Cherry Blossom: Revisited Chapter 6 - (09/25/2009)
Stayed up late, just to get this finished for you. :)
Title: Cherry Blossom: Revisited (chapter 6/?)
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: Right, then, where were we?
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. ;)
Splinted or not, walking with a broken ankle hurt.
Amy was gritting her teeth tightly enough by the time they reached a door that she was halfway worried that she might end up chipping the enamel by the time they got to the lab.
Getting past the hole she'd fallen in earlier had been a challenge, but fortunately there had been a small ledge on either side that just barely supported their weight. Still, though, it had been a fairly nerve-wracking experience, and she'd been all but convinced she was going to fall any second as she slowly and painfully made her way to join Lucy. Somehow, though, she'd made it.
Really, Lucy's presence was something of a godsend. She was attentive, solicitous, and didn't seem to care one whit that she was a DEB. She was also fairly strong - she had to be, given the way she was pretty much hauling Amy down the tunnel - competent, and intelligent. If it weren't for the whole 'zombie-infested island' thing, Amy was sure that Lucy was someone she could spend hours talking to, on a wide variety of subjects, and never get bored.
That Lucy was evidently attracted to her was something that she'd been more or less glossing over entirely. She wasn't ready to figure out how she felt about that just yet, not so soon after Bobby had...
But Lucy understood. Amy might catch the occasional lingering glance, but she was restraining herself from any overt flirting, and not mentioning her earlier tentative advances.
And neither of them said a word about the way that Amy had reacted to her prior flirting. That, frankly, was somewhere that Amy was just not prepared to go.
Amy leaned gratefully against the wall, giving her screaming ankle a rest. "So, how are we getting through that?" she asked, gesturing to the steel door blocking their path. It was impossible to tell for sure, but it certainly looked like a thick one. The amount of explosives it would take to blast through that - had either of them actually had any explosives on them - would almost definitely bring the tunnel crashing down on them.
"Give me a couple of minutes," Lucy replied, pulling something out of a pocket. Grumbling something about wishing she had her bag with her - Amy could relate - she stuck what looked like a blank key card in the reader on the right side of the door. It took Amy a couple of painful hops closer to see that the card was attached via a cable composed of several wires whose dark blue coatings were fused together to a hand-held device of some kind. The device hummed, occasionally interspersed with a series of beeps. This went on for a while, and Lucy frowned. "Should have been open by now," she muttered. "Guess he improved his security since we last crossed paths." There was a louder beep, followed by a click, and her frown became a grin. "Just not enough," she finished, pulling the door open.
Cool air conditioning washed over them, almost shockingly cold after the hot and humid atmosphere of the island. Amy leaned into it, overbalancing, and Lucy had to catch her before she fell. "Oh, that feels nice," Amy murmured as Lucy helped her inside, then shut the door behind them. In theory, that meant they were safe. Or safer, at any rate. But given that the virus had to start somewhere... Amy wasn't going to start relaxing just yet. "I hope the others have an easier time getting in then we did."
"I'm sure they will," Lucy assured her. "Safety in numbers and all that, right?"
**********************************************
"Dom! On your left!" Max hollered above the sound of gunfire, which was almost drowned out by God only knew how many hungry moans.
It seemed that they'd found the main cluster of the infected. Or was it a flock? Herd? Pod?
Oh, think about it later, Brewer!
Dominique spun in the indicated direction, taking down one zombie who'd gotten a bit too close for her comfort. They were being forced to take a somewhat roundabout route to the lab, trying to lose their pursuers along the way. Diane had said that was fairly useless, as the zombies didn't slow, didn't stop, didn't rest. They just kept coming and coming.
It wasn't that Max had doubted her before, but now she was even more convinced.
They kept it up, though, because the zombies were so slow. The more distance they put between them and the infected, the better their chances of getting inside Black Dragon's base.
Max was also uncomfortably aware that they were starting to run low on ammo. She'd started out in better shape then the others, but after having to hand out a couple of magazines to Dominique and Gordon, even she was going to be in serious trouble soon. She was painfully aware that every shot they fired brought them that much closer to being unable to prevent a painful death... or worse.
Diane had muttered something earlier about eating her gun before she let them do that to her, and though she refused to let herself think that way, Max privately agreed.
"I think we're losing them," Janet gasped. As sick as she was getting, she hadn't been able to run to keep up with them, let alone fire her gun with any kind of accuracy. So as much as she hated to do it, Max had given Diane the gun, while trusting Janet's safety to the newcomer she called Scud. She did recognize the name, of course.
Lucy fucking Diamond's right hand man.
That was the part that made no sense. Why would Diamond care about stopping Black Dragon, even before she knew what he'd been up to out here. Likely there was some kind of private feud between them - the Reynolds family had been well known for such feuds and rivalries in the past, which was the reason that Lucy was the last one left - and she didn't actually care about keeping him from harming any innocents, but at this point, Max would take all the help she could get. Even from Lucy Diamond.
Still, she would be relieved when Amy wasn't stuck with Diamond, alone. She knew Amy could take care of herself against most foes, but against Lucy Diamond? And with a broken ankle, as well?
A quick look back showed her that Scud had given up trying to help Janet run, and had just picked her up, piggy-back style. It couldn't have been easy to run full out the way they were doing like that, but he wasn't saying a word. In her books, that earned him an amount of grudging respect.
Very grudging.
Max switched her handgun for the shotgun she had in her shoulder harness, using its stopping power to get rid of their last few, stubborn pursuers. They kept up their evasive course for several more minutes, then paused for a quick break to catch their breath.
"Are we almost to the entrance?" Gordon asked Diane, who was watching the surrounding foliage with a paranoid alertness.
It took a few seconds for the question to sink in. "Wha-? Oh. Yeah, we're getting there. There are a few entrances, but I think our best bet would be the one about five hundred feet to the west. That's closest."
Well, at least someone had been able to keep track of where they'd been going. "How far under the island do those tunnels stretch?"
"They go a ways," Diane agreed. "But fortunately, they all head towards the lab."
"Let's hope they all have working security doors, then," Janet grumbled.
A chill show down Max's spine at the thought of the lab being invaded by those... things, but she forced it away. "All right, let's get-"
She was cut off by a sudden outburst in French. She knew just enough of the language that, between that and the tone, she knew exclamations like that were what the phrase 'pardon my French' had been invented for. She shot a look at Dom, who was in turn looking farther up one of the trails.
There was a monkey there.
While this was the first animal they'd seen since arriving on the island, she wasn't quite sure what Dom was so worked up about. It was joined by several more monkeys, then even more, until there were several dozen of them just... standing there. Admittedly, that was weird, but then, they must have seemed rather strange to the monkeys themselves. Did the simians know that they weren't infected, and had come to them for protection, or some such thing? "Well," she began, "that's-"
"Look at zem!" Dominique insisted, aiming her gun at the small monkey horde.
Max frowned at her, but obediently shifted her gaze to the primate pack. They looked thin and mangy, the poor things. Running and hiding from the zombies must have been keeping them too busy to find any food. And...
She froze.
And their eyes were covered in a white, milky film that left her wondering if they could actually see them at all.
"Zombie monkeys? Are you fucking kidding me?" she demanded.
"Let's just back away from them nice and slow," Scud opined, shifting Janet on his back as he prepared to do just that.
As one, the monkeys all shifted their gazes to him, attention obviously captured by the movement, and they started forward.
Quickly.
"Fuck that! Run!" Max countered, and they immediately leaped to obey.
"'ow are zese ones able to run?" Dominique asked, firing over her shoulder and sending one monkey crashing to the ground. She didn't hang around to see it she'd killed it or not.
"How are they infected at all?" Gordon added. "You'd think that if a zombie actually managed to somehow catch one of them, there wouldn't be enough left to be infected."
"Not an accident!" Diane gasped out as she ran. "They were... infected first. Some... escaped into... the wild."
"Where they were fast enough to infect any natives that had been left in the village," Max guessed. She'd known this guy was a sick asshole, but she hadn't known how sick. "What happened to Black Dragon himself?"
"I don't know. I didn't see him... Had to get away... Haven't been back since."
"Great." A few shotgun blasts thinned out the pack following them, but not enough. She knew she still had two anti-personnel fragmentation grenades and one anti-personnel concussion grenade. They couldn't exactly stop and duck for cover, so the frag grenades were out for now. So she grabbed the concussion grenade, armed it, and tossed it behind her. "Fire in the hole!"
The shockwave sent them all to the ground, but they were able to scramble to their feet and get moving again without much struggle. Their pursuers, having much less body mass, had been hit harder, and scattered every which way, except in their direction.
"You have grenades?!" Janet asked, having to yell to even hear herself over the ringing in her ears. Her throat and lungs did not appreciate it, and she needed to take another hit from her inhaler.
"Just that and two frags!" Max shouted back.
"Let's hope we don't need them!" Gordon yelled.
Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice?
**********************************************
The creepiest thing was that aside from being deserted, the base seemed perfectly normal.
Well, normal as far as super-villain island headquarters buried inside volcanoes went, anyway.
"So far, this place looks rather similar to his base in Jakarta," Lucy said as she helped Amy down a corridor. Metal and cement made a nice change of pace from rock, rock, and more rock, but its otherwise spartan nature just screamed out for an interior decorator.
"What base in Jakarta?" Amy asked curiously.
"You guys never heard about that one? Huh. Not a huge surprise, I guess, given how the Indonesian government wanted to keep that whole mess under wraps. Just as well for me, since that was how I got out of there unchallenged."
"Do I wanna know?"
"It's nothing relevant to our current situation," Lucy assured her. "This was back when he still didn't seem to know quite what he was doing."
"As opposed to now, with his base being overrun by zombie hordes," Amy said wryly.
Lucy snorted. "Point taken. But still, that means I have a pretty good idea where the infirmary is. Hell, it's probably bigger and more important here, given the nature of his work."
Amy shook her head. "Command center first, then infirmary."
"No way. We're pushing our luck in regards to your ankle like this as it is. We need to get you off your feet as soon as possible."
"And have you running around the base with no one to watch your back? Like hell!"
Lucy looked somewhere between exasperated and touched. "Why don't you call your friends, see how close they are?"
"Yeah," Amy agreed, trying to hide how tired she was getting. She'd been operating mostly on adrenaline ever since the cave, and it was starting to ebb. Between that, all the exertions she'd been undertaking, and the depression about Bobby that she'd been doing her best to ignore, she was about ready to collapse. She just... didn't have time for that. "That, ah... That sounds like a plan." She keyed open the comm channel. "Max, come in." A pause. "Max? Can you hear me?"
There was a loud burst of static, followed by a garbled voice. "Just barely. I don't know wh-... ...-unnels are lined with, but they're... up... comms even w-... then they already... -cording to Diane, we're ab-... -en minutes fr-... -ou. Copy?"
"Barely. Did you say ten minutes?"
"...opy that."
"Good." She paused. "We'll meet you in the infirmary. Diane should know how to find it."
"See y... -hen."
"What made you change your mind?" Lucy wondered as she lead Amy down the hall, taking the first left they came across.
"Ten minutes isn't really enough time to find and secure the control room, especially when we have to take our time to make sure there aren't any... surprises, along the way," Amy told her. "Besides, I want to be there to meet Janet, and that's the first place they'll take her." Yes, she also wanted to lie down, but her condition didn't enter into her line of thought even once.
"Fair enough." And given that it took them over four minutes to reach the infirmary - and that, Lucy told her, was actually on the same level they were, unlike the control room - Amy doubted they could have even gotten to the control room in the time allotted, let alone secured it, found out what had happened, and then gone down to meet their friends.
Because she was slowing them down.
She could tell, though, that Lucy wasn't about to listen to any ideas about leaving her and going off on her own. Which... was kind of nice, actually.
Amy didn't quite moan with relief once she was off her feet, but it was close. Not that this made her ankle feel better, so much as marginally less painful.
Even more helpful was the painkiller that Lucy found for her. Somehow, she wasn't surprised that Lucy knew enough to prepare a syringe and inject her with it on the first try. "I wouldn't begin to know how go about making a cast for you," Lucy told her with a smile, "but I think I can scrounge up a better splint then that."
"I wasn't going to say anything..."
Lucy chuckled and began looking around the cabinets. And while it did bear an uncanny resemblance to the infirmary of a military base - meaning he'd probably just stolen the design, rather then come up with it on his own, which didn't surprise Amy in the slightest - it was obvious that this was not where Black Dragon had been doing his viral research.
Which, quite frankly, was just fine by her.
"You know your way around an infirmary," she commented as she watched Lucy bustle about.
"We do have a doctor or two on staff, but sometimes it's just me and Scud, and we're not anywhere near any medical help. Needs must and all that."
That was a phrase that Amy was all too familiar with. "You two are pretty close, then?"
"He's my brother in everything except genetics."
Amy smiled. "Who says you can't choose your family?" Certainly not her. Not with her team.
Lucy paused in her search and smiled back at her, and for a long moment they just looked at each other. Unlike before, Amy didn't feel any need to blush. It was a weird moment, to be sure, but she didn't feel at all uncomfortable.
Well, not until she accidentally moved her ankle, and shifted in discomfort, feeling it even through the painkiller.
"Right... splint," Lucy said, sounding almost embarrassed.
"Since I've got you here..." Amy began, then hesitated.
"Since you've got me here..." Lucy echoed.
"Can I... Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"
"Can't guarantee I'll answer, but you can always ask."
Amy supposed that was the best she could have expected. "What's up with Australia?"
Lucy paused, then replied, "I don't like their attitude."
Amy sighed. "Lucy..."
"Well, I don't," she defended. "The rest of that answer is a bit too personal to get into until I get to know you better."
"Fair enough." Not like she'd really expected an answer, but how could she not ask when the opportunity presented itself?
"My turn to ask something now?"
Amy blinked. "We're taking turns?"
"Ah ha!" Lucy exclaimed into a cabinet, momentarily ignoring her question. She pulled something out and held it up. "We have achieved air splint!"
"Whatever works, right?"
"Right." Lucy walked over to her bed, setting it down near her feet and gingerly reaching out for the emergency splint she'd applied in the field. "Hold still," she said as she began to take it off.
"Believe me, I'll do my best."
"Good. And why shouldn't I get to ask you questions in return? Fair is fair, right?"
"...I guess so."
Lucy chuckled as she very carefully unwound the shirt she'd wrapped around Amy's ankle. "Oh, relax. It's not like I'm going to be asking you for classified material or anything."
"What do you want to know, then?"
"I want to know about you. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Deciding that was a safe enough topic, Amy replied, "Two sisters. Both younger. Claudia's fifteen, and Natalie's twelve."
"If they look anything like you, they must be adorable."
Amy blushed, then paled as Lucy finished removing the old splint and began taking off her shoe and sock.
Lucy noticed. "Sorry."
"Just... get it done," Amy told her. "Can I ask about you and Black Dragon?"
Lucy hesitated. "Well, I suppose in a situation like this, that's a fair question. Just... keep it to yourself, okay?"
"All right," Amy replied, not even needing to think about it. She told herself it was just because she wanted to know that badly, but she knew that she really just didn't want to hurt Lucy, especially after everything she'd done for her.
"First of all... You need to understand, he didn't... start out as a world conquering supervillain. He started as just some random schmuck, a henchman. One of those anonymous goons you DEBS beat up all the time. This particular goon, however, was... working for the Schaffers."
"...oh."
"He killed two of my uncles, and... Well, we never did find my sister's body."
Amy blinked. "I'm sorry. I didn't even know you had a sister."
"Nobody does. And I'd prefer it stay that way."
"I won't say anything, I told you that," Amy promised.
"Okay." She paused. "Well, that's how it started. Things just... escalated from there." She readied the air splint. It was basically just a clear inflatable cylinder that could be closed at either end and became rigid when filled with air under pressure. Fortunately, a motorized pump had been included. Amy gritted her teeth and lifted her leg so that Lucy could slip it on, then inhaled sharply when it began inflating. "Sorry."
"It's... your turn," Amy forced out.
Lucy waited until the splint was fully inflated and the pump detached, carefully lowering Amy's foot back to the bed before she spoke again. "Where are you from, originally?"
Amy smiled shakily. "Atlanta, Georgia." She waited until the waves of pain in her ankle subsided somewhat before speaking further. "The suburbs, actually. About ten minutes from the city. I love it there, but L.A. is nice, too." She paused as she thought of her next question. "Have you ever thought about... Well, going straight?" Her cheeks darkened a bit. "Um, figuratively speaking?"
Lucy nearly laughed aloud. "God, you are so adorable!" she said instead with a wide grin. Amy's blush darkened. "And... yeah, on occasion. Usually after a job goes way south. Sometimes I consider just retiring, moving somewhere tropical, and renting boats to tourists."
"Boats?"
"Hey, I didn't want to be a criminal growing up. I wanted to be a pirate."
"Umm... Pirates are criminals," Amy pointed out.
"Oh. Whoops."
Amy giggled.
Lucy smiled, as if that had been one of the more beautiful sounds she'd ever heard. "What about you? You like being a DEB? And how does your family feel?"
"Well, at the moment, I'm not loving it as much as usual," Amy confessed dryly. She and Lucy shared a smile. "Ordinarily, though, it's great. I'm doing something meaningful, something that helps people, that makes a difference. I may not make the world that much safer, but every little bit helps. My family..." She sighed. "Well, my sisters think my job is 'just SOOO effing cool'. My mother worries about me constantly, which means we tend to fight any time I visit, or talk to her on the phone. My father... Well, he's retired Air Force, so he understand what it's like, at least somewhat."
"At least most of your family's supportive, right?" Lucy consoled, moving up to the head of the bed. Amy pushed herself into a sitting position, and Lucy reflexively steadied her until she was stable. Even after she was balanced, Amy didn't shoo her back.
"Yeah, I know. I just wish..." She shook her head. "Lucy Diamond. I get that you like diamonds, but why leave them at the scenes of your crimes? Yeah, I know, it's a calling card," she said, holding up a hand before Lucy could reply. "But why choose one that's so easy to imitate? Don't you realize how easily someone could frame you for something?"
"Oh, I keep a close track of any such potential copycats," Lucy told her. "If I ever find one, I either make sure they're turned over to the authorities, or I take care of it myself. Make one or two examples out of people, and everyone gets that it's not worth the risk to try that sort of thing."
Well, it wasn't that she'd forgotten that Lucy was a ruthless criminal or anything. She'd just had other, more important things to worry about. Still, though... That was one subject she didn't think she'd ever want to ask for further details about. "That's... good, I guess?"
Lucy shrugged. "Honestly, it doesn't really come up all that often. The family reputation scares them away a lot of the time before I personally enter into it. Besides, the governments of the world know that, while I'm not about to walk into their offices and confess to whatever, if I deny committing a crime, that's because I didn't do it. And I have my ways of getting through to them."
"Good to know." And it was, really.
"So tell me..." Lucy's smile turned sly. "Have you ever kissed another woman?"
Amy hesitated. "Once." She paused. "I think."
Lucy's eyebrows rose. "You think?"
Amy winced. "I was really, really drunk at the time. I have this dim memory of dancing with some redhead, smooth lips, and... I think her hands kept wandering down to my ass. But I don't really remember what happened, and I never could find her again, so..." She shrugged. Part of her wondered if that shot Lucy had given her before was making her a bit more talkative then usual, especially considering she'd only just met Lucy, who, she reminded herself, was a criminal.
That she had to keep reminding herself of that - and that it mattered, and not in a good way - was probably not a good sign.
She just felt so comfortable with Lucy! She'd known the woman for maybe half an hour or so, and already it felt like they'd been best friends for years. "What's it like?" she asked, as if to further prove her point to herself. "Kissing another woman, I mean. When you can actually remember it."
Lucy nearly grinned. How often was one handed a line like that? "Well, I'm probably a bit biased, but... It's so much better. Everything about it is better. Smoother lips, smoother cheeks, no annoying facial hair, and..." She hesitated. "Well... honestly, it would be easier to show you then to tell you."
Amy swallowed. "Oh. Um..."
Lucy leaned down, one hand resting on the back of Amy's neck. Amy could feel her heart going a mile a minute, but stayed where she was, her eyes beginning to flutter closed in pure reflex. Lucy slowly edged closer, until Amy could feel the other woman's breath against her lips. She felt lightheaded. She...
She nearly levitated off the bed when the infirmary door suddenly opened, and Lucy jerked back as well, startled. Scud entered, Janet on his back, and the others followed him in.
And despite her concern for Scud and Diane, as well as the visibly sick DEB, she had to fight down a grin at Amy's whispered, "Sonuvabitch!"
Well, like I said, this probably won't be a long one. But they don't all have to be. Anyway, hope you're still enjoying this!
Title: Cherry Blossom: Revisited (chapter 6/?)
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: Right, then, where were we?
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. ;)
Splinted or not, walking with a broken ankle hurt.
Amy was gritting her teeth tightly enough by the time they reached a door that she was halfway worried that she might end up chipping the enamel by the time they got to the lab.
Getting past the hole she'd fallen in earlier had been a challenge, but fortunately there had been a small ledge on either side that just barely supported their weight. Still, though, it had been a fairly nerve-wracking experience, and she'd been all but convinced she was going to fall any second as she slowly and painfully made her way to join Lucy. Somehow, though, she'd made it.
Really, Lucy's presence was something of a godsend. She was attentive, solicitous, and didn't seem to care one whit that she was a DEB. She was also fairly strong - she had to be, given the way she was pretty much hauling Amy down the tunnel - competent, and intelligent. If it weren't for the whole 'zombie-infested island' thing, Amy was sure that Lucy was someone she could spend hours talking to, on a wide variety of subjects, and never get bored.
That Lucy was evidently attracted to her was something that she'd been more or less glossing over entirely. She wasn't ready to figure out how she felt about that just yet, not so soon after Bobby had...
But Lucy understood. Amy might catch the occasional lingering glance, but she was restraining herself from any overt flirting, and not mentioning her earlier tentative advances.
And neither of them said a word about the way that Amy had reacted to her prior flirting. That, frankly, was somewhere that Amy was just not prepared to go.
Amy leaned gratefully against the wall, giving her screaming ankle a rest. "So, how are we getting through that?" she asked, gesturing to the steel door blocking their path. It was impossible to tell for sure, but it certainly looked like a thick one. The amount of explosives it would take to blast through that - had either of them actually had any explosives on them - would almost definitely bring the tunnel crashing down on them.
"Give me a couple of minutes," Lucy replied, pulling something out of a pocket. Grumbling something about wishing she had her bag with her - Amy could relate - she stuck what looked like a blank key card in the reader on the right side of the door. It took Amy a couple of painful hops closer to see that the card was attached via a cable composed of several wires whose dark blue coatings were fused together to a hand-held device of some kind. The device hummed, occasionally interspersed with a series of beeps. This went on for a while, and Lucy frowned. "Should have been open by now," she muttered. "Guess he improved his security since we last crossed paths." There was a louder beep, followed by a click, and her frown became a grin. "Just not enough," she finished, pulling the door open.
Cool air conditioning washed over them, almost shockingly cold after the hot and humid atmosphere of the island. Amy leaned into it, overbalancing, and Lucy had to catch her before she fell. "Oh, that feels nice," Amy murmured as Lucy helped her inside, then shut the door behind them. In theory, that meant they were safe. Or safer, at any rate. But given that the virus had to start somewhere... Amy wasn't going to start relaxing just yet. "I hope the others have an easier time getting in then we did."
"I'm sure they will," Lucy assured her. "Safety in numbers and all that, right?"
**********************************************
"Dom! On your left!" Max hollered above the sound of gunfire, which was almost drowned out by God only knew how many hungry moans.
It seemed that they'd found the main cluster of the infected. Or was it a flock? Herd? Pod?
Oh, think about it later, Brewer!
Dominique spun in the indicated direction, taking down one zombie who'd gotten a bit too close for her comfort. They were being forced to take a somewhat roundabout route to the lab, trying to lose their pursuers along the way. Diane had said that was fairly useless, as the zombies didn't slow, didn't stop, didn't rest. They just kept coming and coming.
It wasn't that Max had doubted her before, but now she was even more convinced.
They kept it up, though, because the zombies were so slow. The more distance they put between them and the infected, the better their chances of getting inside Black Dragon's base.
Max was also uncomfortably aware that they were starting to run low on ammo. She'd started out in better shape then the others, but after having to hand out a couple of magazines to Dominique and Gordon, even she was going to be in serious trouble soon. She was painfully aware that every shot they fired brought them that much closer to being unable to prevent a painful death... or worse.
Diane had muttered something earlier about eating her gun before she let them do that to her, and though she refused to let herself think that way, Max privately agreed.
"I think we're losing them," Janet gasped. As sick as she was getting, she hadn't been able to run to keep up with them, let alone fire her gun with any kind of accuracy. So as much as she hated to do it, Max had given Diane the gun, while trusting Janet's safety to the newcomer she called Scud. She did recognize the name, of course.
Lucy fucking Diamond's right hand man.
That was the part that made no sense. Why would Diamond care about stopping Black Dragon, even before she knew what he'd been up to out here. Likely there was some kind of private feud between them - the Reynolds family had been well known for such feuds and rivalries in the past, which was the reason that Lucy was the last one left - and she didn't actually care about keeping him from harming any innocents, but at this point, Max would take all the help she could get. Even from Lucy Diamond.
Still, she would be relieved when Amy wasn't stuck with Diamond, alone. She knew Amy could take care of herself against most foes, but against Lucy Diamond? And with a broken ankle, as well?
A quick look back showed her that Scud had given up trying to help Janet run, and had just picked her up, piggy-back style. It couldn't have been easy to run full out the way they were doing like that, but he wasn't saying a word. In her books, that earned him an amount of grudging respect.
Very grudging.
Max switched her handgun for the shotgun she had in her shoulder harness, using its stopping power to get rid of their last few, stubborn pursuers. They kept up their evasive course for several more minutes, then paused for a quick break to catch their breath.
"Are we almost to the entrance?" Gordon asked Diane, who was watching the surrounding foliage with a paranoid alertness.
It took a few seconds for the question to sink in. "Wha-? Oh. Yeah, we're getting there. There are a few entrances, but I think our best bet would be the one about five hundred feet to the west. That's closest."
Well, at least someone had been able to keep track of where they'd been going. "How far under the island do those tunnels stretch?"
"They go a ways," Diane agreed. "But fortunately, they all head towards the lab."
"Let's hope they all have working security doors, then," Janet grumbled.
A chill show down Max's spine at the thought of the lab being invaded by those... things, but she forced it away. "All right, let's get-"
She was cut off by a sudden outburst in French. She knew just enough of the language that, between that and the tone, she knew exclamations like that were what the phrase 'pardon my French' had been invented for. She shot a look at Dom, who was in turn looking farther up one of the trails.
There was a monkey there.
While this was the first animal they'd seen since arriving on the island, she wasn't quite sure what Dom was so worked up about. It was joined by several more monkeys, then even more, until there were several dozen of them just... standing there. Admittedly, that was weird, but then, they must have seemed rather strange to the monkeys themselves. Did the simians know that they weren't infected, and had come to them for protection, or some such thing? "Well," she began, "that's-"
"Look at zem!" Dominique insisted, aiming her gun at the small monkey horde.
Max frowned at her, but obediently shifted her gaze to the primate pack. They looked thin and mangy, the poor things. Running and hiding from the zombies must have been keeping them too busy to find any food. And...
She froze.
And their eyes were covered in a white, milky film that left her wondering if they could actually see them at all.
"Zombie monkeys? Are you fucking kidding me?" she demanded.
"Let's just back away from them nice and slow," Scud opined, shifting Janet on his back as he prepared to do just that.
As one, the monkeys all shifted their gazes to him, attention obviously captured by the movement, and they started forward.
Quickly.
"Fuck that! Run!" Max countered, and they immediately leaped to obey.
"'ow are zese ones able to run?" Dominique asked, firing over her shoulder and sending one monkey crashing to the ground. She didn't hang around to see it she'd killed it or not.
"How are they infected at all?" Gordon added. "You'd think that if a zombie actually managed to somehow catch one of them, there wouldn't be enough left to be infected."
"Not an accident!" Diane gasped out as she ran. "They were... infected first. Some... escaped into... the wild."
"Where they were fast enough to infect any natives that had been left in the village," Max guessed. She'd known this guy was a sick asshole, but she hadn't known how sick. "What happened to Black Dragon himself?"
"I don't know. I didn't see him... Had to get away... Haven't been back since."
"Great." A few shotgun blasts thinned out the pack following them, but not enough. She knew she still had two anti-personnel fragmentation grenades and one anti-personnel concussion grenade. They couldn't exactly stop and duck for cover, so the frag grenades were out for now. So she grabbed the concussion grenade, armed it, and tossed it behind her. "Fire in the hole!"
The shockwave sent them all to the ground, but they were able to scramble to their feet and get moving again without much struggle. Their pursuers, having much less body mass, had been hit harder, and scattered every which way, except in their direction.
"You have grenades?!" Janet asked, having to yell to even hear herself over the ringing in her ears. Her throat and lungs did not appreciate it, and she needed to take another hit from her inhaler.
"Just that and two frags!" Max shouted back.
"Let's hope we don't need them!" Gordon yelled.
Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice?
**********************************************
The creepiest thing was that aside from being deserted, the base seemed perfectly normal.
Well, normal as far as super-villain island headquarters buried inside volcanoes went, anyway.
"So far, this place looks rather similar to his base in Jakarta," Lucy said as she helped Amy down a corridor. Metal and cement made a nice change of pace from rock, rock, and more rock, but its otherwise spartan nature just screamed out for an interior decorator.
"What base in Jakarta?" Amy asked curiously.
"You guys never heard about that one? Huh. Not a huge surprise, I guess, given how the Indonesian government wanted to keep that whole mess under wraps. Just as well for me, since that was how I got out of there unchallenged."
"Do I wanna know?"
"It's nothing relevant to our current situation," Lucy assured her. "This was back when he still didn't seem to know quite what he was doing."
"As opposed to now, with his base being overrun by zombie hordes," Amy said wryly.
Lucy snorted. "Point taken. But still, that means I have a pretty good idea where the infirmary is. Hell, it's probably bigger and more important here, given the nature of his work."
Amy shook her head. "Command center first, then infirmary."
"No way. We're pushing our luck in regards to your ankle like this as it is. We need to get you off your feet as soon as possible."
"And have you running around the base with no one to watch your back? Like hell!"
Lucy looked somewhere between exasperated and touched. "Why don't you call your friends, see how close they are?"
"Yeah," Amy agreed, trying to hide how tired she was getting. She'd been operating mostly on adrenaline ever since the cave, and it was starting to ebb. Between that, all the exertions she'd been undertaking, and the depression about Bobby that she'd been doing her best to ignore, she was about ready to collapse. She just... didn't have time for that. "That, ah... That sounds like a plan." She keyed open the comm channel. "Max, come in." A pause. "Max? Can you hear me?"
There was a loud burst of static, followed by a garbled voice. "Just barely. I don't know wh-... ...-unnels are lined with, but they're... up... comms even w-... then they already... -cording to Diane, we're ab-... -en minutes fr-... -ou. Copy?"
"Barely. Did you say ten minutes?"
"...opy that."
"Good." She paused. "We'll meet you in the infirmary. Diane should know how to find it."
"See y... -hen."
"What made you change your mind?" Lucy wondered as she lead Amy down the hall, taking the first left they came across.
"Ten minutes isn't really enough time to find and secure the control room, especially when we have to take our time to make sure there aren't any... surprises, along the way," Amy told her. "Besides, I want to be there to meet Janet, and that's the first place they'll take her." Yes, she also wanted to lie down, but her condition didn't enter into her line of thought even once.
"Fair enough." And given that it took them over four minutes to reach the infirmary - and that, Lucy told her, was actually on the same level they were, unlike the control room - Amy doubted they could have even gotten to the control room in the time allotted, let alone secured it, found out what had happened, and then gone down to meet their friends.
Because she was slowing them down.
She could tell, though, that Lucy wasn't about to listen to any ideas about leaving her and going off on her own. Which... was kind of nice, actually.
Amy didn't quite moan with relief once she was off her feet, but it was close. Not that this made her ankle feel better, so much as marginally less painful.
Even more helpful was the painkiller that Lucy found for her. Somehow, she wasn't surprised that Lucy knew enough to prepare a syringe and inject her with it on the first try. "I wouldn't begin to know how go about making a cast for you," Lucy told her with a smile, "but I think I can scrounge up a better splint then that."
"I wasn't going to say anything..."
Lucy chuckled and began looking around the cabinets. And while it did bear an uncanny resemblance to the infirmary of a military base - meaning he'd probably just stolen the design, rather then come up with it on his own, which didn't surprise Amy in the slightest - it was obvious that this was not where Black Dragon had been doing his viral research.
Which, quite frankly, was just fine by her.
"You know your way around an infirmary," she commented as she watched Lucy bustle about.
"We do have a doctor or two on staff, but sometimes it's just me and Scud, and we're not anywhere near any medical help. Needs must and all that."
That was a phrase that Amy was all too familiar with. "You two are pretty close, then?"
"He's my brother in everything except genetics."
Amy smiled. "Who says you can't choose your family?" Certainly not her. Not with her team.
Lucy paused in her search and smiled back at her, and for a long moment they just looked at each other. Unlike before, Amy didn't feel any need to blush. It was a weird moment, to be sure, but she didn't feel at all uncomfortable.
Well, not until she accidentally moved her ankle, and shifted in discomfort, feeling it even through the painkiller.
"Right... splint," Lucy said, sounding almost embarrassed.
"Since I've got you here..." Amy began, then hesitated.
"Since you've got me here..." Lucy echoed.
"Can I... Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"
"Can't guarantee I'll answer, but you can always ask."
Amy supposed that was the best she could have expected. "What's up with Australia?"
Lucy paused, then replied, "I don't like their attitude."
Amy sighed. "Lucy..."
"Well, I don't," she defended. "The rest of that answer is a bit too personal to get into until I get to know you better."
"Fair enough." Not like she'd really expected an answer, but how could she not ask when the opportunity presented itself?
"My turn to ask something now?"
Amy blinked. "We're taking turns?"
"Ah ha!" Lucy exclaimed into a cabinet, momentarily ignoring her question. She pulled something out and held it up. "We have achieved air splint!"
"Whatever works, right?"
"Right." Lucy walked over to her bed, setting it down near her feet and gingerly reaching out for the emergency splint she'd applied in the field. "Hold still," she said as she began to take it off.
"Believe me, I'll do my best."
"Good. And why shouldn't I get to ask you questions in return? Fair is fair, right?"
"...I guess so."
Lucy chuckled as she very carefully unwound the shirt she'd wrapped around Amy's ankle. "Oh, relax. It's not like I'm going to be asking you for classified material or anything."
"What do you want to know, then?"
"I want to know about you. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Deciding that was a safe enough topic, Amy replied, "Two sisters. Both younger. Claudia's fifteen, and Natalie's twelve."
"If they look anything like you, they must be adorable."
Amy blushed, then paled as Lucy finished removing the old splint and began taking off her shoe and sock.
Lucy noticed. "Sorry."
"Just... get it done," Amy told her. "Can I ask about you and Black Dragon?"
Lucy hesitated. "Well, I suppose in a situation like this, that's a fair question. Just... keep it to yourself, okay?"
"All right," Amy replied, not even needing to think about it. She told herself it was just because she wanted to know that badly, but she knew that she really just didn't want to hurt Lucy, especially after everything she'd done for her.
"First of all... You need to understand, he didn't... start out as a world conquering supervillain. He started as just some random schmuck, a henchman. One of those anonymous goons you DEBS beat up all the time. This particular goon, however, was... working for the Schaffers."
"...oh."
"He killed two of my uncles, and... Well, we never did find my sister's body."
Amy blinked. "I'm sorry. I didn't even know you had a sister."
"Nobody does. And I'd prefer it stay that way."
"I won't say anything, I told you that," Amy promised.
"Okay." She paused. "Well, that's how it started. Things just... escalated from there." She readied the air splint. It was basically just a clear inflatable cylinder that could be closed at either end and became rigid when filled with air under pressure. Fortunately, a motorized pump had been included. Amy gritted her teeth and lifted her leg so that Lucy could slip it on, then inhaled sharply when it began inflating. "Sorry."
"It's... your turn," Amy forced out.
Lucy waited until the splint was fully inflated and the pump detached, carefully lowering Amy's foot back to the bed before she spoke again. "Where are you from, originally?"
Amy smiled shakily. "Atlanta, Georgia." She waited until the waves of pain in her ankle subsided somewhat before speaking further. "The suburbs, actually. About ten minutes from the city. I love it there, but L.A. is nice, too." She paused as she thought of her next question. "Have you ever thought about... Well, going straight?" Her cheeks darkened a bit. "Um, figuratively speaking?"
Lucy nearly laughed aloud. "God, you are so adorable!" she said instead with a wide grin. Amy's blush darkened. "And... yeah, on occasion. Usually after a job goes way south. Sometimes I consider just retiring, moving somewhere tropical, and renting boats to tourists."
"Boats?"
"Hey, I didn't want to be a criminal growing up. I wanted to be a pirate."
"Umm... Pirates are criminals," Amy pointed out.
"Oh. Whoops."
Amy giggled.
Lucy smiled, as if that had been one of the more beautiful sounds she'd ever heard. "What about you? You like being a DEB? And how does your family feel?"
"Well, at the moment, I'm not loving it as much as usual," Amy confessed dryly. She and Lucy shared a smile. "Ordinarily, though, it's great. I'm doing something meaningful, something that helps people, that makes a difference. I may not make the world that much safer, but every little bit helps. My family..." She sighed. "Well, my sisters think my job is 'just SOOO effing cool'. My mother worries about me constantly, which means we tend to fight any time I visit, or talk to her on the phone. My father... Well, he's retired Air Force, so he understand what it's like, at least somewhat."
"At least most of your family's supportive, right?" Lucy consoled, moving up to the head of the bed. Amy pushed herself into a sitting position, and Lucy reflexively steadied her until she was stable. Even after she was balanced, Amy didn't shoo her back.
"Yeah, I know. I just wish..." She shook her head. "Lucy Diamond. I get that you like diamonds, but why leave them at the scenes of your crimes? Yeah, I know, it's a calling card," she said, holding up a hand before Lucy could reply. "But why choose one that's so easy to imitate? Don't you realize how easily someone could frame you for something?"
"Oh, I keep a close track of any such potential copycats," Lucy told her. "If I ever find one, I either make sure they're turned over to the authorities, or I take care of it myself. Make one or two examples out of people, and everyone gets that it's not worth the risk to try that sort of thing."
Well, it wasn't that she'd forgotten that Lucy was a ruthless criminal or anything. She'd just had other, more important things to worry about. Still, though... That was one subject she didn't think she'd ever want to ask for further details about. "That's... good, I guess?"
Lucy shrugged. "Honestly, it doesn't really come up all that often. The family reputation scares them away a lot of the time before I personally enter into it. Besides, the governments of the world know that, while I'm not about to walk into their offices and confess to whatever, if I deny committing a crime, that's because I didn't do it. And I have my ways of getting through to them."
"Good to know." And it was, really.
"So tell me..." Lucy's smile turned sly. "Have you ever kissed another woman?"
Amy hesitated. "Once." She paused. "I think."
Lucy's eyebrows rose. "You think?"
Amy winced. "I was really, really drunk at the time. I have this dim memory of dancing with some redhead, smooth lips, and... I think her hands kept wandering down to my ass. But I don't really remember what happened, and I never could find her again, so..." She shrugged. Part of her wondered if that shot Lucy had given her before was making her a bit more talkative then usual, especially considering she'd only just met Lucy, who, she reminded herself, was a criminal.
That she had to keep reminding herself of that - and that it mattered, and not in a good way - was probably not a good sign.
She just felt so comfortable with Lucy! She'd known the woman for maybe half an hour or so, and already it felt like they'd been best friends for years. "What's it like?" she asked, as if to further prove her point to herself. "Kissing another woman, I mean. When you can actually remember it."
Lucy nearly grinned. How often was one handed a line like that? "Well, I'm probably a bit biased, but... It's so much better. Everything about it is better. Smoother lips, smoother cheeks, no annoying facial hair, and..." She hesitated. "Well... honestly, it would be easier to show you then to tell you."
Amy swallowed. "Oh. Um..."
Lucy leaned down, one hand resting on the back of Amy's neck. Amy could feel her heart going a mile a minute, but stayed where she was, her eyes beginning to flutter closed in pure reflex. Lucy slowly edged closer, until Amy could feel the other woman's breath against her lips. She felt lightheaded. She...
She nearly levitated off the bed when the infirmary door suddenly opened, and Lucy jerked back as well, startled. Scud entered, Janet on his back, and the others followed him in.
And despite her concern for Scud and Diane, as well as the visibly sick DEB, she had to fight down a grin at Amy's whispered, "Sonuvabitch!"
Well, like I said, this probably won't be a long one. But they don't all have to be. Anyway, hope you're still enjoying this!