Cherry Blossom: Revisited Chapter 2 - (09/06/2008)
Moving right along... ^_^
Title: Cherry Blossom: Revisited (chapter 2/?)
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R. And not for the usual reason, either. ;)
Comments: I love it when my fics zoom right along. ^_^ Don't worry, the title will eventually make sense. (And I haven't actually forgotten about Parallax, I just want to focus on this one right now while it's flowing, you know?)
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.', Angela Robinson does. Though if I had my way, there would have been a sequel or two by now. ;)
The village was deserted.
What was even more annoying was the utter lack of anything resembling a clue as to what had happened. They'd all seen the aftermath of a supervillain raid before, whether for slaves to carry out manual labor, revenge, or simple maliciousness. None of them looked like this.
Amy didn't understand it. Unless someone had come back and cleaned some things up, while leaving enough of a mess to still know something had gone wrong - unlikely, but not entirely impossible, she supposed - the only conclusion she could draw was that the natives had left of their own accord. But that still left the question of where they'd gone, let alone why they'd departed their homes in the first place, leaving most of their belongings behind...
She shook her head. This wondering was getting her nowhere. If the village was secure, it was time for them to move on. She headed back to the center of town to rendezvous with the others.
"All right, people," Max began once they were all assembled. "None of us expected it to be so easy as to just walk in and immediately catch Black Dragon napping or something. This island's only so big, and he's got to be here somewhere. From what we know about the geography, if he's followed his usual pattern of underground bases, the best place for him to dig in would be around the bluffs along the north-eastern edge of the island." Which, given that they'd landed at the southern tip, meant they had some walking to do. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can get the hell out of here."
Because while nobody wanted to admit it, the empty village was creeping them all out. Even Max.
"Let's move out."
There were several paths to choose from, but it was impossible to tell which had been used the most of late. So they picked the one that seemed to be heading the most northeast and started out.
The worst thing, Amy decided, was how utterly normal everything seemed. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought she was on an uninhabited but otherwise gorgeous tropical island. It wasn't like she wanted to be finding bloody and mangled corpses everywhere while the gray sky rumbled ominously overhead, but somehow the sunny, beautiful day was making it worse.
Bad things were not supposed to happen in places like this, and especially not on days like this.
They moved down the path, weapons out, eyes flicking to every single sound. It was nerve racking, frankly. Max, who was in the lead, had taken out one of the DEBS' newest toys, a PDA that also served as a motion detector. Unfortunately, the trees and vines of the jungle that surrounded them made that next to useless, similarly obscuring any readings the infrared sensors might have given her.
Still, though, it did at least increase their chances of seeing someone coming, at least a little.
And every little bit helped.
After about ten minutes of walking, Max ordered them to halt. She stared down at the ground, frowning, and the others followed suit to discover the path ahead of them was covered with footprints. Oddly, from the look of it, a large group of people had crossed the path, moving from one part of the jungle to another. The grasses and ferns on either side had been trampled, making it obvious both which direction they'd come from and where they'd gone.
And neither was along the path.
Not to mention... Unless Amy was very much mistaken - entirely possible, as she wasn't the best at reading tracks in the DEBS - one set of footprints had been left by someone moving a lot faster then the others Maybe by someone running for her life?
Di?
She exchanged a look with Max, who was clearly wondering the same thing. "Which way do we go?" Because while they needed to find Black Dragon, they also needed more information on what was going on, and they could hardly just ignore any civilians that might have escaped. Not to mention finding the woman who had drawn them to the island in the first place.
Max looked unhappy with what she was about to say. "I think we're going to have to split up. Bradshaw, Matthews, check out that direction, see where they came from," she said, gesturing off to the right. "Dom and I'll head that way, see where they went. Janet, Lewis, keep following the path. Stay in contact for as long as you're able. If you get in trouble, fire your weapon and the rest of us'll come running." Because with no other real noise except for insect life and the like, everyone should be able to hear shots from anywhere on the island.
No one especially liked the idea of splitting up any more then Max did, but they, like her, knew it was the only way. To Gordon, Max said quietly, "Keep an eye on Janet. If she starts having trouble breathing and can't get to her medication, her inhalers are in her pack. She'll probably be fine, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred she can take care of it herself, but..."
"I gotcha," he replied, just as quiet.
"I would send you off with Dom, but... Well, it's not that I don't trust you..."
He smiled faintly. "But you do trust them?" He nodded vaguely in Amy and Bobby's direction.
"Yes." Because she'd never once seen Amy allow her feelings for Bobby to get in the way of her work. She knew Amy liked him, but from what she could see, it was more that she was comfortable with him then anything else. Raising her voice, she didn't-quite-yell, "Move out!"
**********************************************
"You know, I am so over the whole 'tropical island' thing," Amy decided as she swatted at another mosquito. "There aren't this many bugs back in the city."
"No, but there's plenty of smog and pollution, instead, as you so frequently remind me," Bobby replied. Both of them were keeping an eye out for anything while following the surprisingly obvious trail.
That bothered her. Why hadn't anyone made any attempts to disguise their path through the jungle? Because they weren't expecting intruders, so they saw no reason to bother? That might make sense, if they hadn't been chasing an intruder when they'd left it. And judging by what they'd heard of the conversation, it hadn't seemed like Di had worked here. "Yeah, so maybe this place is better for Janet - which is a very good thing, don't get me wrong - but between the heat, the humidity, the bugs, the village... Well, I won't mind leaving."
"Definitely gotta give you that last one, babe," he replied. She just sighed quietly, not even bothering to tell him - again - not to call her that. He didn't mean anything bad by it, she knew that. It wasn't even offensive, really. She just... didn't care for it. But since she couldn't manage to give him a reason to stop calling her that... He didn't.
"If I wanted to spend time on a tropical island for fun, I'd take a vacation in Hawaii," she muttered, peering suspiciously at the ground. Were the tracks thinner here?
"That could be arranged," he informed her with a sly half-smile.
"Ask me about that again later," she said. There were less tracks here, she was sure of it now. The path they had been following was becoming less and less obvious, and it seemed to stop completely about twenty feet away from a fair-sized rocky hill. "Did we miss a turn, somewhere?" she wondered aloud, looking around.
"It didn't look like it..." He frowned. "Maybe they were coming from every direction, and just came together to follow her?"
That made sense. "Well, unless we want to follow every single set of tracks, it looks like we've hit a-"
She was interrupted by an echoing sound from nearby, which might have been a moan. Instantly alert, they both headed in the direction the sound had seemed to come from, weapons at the ready.
They came to a cave entrance, stopping just before the floor abruptly dropped away. Amy sighed. It was just as possible that the sound had been the wind blowing through the cave as it was that it had been made by a person, which meant that checking it out could potentially be a huge waste of time. Even so, they had no choice but to investigate. "Max, do you copy?" she said into her comm.
"Reading you three by three," came the static-laced reply. "What's up?"
"The trail kind of dissolved on us, indicating that the people who left it had been coming from all over, so that's a dead end. However, we also found a cave, and there may be someone inside, possibly injured. We're going to-" She broke off as she thought she felt an odd tremor in the ground under her feet, but if it was real, it didn't repeat itself. "-going to check it out," she continued. "There's a fairly steep drop right past the entrance, so someone could be hurt."
Then it happened again, and she was sure she felt it this time. Before either of them had a chance to react, the ground under their feet gave way, spilling them down into the darkness of the cave.
**********************************************
"Bradshaw! Damn it, Amy, answer me!"
Max fought down the useless urge to hit her communicator to get it to respond. It was working as well as it was going to with the jamming field still up. If it hadn't been a DEBS comm, there likely wouldn't have been any signal at all.
"What's going on?" Janet's voice broke in.
"Something happened to Amy," Max replied tersely. "She and Bobby were about to check out a cave when she screamed and... that was it." She'd known splitting up wasn't a good idea, but what else could they have done? And, she had to admit, if they'd all been together, whatever had happened to Amy could have happened to all of them, and then there'd be no one to come rescue them.
Still, though... She had a sneaking suspicion she was going to hear Amy's abruptly cut off scream in her nightmares for a while.
Before Janet could come up with a reply to that, or anyone could just forget what they were doing and run to Amy's aid, a static-y groan came from the comm, followed by Amy muttering, "Ow."
Max held her breath. "Amy? Are you all right?"
"Ow," Amy said again, sounding almost annoyed at having to repeat herself. Max exhaled, relieved.
"What happened?"
"I think we got a bit too close to the opening, and the edge crumbled away beneath us," Bobby answered. "And I'm fine, by the way. Thanks so much for asking."
Fighting down the urge to snap at him - for the moment, at least - she instead asked, "What about Amy?"
There was a pause, then Amy herself answered, sounding oddly embarrassed. "I, ah... kind of landed on top of him. I'm fine."
Oh. She supposed she could let his behavior slide, then, at least this one time. Having one's girlfriend - however unintentionally - use you to break her fall, then having all the concern be directed at her, could certainly justify a certain amount of irritation. "Do you two need us to come get you?"
There was a burst of static which might have concealed groaning and shuffling as they got to their feet, then Amy answered, "Well, since we're down here, we may as well check out the cave. But I think we'll need some rope or something to get back out."
"Copy that. Dom and I'll finish checking out this path, then we'll come get you. And let us know-"
"-if there are any other problems, we know," Amy finished for her, her tone indicating she was smiling. "Don't worry, we'll be careful. Amy out."
Max signed off as well, then turned to Dominique. "Let's get moving." Unlike what Amy had reported, their trail was still going strong. Which made sense, really, since whoever had left most of the tracks would have been following Di - if that was who they'd been chasing, of course. She was surprised to find that, barring the occasional swerve to avoid trees or fallen branches and the like, the tracks went in a mostly straight line. The lead runner had been making no effort at all to lose her pursuers.
She mulled that over as they walked, weapons out, constantly scanning for trouble. It was entirely possible that the guards had been using some kind of scanning technology that would have rendered such maneuvers futile. Or maybe they'd had tracking dogs. Or - and this was the one that concerned her most - whatever Black Dragon had done had freaked her out so badly that she hadn't been thinking of anything but getting away from it as quickly as possible.
The trail lead right to some kind of shack. Most of the tracks then lead off in another direction, but Max decided to check out the building first. Unlike everything else on the island, it wasn't made out of wood or clay, but metal. It had also been painted a dark green, as if to better blend in with the jungle. This was the first real confirmation they had as to Black Dragon's presence on the island.
She looked it over with the scanner. Luckily, it didn't seem meant to block such scans, as she could tell there were a number of electronic signatures inside.
And one heat source big enough to be a person.
"Gotcha," she said quietly. She turned to Dom and murmured, "What do you think? Should we knock?"
Dominique shrugged. "Eet does seem ze polite thing to do."
What the hell, why not? Max rapped on the door a few times, watching her scanner. The heat source inside jumped, as if startled, but otherwise didn't move, or make any sounds. "Hey, we know you're in there," she called, trying to sound as non-threatening as she could under the circumstances. "It's just us out here, you can come out."
And finally give us some answers, she added silently. She didn't want to have to break in. That would make it much harder to get some answers out of the woman.
**********************************************
Diane stared at the door, hope warring with uncertainty.
Part of her knew this had to be some kind of trick. It hadn't quite been the five hours Lucy had told her it would take them to get there, yet. But there was obviously someone out there, and judging by her voice she was an American someone. That ruled out anyone who was supposed to be on the island base. Maybe Lucy had sent someone ahead of her...?
That thought alone was enough to pull her over to the door. She didn't know if this was the right thing to do, but...
Oh, screw it. Grow a spine, Di! This could be your only chance!
She didn't for one second doubt that Lucy and Scud would be coming for her, but she really wanted to leave now, to hell with waiting another hour! "I'm coming out," she called shakily. The door was as easy to disengage from the inside as it was from outside, and she winced as she pulled it open, the sudden change in light level from the windowless shack making her wince and shut her eyes.
Nothing happened as she stood there, trying to stop her eyes from watering, bolstering her confidence that whoever she'd been talking to wasn't there to hurt her. After another twenty or so seconds, her eyes had adjusted, finally giving her a good look at her two rescuers.
She instantly zeroed in on the DEBS logos on the two women's shirts.
Aw, shit. How in the hell had the fucking DEBS gotten there? Did they know who she was, or who she worked for? They didn't exactly look like they wanted to hug her and be best friends, but they also weren't holding her at gunpoint and reading her her rights. "What are you guys doing here?"
The African-American one was peering at her intently, and she got the feeling this was the one she'd ultimately have to convince that she wasn't a threat. "We overheard part of your conversation... Di."
"Which part?" she reflexively asked before she could really stop and think about it. Well, it was obvious, wasn't it? They'd come there for Black Dragon. Ironically, turning him over to the DEBS (or whoever) once they'd confirmed his presence hadn't seemed to occur to Lucy even once. She hadn't the last time she'd dealt with him, either, during that whole confusing business with the moon. That had been before Diane had joined the group, so she was still a bit fuzzy on the details.
Still, even if they were Lucy's mortal enemies... She couldn't just let them basically commit suicide. "You should... We should leave, as soon as possible. If you know who's here... Just drop a nuke on the island, or something."
They were looking at her oddly, now, which she supposed was understandable, given how little sense she must have been making. "We don't just go throwing around nukes so casually," the agent she guessed must have been in charge told her. "Who are you, anyway?"
She hesitated for a moment, then inwardly shrugged. If telling them the truth was the only way to get them to trust her, so be it. "Diane Mellis. I work for... someone who wants to stop Black Dragon as much as you do... whoever you are."
The DEB raised an eyebrow. "Max Brewer."
It took her a moment to place the name. The squad leader of Sector One itself. Well, she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that the DEBS would send their best for this.
Still, though... They had no idea what they were getting into. "Look," she began, but was cut off by a faint echoing sound that all three women instantly recognized.
Gunshots.
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On the one hand, it was nice to finally get out of the sun.
The cave was dark and refreshingly cool, which was nice. It was also free of bugs, which was even better. On the other hand, though... Well, it was dark. If the DEBS didn't make sure their agents were as prepared for anything as they could be, and Bobby's father's latest gift hadn't been an almost painfully bright LED flashlight taken from some drug lord, they would have been stumbling around in the dark, literally.
Then there was the smell.
It was faint, at first, but slowly grew stronger as they moved deeper into the cave. It was distinctly unpleasant, and was vaguely familiar to anyone who'd driven out on more rural roads for a while. There wasn't much in the way of roadkill in the city, after all - except for the occasional pedestrian. "Great," Amy muttered as they cautiously moved forward. "Knowing our luck, we'll end up having been suckered down here by some scavenger eating whatever's making that God-awful smell."
The cave itself was more like a tunnel - probably an old lava tube leftover from when the island had been formed, before the volcano had gone extinct - and a fairly twisting one at that. Had there been any offshoots, they could have easily gotten lost down there. It was also wide enough that all four DEBS could have fit down there side by side, if only just barely.
"You know what they say," Bobby reminded her. "It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it."
"I know, I know." And if it weren't for that smell - drying rot, like thickly soured milk and bile - she might not even mind so much. But as it was...
Fummp.
Both of their guns instantly came up at the soft, shuffling sound, like a padded fist sliding across a wall. That, Amy decided, was not an animal. There was someone down there.
The sounds of gentle movement stopped as they drew closer. Weapons at the ready, they spun around a corner...
... and couldn't help but recoil as the stench suddenly hit them like a physical force. There was someone there, all right, a dark skinned man with thick broad shoulders standing not even twenty feet away. Amy's relief at finally finding a survivor temporarily overcame her revulsion at the smell, and she stepped into the chamber. He could tell them what had happened, she was sure of it. And if they could rescue at least one person, maybe this wouldn't feel like such a useless waste of time.
He was facing away from her, half-hidden in shadow. He turned around slowly, the careful shuffling of someone drunk or injured, and the greeting Amy had been about to give him (not that she was confident he would have understood English) was trapped in her throat as she gagged, realizing that the smell was coming from him, in thick, noxious waves. He was clothed in tattered scraps which were stained with... Well, she didn't want to guess with what. His hair was scraggly and sparse, but she couldn't tell if that was natural or not.
It'd be the only thing about him that is. Jesus, what IS that smell? Is he sick, dying...?
She really had no idea, but it ultimately didn't matter. Her instincts were screaming at her that something was horrifically wrong here, and a quick look at Bobby showed that he agreed. Taking a step to the side, so that he would also have a clear field of fire, she aimed her Beretta at the man's torso. "Hold it! Don't move!" Even if he didn't speak English, he should have gotten the message.
Except that... he didn't. The man completed his turn and started toward Amy, shambling into the illumination from their flashlights. His - its? - face was ashy pale, except for the blood smeared around its rotting lips. Flaps of dried skin hung from sunken cheeks, and the dark eyes locked on her glittered with hunger as it reached out with oddly skeletal hands...
Her brain had momentarily locked up, unable to accept the input her eyes were giving it, but that motion broke her paralysis, and she fired three shots into the... whatever's... chest in a fine spray of crimson. With a gurgling moan, it crumpled to the floor, motionless.
Amy staggered back, her thoughts racing in time with her hammering heart. What the fuck was that?! It couldn't, simply could not, have been what it had looked like. This wasn't some low-budget horror movie, this was real life!
Although, if it was some kind of disease, that just mimicked the symptoms...
She had to tell the others. She'd turned back toward Bobby, and had taken two steps in his direction before she heard a wet movement coming from behind her. No. No way. She spun, eyes wide as the twitching thing clawed at the stone floor, pulling itself after her in an eager, single-minded silence. It was actually drooling, sticky pink rivulets actually pooling on the stone floor.
There was an almost deafening bang from behind her, and the thing's skull seemed to disintegrate. Bobby, she realized as she waited for her ears to stop ringing. This time it stayed down, unquestionably dead.
It was not... It could not have been a zombie. Zombies weren't real. Not to mention the fact that dead people didn't bleed.
On the other hand, living people didn't usually put up with the flesh rotting off of their bodies like that, and would have stayed down - hell, would have died - from her initial volley.
She shook her head, unable to understand. "Jesus, Bobby," she breathed. "What the hell did we just kill?"
Are we having fun, yet? ^_^
Title: Cherry Blossom: Revisited (chapter 2/?)
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R. And not for the usual reason, either. ;)
Comments: I love it when my fics zoom right along. ^_^ Don't worry, the title will eventually make sense. (And I haven't actually forgotten about Parallax, I just want to focus on this one right now while it's flowing, you know?)
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.', Angela Robinson does. Though if I had my way, there would have been a sequel or two by now. ;)
The village was deserted.
What was even more annoying was the utter lack of anything resembling a clue as to what had happened. They'd all seen the aftermath of a supervillain raid before, whether for slaves to carry out manual labor, revenge, or simple maliciousness. None of them looked like this.
Amy didn't understand it. Unless someone had come back and cleaned some things up, while leaving enough of a mess to still know something had gone wrong - unlikely, but not entirely impossible, she supposed - the only conclusion she could draw was that the natives had left of their own accord. But that still left the question of where they'd gone, let alone why they'd departed their homes in the first place, leaving most of their belongings behind...
She shook her head. This wondering was getting her nowhere. If the village was secure, it was time for them to move on. She headed back to the center of town to rendezvous with the others.
"All right, people," Max began once they were all assembled. "None of us expected it to be so easy as to just walk in and immediately catch Black Dragon napping or something. This island's only so big, and he's got to be here somewhere. From what we know about the geography, if he's followed his usual pattern of underground bases, the best place for him to dig in would be around the bluffs along the north-eastern edge of the island." Which, given that they'd landed at the southern tip, meant they had some walking to do. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can get the hell out of here."
Because while nobody wanted to admit it, the empty village was creeping them all out. Even Max.
"Let's move out."
There were several paths to choose from, but it was impossible to tell which had been used the most of late. So they picked the one that seemed to be heading the most northeast and started out.
The worst thing, Amy decided, was how utterly normal everything seemed. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought she was on an uninhabited but otherwise gorgeous tropical island. It wasn't like she wanted to be finding bloody and mangled corpses everywhere while the gray sky rumbled ominously overhead, but somehow the sunny, beautiful day was making it worse.
Bad things were not supposed to happen in places like this, and especially not on days like this.
They moved down the path, weapons out, eyes flicking to every single sound. It was nerve racking, frankly. Max, who was in the lead, had taken out one of the DEBS' newest toys, a PDA that also served as a motion detector. Unfortunately, the trees and vines of the jungle that surrounded them made that next to useless, similarly obscuring any readings the infrared sensors might have given her.
Still, though, it did at least increase their chances of seeing someone coming, at least a little.
And every little bit helped.
After about ten minutes of walking, Max ordered them to halt. She stared down at the ground, frowning, and the others followed suit to discover the path ahead of them was covered with footprints. Oddly, from the look of it, a large group of people had crossed the path, moving from one part of the jungle to another. The grasses and ferns on either side had been trampled, making it obvious both which direction they'd come from and where they'd gone.
And neither was along the path.
Not to mention... Unless Amy was very much mistaken - entirely possible, as she wasn't the best at reading tracks in the DEBS - one set of footprints had been left by someone moving a lot faster then the others Maybe by someone running for her life?
Di?
She exchanged a look with Max, who was clearly wondering the same thing. "Which way do we go?" Because while they needed to find Black Dragon, they also needed more information on what was going on, and they could hardly just ignore any civilians that might have escaped. Not to mention finding the woman who had drawn them to the island in the first place.
Max looked unhappy with what she was about to say. "I think we're going to have to split up. Bradshaw, Matthews, check out that direction, see where they came from," she said, gesturing off to the right. "Dom and I'll head that way, see where they went. Janet, Lewis, keep following the path. Stay in contact for as long as you're able. If you get in trouble, fire your weapon and the rest of us'll come running." Because with no other real noise except for insect life and the like, everyone should be able to hear shots from anywhere on the island.
No one especially liked the idea of splitting up any more then Max did, but they, like her, knew it was the only way. To Gordon, Max said quietly, "Keep an eye on Janet. If she starts having trouble breathing and can't get to her medication, her inhalers are in her pack. She'll probably be fine, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred she can take care of it herself, but..."
"I gotcha," he replied, just as quiet.
"I would send you off with Dom, but... Well, it's not that I don't trust you..."
He smiled faintly. "But you do trust them?" He nodded vaguely in Amy and Bobby's direction.
"Yes." Because she'd never once seen Amy allow her feelings for Bobby to get in the way of her work. She knew Amy liked him, but from what she could see, it was more that she was comfortable with him then anything else. Raising her voice, she didn't-quite-yell, "Move out!"
**********************************************
"You know, I am so over the whole 'tropical island' thing," Amy decided as she swatted at another mosquito. "There aren't this many bugs back in the city."
"No, but there's plenty of smog and pollution, instead, as you so frequently remind me," Bobby replied. Both of them were keeping an eye out for anything while following the surprisingly obvious trail.
That bothered her. Why hadn't anyone made any attempts to disguise their path through the jungle? Because they weren't expecting intruders, so they saw no reason to bother? That might make sense, if they hadn't been chasing an intruder when they'd left it. And judging by what they'd heard of the conversation, it hadn't seemed like Di had worked here. "Yeah, so maybe this place is better for Janet - which is a very good thing, don't get me wrong - but between the heat, the humidity, the bugs, the village... Well, I won't mind leaving."
"Definitely gotta give you that last one, babe," he replied. She just sighed quietly, not even bothering to tell him - again - not to call her that. He didn't mean anything bad by it, she knew that. It wasn't even offensive, really. She just... didn't care for it. But since she couldn't manage to give him a reason to stop calling her that... He didn't.
"If I wanted to spend time on a tropical island for fun, I'd take a vacation in Hawaii," she muttered, peering suspiciously at the ground. Were the tracks thinner here?
"That could be arranged," he informed her with a sly half-smile.
"Ask me about that again later," she said. There were less tracks here, she was sure of it now. The path they had been following was becoming less and less obvious, and it seemed to stop completely about twenty feet away from a fair-sized rocky hill. "Did we miss a turn, somewhere?" she wondered aloud, looking around.
"It didn't look like it..." He frowned. "Maybe they were coming from every direction, and just came together to follow her?"
That made sense. "Well, unless we want to follow every single set of tracks, it looks like we've hit a-"
She was interrupted by an echoing sound from nearby, which might have been a moan. Instantly alert, they both headed in the direction the sound had seemed to come from, weapons at the ready.
They came to a cave entrance, stopping just before the floor abruptly dropped away. Amy sighed. It was just as possible that the sound had been the wind blowing through the cave as it was that it had been made by a person, which meant that checking it out could potentially be a huge waste of time. Even so, they had no choice but to investigate. "Max, do you copy?" she said into her comm.
"Reading you three by three," came the static-laced reply. "What's up?"
"The trail kind of dissolved on us, indicating that the people who left it had been coming from all over, so that's a dead end. However, we also found a cave, and there may be someone inside, possibly injured. We're going to-" She broke off as she thought she felt an odd tremor in the ground under her feet, but if it was real, it didn't repeat itself. "-going to check it out," she continued. "There's a fairly steep drop right past the entrance, so someone could be hurt."
Then it happened again, and she was sure she felt it this time. Before either of them had a chance to react, the ground under their feet gave way, spilling them down into the darkness of the cave.
**********************************************
"Bradshaw! Damn it, Amy, answer me!"
Max fought down the useless urge to hit her communicator to get it to respond. It was working as well as it was going to with the jamming field still up. If it hadn't been a DEBS comm, there likely wouldn't have been any signal at all.
"What's going on?" Janet's voice broke in.
"Something happened to Amy," Max replied tersely. "She and Bobby were about to check out a cave when she screamed and... that was it." She'd known splitting up wasn't a good idea, but what else could they have done? And, she had to admit, if they'd all been together, whatever had happened to Amy could have happened to all of them, and then there'd be no one to come rescue them.
Still, though... She had a sneaking suspicion she was going to hear Amy's abruptly cut off scream in her nightmares for a while.
Before Janet could come up with a reply to that, or anyone could just forget what they were doing and run to Amy's aid, a static-y groan came from the comm, followed by Amy muttering, "Ow."
Max held her breath. "Amy? Are you all right?"
"Ow," Amy said again, sounding almost annoyed at having to repeat herself. Max exhaled, relieved.
"What happened?"
"I think we got a bit too close to the opening, and the edge crumbled away beneath us," Bobby answered. "And I'm fine, by the way. Thanks so much for asking."
Fighting down the urge to snap at him - for the moment, at least - she instead asked, "What about Amy?"
There was a pause, then Amy herself answered, sounding oddly embarrassed. "I, ah... kind of landed on top of him. I'm fine."
Oh. She supposed she could let his behavior slide, then, at least this one time. Having one's girlfriend - however unintentionally - use you to break her fall, then having all the concern be directed at her, could certainly justify a certain amount of irritation. "Do you two need us to come get you?"
There was a burst of static which might have concealed groaning and shuffling as they got to their feet, then Amy answered, "Well, since we're down here, we may as well check out the cave. But I think we'll need some rope or something to get back out."
"Copy that. Dom and I'll finish checking out this path, then we'll come get you. And let us know-"
"-if there are any other problems, we know," Amy finished for her, her tone indicating she was smiling. "Don't worry, we'll be careful. Amy out."
Max signed off as well, then turned to Dominique. "Let's get moving." Unlike what Amy had reported, their trail was still going strong. Which made sense, really, since whoever had left most of the tracks would have been following Di - if that was who they'd been chasing, of course. She was surprised to find that, barring the occasional swerve to avoid trees or fallen branches and the like, the tracks went in a mostly straight line. The lead runner had been making no effort at all to lose her pursuers.
She mulled that over as they walked, weapons out, constantly scanning for trouble. It was entirely possible that the guards had been using some kind of scanning technology that would have rendered such maneuvers futile. Or maybe they'd had tracking dogs. Or - and this was the one that concerned her most - whatever Black Dragon had done had freaked her out so badly that she hadn't been thinking of anything but getting away from it as quickly as possible.
The trail lead right to some kind of shack. Most of the tracks then lead off in another direction, but Max decided to check out the building first. Unlike everything else on the island, it wasn't made out of wood or clay, but metal. It had also been painted a dark green, as if to better blend in with the jungle. This was the first real confirmation they had as to Black Dragon's presence on the island.
She looked it over with the scanner. Luckily, it didn't seem meant to block such scans, as she could tell there were a number of electronic signatures inside.
And one heat source big enough to be a person.
"Gotcha," she said quietly. She turned to Dom and murmured, "What do you think? Should we knock?"
Dominique shrugged. "Eet does seem ze polite thing to do."
What the hell, why not? Max rapped on the door a few times, watching her scanner. The heat source inside jumped, as if startled, but otherwise didn't move, or make any sounds. "Hey, we know you're in there," she called, trying to sound as non-threatening as she could under the circumstances. "It's just us out here, you can come out."
And finally give us some answers, she added silently. She didn't want to have to break in. That would make it much harder to get some answers out of the woman.
**********************************************
Diane stared at the door, hope warring with uncertainty.
Part of her knew this had to be some kind of trick. It hadn't quite been the five hours Lucy had told her it would take them to get there, yet. But there was obviously someone out there, and judging by her voice she was an American someone. That ruled out anyone who was supposed to be on the island base. Maybe Lucy had sent someone ahead of her...?
That thought alone was enough to pull her over to the door. She didn't know if this was the right thing to do, but...
Oh, screw it. Grow a spine, Di! This could be your only chance!
She didn't for one second doubt that Lucy and Scud would be coming for her, but she really wanted to leave now, to hell with waiting another hour! "I'm coming out," she called shakily. The door was as easy to disengage from the inside as it was from outside, and she winced as she pulled it open, the sudden change in light level from the windowless shack making her wince and shut her eyes.
Nothing happened as she stood there, trying to stop her eyes from watering, bolstering her confidence that whoever she'd been talking to wasn't there to hurt her. After another twenty or so seconds, her eyes had adjusted, finally giving her a good look at her two rescuers.
She instantly zeroed in on the DEBS logos on the two women's shirts.
Aw, shit. How in the hell had the fucking DEBS gotten there? Did they know who she was, or who she worked for? They didn't exactly look like they wanted to hug her and be best friends, but they also weren't holding her at gunpoint and reading her her rights. "What are you guys doing here?"
The African-American one was peering at her intently, and she got the feeling this was the one she'd ultimately have to convince that she wasn't a threat. "We overheard part of your conversation... Di."
"Which part?" she reflexively asked before she could really stop and think about it. Well, it was obvious, wasn't it? They'd come there for Black Dragon. Ironically, turning him over to the DEBS (or whoever) once they'd confirmed his presence hadn't seemed to occur to Lucy even once. She hadn't the last time she'd dealt with him, either, during that whole confusing business with the moon. That had been before Diane had joined the group, so she was still a bit fuzzy on the details.
Still, even if they were Lucy's mortal enemies... She couldn't just let them basically commit suicide. "You should... We should leave, as soon as possible. If you know who's here... Just drop a nuke on the island, or something."
They were looking at her oddly, now, which she supposed was understandable, given how little sense she must have been making. "We don't just go throwing around nukes so casually," the agent she guessed must have been in charge told her. "Who are you, anyway?"
She hesitated for a moment, then inwardly shrugged. If telling them the truth was the only way to get them to trust her, so be it. "Diane Mellis. I work for... someone who wants to stop Black Dragon as much as you do... whoever you are."
The DEB raised an eyebrow. "Max Brewer."
It took her a moment to place the name. The squad leader of Sector One itself. Well, she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that the DEBS would send their best for this.
Still, though... They had no idea what they were getting into. "Look," she began, but was cut off by a faint echoing sound that all three women instantly recognized.
Gunshots.
**********************************************
On the one hand, it was nice to finally get out of the sun.
The cave was dark and refreshingly cool, which was nice. It was also free of bugs, which was even better. On the other hand, though... Well, it was dark. If the DEBS didn't make sure their agents were as prepared for anything as they could be, and Bobby's father's latest gift hadn't been an almost painfully bright LED flashlight taken from some drug lord, they would have been stumbling around in the dark, literally.
Then there was the smell.
It was faint, at first, but slowly grew stronger as they moved deeper into the cave. It was distinctly unpleasant, and was vaguely familiar to anyone who'd driven out on more rural roads for a while. There wasn't much in the way of roadkill in the city, after all - except for the occasional pedestrian. "Great," Amy muttered as they cautiously moved forward. "Knowing our luck, we'll end up having been suckered down here by some scavenger eating whatever's making that God-awful smell."
The cave itself was more like a tunnel - probably an old lava tube leftover from when the island had been formed, before the volcano had gone extinct - and a fairly twisting one at that. Had there been any offshoots, they could have easily gotten lost down there. It was also wide enough that all four DEBS could have fit down there side by side, if only just barely.
"You know what they say," Bobby reminded her. "It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it."
"I know, I know." And if it weren't for that smell - drying rot, like thickly soured milk and bile - she might not even mind so much. But as it was...
Fummp.
Both of their guns instantly came up at the soft, shuffling sound, like a padded fist sliding across a wall. That, Amy decided, was not an animal. There was someone down there.
The sounds of gentle movement stopped as they drew closer. Weapons at the ready, they spun around a corner...
... and couldn't help but recoil as the stench suddenly hit them like a physical force. There was someone there, all right, a dark skinned man with thick broad shoulders standing not even twenty feet away. Amy's relief at finally finding a survivor temporarily overcame her revulsion at the smell, and she stepped into the chamber. He could tell them what had happened, she was sure of it. And if they could rescue at least one person, maybe this wouldn't feel like such a useless waste of time.
He was facing away from her, half-hidden in shadow. He turned around slowly, the careful shuffling of someone drunk or injured, and the greeting Amy had been about to give him (not that she was confident he would have understood English) was trapped in her throat as she gagged, realizing that the smell was coming from him, in thick, noxious waves. He was clothed in tattered scraps which were stained with... Well, she didn't want to guess with what. His hair was scraggly and sparse, but she couldn't tell if that was natural or not.
It'd be the only thing about him that is. Jesus, what IS that smell? Is he sick, dying...?
She really had no idea, but it ultimately didn't matter. Her instincts were screaming at her that something was horrifically wrong here, and a quick look at Bobby showed that he agreed. Taking a step to the side, so that he would also have a clear field of fire, she aimed her Beretta at the man's torso. "Hold it! Don't move!" Even if he didn't speak English, he should have gotten the message.
Except that... he didn't. The man completed his turn and started toward Amy, shambling into the illumination from their flashlights. His - its? - face was ashy pale, except for the blood smeared around its rotting lips. Flaps of dried skin hung from sunken cheeks, and the dark eyes locked on her glittered with hunger as it reached out with oddly skeletal hands...
Her brain had momentarily locked up, unable to accept the input her eyes were giving it, but that motion broke her paralysis, and she fired three shots into the... whatever's... chest in a fine spray of crimson. With a gurgling moan, it crumpled to the floor, motionless.
Amy staggered back, her thoughts racing in time with her hammering heart. What the fuck was that?! It couldn't, simply could not, have been what it had looked like. This wasn't some low-budget horror movie, this was real life!
Although, if it was some kind of disease, that just mimicked the symptoms...
She had to tell the others. She'd turned back toward Bobby, and had taken two steps in his direction before she heard a wet movement coming from behind her. No. No way. She spun, eyes wide as the twitching thing clawed at the stone floor, pulling itself after her in an eager, single-minded silence. It was actually drooling, sticky pink rivulets actually pooling on the stone floor.
There was an almost deafening bang from behind her, and the thing's skull seemed to disintegrate. Bobby, she realized as she waited for her ears to stop ringing. This time it stayed down, unquestionably dead.
It was not... It could not have been a zombie. Zombies weren't real. Not to mention the fact that dead people didn't bleed.
On the other hand, living people didn't usually put up with the flesh rotting off of their bodies like that, and would have stayed down - hell, would have died - from her initial volley.
She shook her head, unable to understand. "Jesus, Bobby," she breathed. "What the hell did we just kill?"
Are we having fun, yet? ^_^