic tore at Lance's right pant-leg before turning to Brad. "This is going to hurt so I need you to pin him down." Brad did so, and the pain that shut through Lance then was almost to much to bare. He gave an ear splitting scream as he was dragged forward a bit. "Okay he's free, but keep him pinned."
"What the hell are you doing to me?!" Lance shouted as glared through tear filled eyes.
The medic pulled from his bag a brilliant colored bottle and popped the top off. "Hold him" He poured a shimmering clear liquid into a gash Lance had no idea he had, and Lance, in reaction, nearly blacked out from the agony. Felt like something was moving with his flesh, shifting and crawling, a sensation he had felt before... one he especially feared. Lance was able to gaze down at his injury, watching in a mixture of fascination and horror as some of his flesh began to regenerate. Both Brad and the medic stood him up right before one of his arms was thrown around medic's neck and shoulders for support. "That one potion wont heal you enough to stop the bleeding, but it will be slowed for a while. It has a small mixture of Regen in it so your wound will heal over time, now c'mon we gotta get you out of here."
Lance looked around, noticing how odd the room looked and nearly tripped over a ceiling arc. They were upside down, or at least the room was, but Lance was having a hard time making sense of it. "Where the hell are we?"
"Wonderland." the medic replied.
"Fuck!" Lance retorted more to himself. Why he had come here was a reason-... Her face flashed before him again. He concentrated on it to keep it in mind, but was lost to him when his name was called. "What?"
"Duck," the man replied as he helped Lance through the destroyed observation shield.
What greeted Lance's sight, once he realized he stood on the front hull of the ship, made his legs give way, causing him to fall to the floor before the medic could secure him. Debrief.... everywhere.... bodies, limbs... all scorched... even the ship itself seemed to bleed smoke. He had spotted directly next to him, half the face of one of the navigators.... half her face... He scurried backward in panic as the medic collected him, bringing Lance to his feet. "What the fuck happened?" Lance asked in a harsh hushed voice, looking beyond the carnage that surrounded them. Everything was white; the forest, sky, even the lands far into the horizon was white, as if all the color in the world were removed. Though everything had a slight shadow to it, and is the only reason Lance was able to tell one object from another.
"We're trying to figure that out," the medic responded. "But we were definitely attacked from both outside the ship and inside by an unknown enemy. There are only a handful of survivors."
They had approached what looked like a cliff at first sight before noticing that it was a flat tree top instead. Lance had forgotten how different this world was from all the others. They stepped on to it, feeling the slightest sinking of their weight onto the leaves. Another soldier had come out the brush to greet them.
"Derrick!" said a very gorgeous looking female soldier. "Bring him this way, is he the only one you've found?"
"Yeah," Derrick answered. "Though he's badly injured, get me the bandages. Are there any potions left?"
Lance had toned the two soldiers from his hearing, not because he intended to, but due to the fact of the wounded around him. His chest tightened as he took in all the people who may not survive before help could arrive. There were brutal injured soldiers laid amongst civilian survivors, men, women, and even less children were in a despair of pain and hopelessness. He turned his head to see a man doubled over a small child surrounded by soldiers who were trying to revive him, though after a moment, the boy's body went still, and the supposed father whelped loudly. It was a sight Lance regretted to have witnessed and it left him with a sickening feeling. Vomit began to dance in his stomach and throat as he was sat down near a ledge.
The female soldier had brought Derrick a role of tape saying "Its all we have left."
"Thanks Mai," he said as he wrapped Lance's leg tightly with the tape, instructing him not to move it much, then proceeded to hand him a strip of film. "Put this over your eyes so you wont go blind."
Two soldiers appeared from the brush of tree limbs from the direction of the ship as Derrick went over to greet them. Lance lowered his head into his hands wishing he weren't here; here in this God-forsaken land slowly bleeding out of his leg, surrounded by death, carnage, and utter hopelessness. He waited a moment while the swirls of colors in his vision subsided when her face appeared to him... Fear... panic... her honey colored eyes wide with horror...
"What you mean?" Lance over heard Derrick ask, a little louder than he had probably intended to. "You're we cant get a comm. link with anyone?"
"What I’m saying," began a soldier Lance had not seen before, "is that unless we can find the right equip on this world to repair the damages to our communication equipment, we're fucked."
"That’s also assuming what ever those silver looking things are, don’t kill us all first." Brad cut in.
"Seriously, what the hell are those things anyway?" It was the second soldier who spoke this time. "They're not Heartless, but damn....!"
The huddle of soldiers turned to face Lance. "So you gonna tell us or what?" Brad demanded, looking frustrated.
"I don’t know, I've never seen one of what ever it is you're talking about." Lance said defensively.
"How could you not have seen them?" This came from a man who sat by the far ledge of the tree top. Questions and opinionated protests were shouted toward Lance as he glared at everyone.
"Not one of those things breached the deck, which is where I was at the time of the attack!" Lance shouted, definitely defensive now.
Everyone became alert when the radios the soldier’s carried screeched sounds all at once just as the sounds of rapid gun fire reached their ears. The wounded, all paranoid and terrified, began to rise to their feet, their eyes searching for any sign of danger. "Everyone please remain calm and remain seated!" Brad shouted for everyone to hear as he reached for his radio. "This is Echo 6, what's your position?"
".............. fall back......... cant.................. too many of them!"
Lance's heart began to race as panic started to ensue amongst the survivors. Those who were able, rose to their feet as if preparing to depart immediately, even though both Derrick and Mai tried to keep everyone calm and seated. Lance himself was getting to his feet now, bracing himself on a branch. It snapped under his weight, and he nearly tumbled off the edge of the tree top, his bifocals nearly falling from his face. He steadied himself, fitting his glasses to his face when he saw something move, down below in the brush and foliage of the forest floor. He tried to focus on what he saw, but it was difficult for him to tell amongst the white of everything around him. Leaned closer as if to see better when-
His heart skipped a beat as he felt something grab him from behind. He jolted upright, lost his footing and, in a blind panic, grabbed at the closest thing to him which happened to be Mai's shirt front. "What the hell are-!?" She shouted at him just as...
They both fell over, tumbling through lower tree tops and falling through thick layers of moss, both of them landing on their backs. For a moment he was winded, taking a moment to regain his composure when he suddenly realized he was on the ground floor. Panic caused him to jolt to his feet only to fall into a near by hedge as pain rocketed up his leg. The fall had gashed his leg open, the injury which had almost completely healed no gushing blood. Lance shout in pain as his slammed his fist against the ground, his body stiff, his leg locked. His eyes darted around, remember he saw something moving down here, and was sure it would come for him. He tried again to stand when a hand grabbed at his shirt front, hauling him up and slamming him hard against a trunk.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Mai hissed at him through clinched teeth, her small dark brown eyes narrowed as if to burn holes into his skull. This had to have been the first time since being in this situation that actually paid a bit more attention to her features. She looked to be some sort of Asian, her shoulder-length jet black hair pulled back into a pony tail. “You could have killed us!”
“I saw something down here,” Lance tried to explain as he began looking around, peering over her shoulders. It looked like one of those things that attacked the ship!”
“The things you claim you hadn’t seen?” She mused angrily, jerking him to his feet.
Lance fought to hold back a scream when he put his weight on his injured leg. “I saw a glimpse of one, but that was all!” He doubled over, holding his leg just above the gash.
“Shit…” Mai studied his leg on one knee for a moment before glaring up at him in thought.
“I’m sorry, I panicked.”
“Shut up.” Mai pulled a dark green thin bottle from her one of her top pockets. Lance knew it was Regen, and at this point, that was good enough. He braced himself for the pain that would… He fell over, landing on his back, his body going stiff as he held back the blood curdling scream he heard- He looked up at the place where they both had fallen from as the sounds of screams and gunfire rang through the air. He could see people trying to escape over the tree tops, one of them losing footing and plummeted to the ground landing with a crunching sound that wrenched Lance's composure. "Shit!" Mai exclaimed as she drew Lance's right arm over he shoulders, an arm around his waist and half dragged him into the thick of the forest floor. She had her rifle in her free hand, using it to brush shrubs from their path.
Lance's eyes were everywhere at once, frantic, trying desperately not to become hysterical as the memories of his past experience here flooded his vision... yellow eyes all around him... His attention returned abruptly when he was snatched to the side and thrown half down into a large fern, Mai's hand roughly pressed over his mouth. He started to protest when he noticed how intently she gazed through the leaves. Lance attempted to lean forward to gaze at the thing just approaching from the path ahead. It looked almost like a man to him, but only... no face... but a giant mouth... a leg trap?.. lights dancing down the dark stripes on the side of it's body... Mai pointed her rifle at it, the laser placing a red dot at the center of it's chest. She fired, one shot and the creature was jolted backward off it's feet, falling to the ground in a furious spasm.
"C'mon!" Mai shouted as she yanked on Lance's arm, pulling it over her shoulders and half ran forward with him limping beside her.
Lance hadn't noticed that several of the ship's survivors no ran past them as the sounds of gunfire echoed closer to them. He turned is head to see that several soldiers with just a few a handful of yard behind them, firing at the swarm of leg trap mouthed creatures. There was screaming, screeching, and the yell of a 'FRAG!". Lance had no idea what the word was supposed to mean, nor was he particularly caring until a loud bang and the force of aftershock pushed him over, falling atop of Mai. She cursed, screaming at him to get up and run as she turned to her side, her rifle spitting searing hot shells toward him. Even though he tried to stand, just the sound of the weapon so close to him pierced his concentration, causing him to dizziness and constantly falling to his knees, bursts of pain erupting throughout his wound each time. He made it to his feet on the forth try when a civilian had come to his aid.
"Shit!" Lance heard behind him, the he didn't recognize. "These fucking things wont die!"
"Just keep them back another minute or two," came another voice, "An armed light cargo ship is coming!"
"Well where the fuck is it?"
Lance and the man he slumped over followed the remaining few civilians to the very edge of the kingdom where signal smoke had been spent just on the other side of the city gatehouse. Lance looked up at it as he was led to a stone bench to rest. Only a few soldiers stationed themselves around the perimeter of the rendezvous around the survivors. Gunfire was loud and prominent as it seemed to steadily creep closer to their position. Lance looked up at the smoke, noting how vibrant the colors appeared against the sheer white surrounding. It was then that he... Lance had to blink a few times... This place, as he remembered, was abnormally active with commutes and bystanders carrying out they're tasks and errands. Carriages usually flowed along the street and tall cad knights patrolled each corner. The people, all of them from what Lance could see, just stood were they were, eyes shut, more out of calm than forcefulness, and their bodies still. He noticed the other civilians starring around at them. "Are thy asleep?" he heard one person ask. "I think they could be dead," answered another. "Like in that one movie."
A soldier approached a card knight near the gatehouse they entered. "Soldier you must summon-...." Though the soldier stopped his question. From where he sat, Lance couldn't tell if the knight was actually breathing or not. Close by him, he spotted another soldier waving his hand in front of a woman whose eyes were open, but starring at the soldier, her expression completely void of any semblance of emotion or thought. The soldier waved his had in front of the woman's face receiving no reaction what so ever, even snapping his fingers close to her face, accidentally flicking her nose and she hadn't so much as blinked.
Brandon came over to Lance, coming to stand before him and asking, "Any idea of what the hell happened here?"
Lance responded with an expression just as dry as his retort. "Does it look like I know?"
"Brandon eyed him then. "What about those man-trap things?"
"No," Lance answered, this time tiredly and sincere. "This is my first seeing them-"
A soldier just at the road junction began firing around the corner of a building screaming "We got hostels!"
"Shit cant we get a break!?" Brandon cursed, positioning himself just to the side of the defending soldier and began firing his weapon as well. The remaining soldiers left their posts to round several other buildings, all of this shouting obscenities as they raised and fired their weapons. Brandon to the soldier at his side and shouting loud enough to almost be heard over all the gun fire. "You get these civilians into the building here now, and cover any rear exits!" the soldier did as instructed as he began to usher the survivors into the bakery before them. Lance himself had been half dragged inside, the door being firmly shut shortly after 5 other soldiers entered in after them. They were cramped in the shop and the everyone but the soldiers raided the shelves and counters for food. Lance, still having a difficult time standing, started to pushed his way through the forty or so people to the far wall when he first felt, then heard the rumbling sound of dual pulse engines. He tried and failed to push his way to store-front window, though ever from where he stood he can clearly see and hear the discharge of phase cannons. He heard the sounds of explosions and heavy gun fire, both of which reassured him he just might survive this. In fact, his attention was so focused on the window that he hadn't noticed that a third of the people in the bakery had been ushered outside. He followed, mindfully hesitant but followed the person in front him to the street where a mid-sized transport unit had landed, only to see behind it that many more ships had arrived, most of them small and fast... models he that were almost car shaped, and he new them to be Galactic Federation ships. They were all firing into the forest and the bulk of them making constant turns around the crash site.
"Get on! Get on!" A soldier shouted at them, ushering the survivors onto the transport ship.
The shouts of 'being saved' and other pronounces alike were collectively made between some of the passengers. Even as Lance was being hastily fastened into a seat, he couldn't help but sigh loudly, feeling as if he had only just now began to breath again. His eyes closed as the ship rocked and rumbled as it lifted from the ground, all he could think at that moment, as the events of the last hour or so flashed before his mind's eye like fast-forwarding recording, was that... he was never coming back here...