7R&C: Anomaly
4. Barracks
Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet & Clank
"… Okay, this is it."
Eli stands in front of a large building. Quite a large building, It's primarily made of concrete and metal and is colored dark grey. It's quite long and very open as from what he can tell the building was once a few stories tall but much of the upper floors of the building were destroyed in some sort of bombardment of the city.
Any areas of the building that are still second and third floors are completely inaccessible from the rubble of the building. Much of the ground floor seems to be intact but the still no doubt has some somewhat intact areas but may not be much.
Eli sighs at the state of the place but takes a look upwards and sees the sun getting to the point of dusk. 'I have to… I have to.' He thinks and with his course of action set, he heads for the front door. Their was two but half the doorway was buried under rubble with the remaining door barely hanging onto the hinges. Heads up to it and has to grab on and wrench the thing free to open it.
"Nnnngghhhhaaaa!" He grunts as it's pulled open but the thing makes a loud crashing sound as it breaks off and lands on the ground. He freezes a moment as he worries about the sound being made but after a moment theirs nothing else that can be heard from inside the building he's looking to go into. His moment of relief turns to tiredness as his body starts to feel weak from the lack of food and water over the couple days. "Just… go." He mutters annoyingly at his situation. He tightens his grip on his crowbar and flashlight before moving in.
The place is largely dark and decrepit like the rest of the city. The place is made of stone and concrete structure and the hallway he goes into is long but rubble is all over the place, including broken pieces of lights and glass from the fixtures above having been broken long ago. He takes note of a fair amount of sand and dirt having been pushed into the hallway from years of the storms taking place. To his slight relief the substance is undisturbed, which means none of the feral creatures frequent the entrance he just went into. While he smiles at that news, he still schools himself and gets ready just in case. The building has seen better days so theirs no reason they have another way to get in and out of the building because of it.
Eli grunts as he ducks under a beam that was collapsed and blocking half the hallway. "Damnit… c'mon…" He grunts as he goes forward and has to also clamber his way over a small pile of rubble. "Oof!" He grunts as he collapses onto the ground. He groans as he lays on the ground before slowly pushing himself back up. "Fucking hell… be more careful stupid…" He grumbles as he manages to get back to his feet. He places his arm against one of the stone walls to hold himself up for a second and get his breath back. With a grunt of frustration he continues moving through the place.
He passes multiple different rooms, some of them small with broken wooden and metal desks, bookcases fallen about, rotted, moldy and almost disintegrated books. Theirs more hallways that lead to more of the structure but he focuses on trying to get deeper into the place, surmising that their storage of essentials might be in the back in some way. He looks at the side of the walls to see any sort of plaques, boards, signs or anything of the sorts that can lead him to storage or anything similar. On top of the bits of concrete littering the ground, theirs also large piles of paper scattered about. When he makes it to a cross section of hallways, he groans as he sees nothing that gets him information on where to go as many of the signs were knocked off and scattered about in time. He spots one that says Storage, although that one is right in the middle of the hallway, another that says Operations, then Entrance, and Barracks. "Oh come on." He mutters in annoyance as he finds himself in a situation not to his liking. With the sun setting and the day close to turning to night, he can't afford to scour the whole place and needs to find what he needs sooner rather than later. He takes a look around, glancing between the different hallways before sighing in disdain and heading to his left, taking the gamble. "Please don't make me regret this." With those final words he heads off.
A few minutes pass as he continues searching the place, more collapsed halls and doorways with barely any means for him to circumvent them besides moving through collapsed walls, over and under some rubble and the like. He only finds a few bodies as he goes, mostly skeletonized as they seemed to have been pinned or instantly killed when rubble had fallen on them.
He soon comes across a particularly larger room with a ton of columns, pillars, side doors and beds.
So many beds.
"Huh, this must be the barracks." He mutters as he surveys the place. The rooms is largely dark and he can barely most of what's in it but can see well over dozens upon dozens of military cots and beds with footlockers at the end of them. "Uhhhh… damnit." He groans in frustration as he slowly sits down on a nearby chair. He starts to get a headache and can feel his stomach rumbling, desperation for food and water starting to really affect him. He wipes the sweat from his brow and can feel himself starting to get dizzy. "Fuck… I can't… what should…" He barely manages to catch himself falling to the ground straight up but still collapses onto the ground, his hand brushing against a light switch.
*Clang*
His crowbar hits the floor hard and bounces away from him. He lets out a groan at his weakened state. "Fuck…! Damnit… just… something… anything… please…" His tone is practically begging at this point as his body is incredibly tired and in pain from his empty stomach. He curls in himself as he clutches his stomach, groaning and moaning as he does. "Nooooo…." He lowly moans in his fetal position on the floor. His vision stays blurry as he tries to make sense of the dark environment around him. He can't even tell if he sees movement barely a few feet in front of him but he does notice that theirs lights that were turned on around the barracks room. Most of them are broken but theirs a few that are constant on, flickering, or giving a low hum as they struggle to stay on.
As he looks one light above him suddenly snaps and pops, instantly breaking the glass bulb and making the pieces fall around him. He covers his head as the small shattered pieces tink off him harmlessly.
Once the glass stops falling him he relaxes and just lays there on the ground, finding his strength draining so rapidly he can't barely do or want to do anything. 'Is this it? Is this… how it goes? Just passing out and possibly getting killed? How do I…?'
His moment of dark thoughts halt as he spots off the to the side some boxes and pallets illuminated by a bit of flickering light. His eyes begin to widen as he starts to recognize something the pallets wrapped in a plastic-like material.
Clear bottles.
"No way." He whispers and quickly grabs his crowbar and just about crawls his way to the items. He stumbles a little on his hands and feet a couple times and bangs his crowbar on the ground a few times but his focus is something that can possibly save his life. He makes it to the pallet lit up and illuminated on a small piece of light and sees the many bottle containers that seem to be clear all wrapped in clear plastic covered in heavy dust. Slamming his hand on the outside of the plastic shows that the bottles are in fact filled with clear liquid as it jostles a little.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that he may have just found a stash of sealed water. He breathes out a breath of relief as he tries to tear into the plastic with his fingers but he's weak enough that he can't even tear off the plastic with his fingers. Frustration grabs hold of him as he slams his fist on the plastic and grabs his crowbar before he uses it to start tearing holes in the plastic. He manages to get one large enough that he manages to get his hands in and starts pulling it apart. As he does the plastic holding it all up allows the bottles to begin to fall down and litter the floor, a couple even splitting open and their contents running out. He focuses on grabbing one that's intact, which there are hundreds of thankfully, and even relishes the lukewarm feel of water on his skin but still attacks the bottle.
Once he grabs it he smiles as he looks at it and begins trying to unscrew the top off. His body is still weak from lack of everything at this point and can barely even twist the cap off. "Come on! Come on! Come on already!" He shouts, not caring anymore as he slams the top of the bottle against the metal part of a doorframe. He hits it a few times till finally the top pops off. A little bit of it splashes on his hands but he wastes no time in taking as much a drink as he can.
*Gulp*Gulp*Gulp*Gulp*Gulp*
The water is slightly hot from being in storage in this place for so long but it's a far cry from how much he's been feeling for awhile now. He gulps down about half the entire bottle before he stays sitting on the ground and lays back against the pallet, taking deep lungfuls of air as he steadily breathes in relief. "Yes… oh yes… thank you." He mutters silently to himself happily, even chuckling a little with a smile on his face. He even quickly splashes some water on his face and wipes his face clean of dirt as well. The feelings of relief increase for him as he starts to feel that much better, not even caring for his clothes getting a bit wet as well.
Hunger is still a problem for him but at the very least sating his thirst gives him just enough relief that he can breath a bit easier. He no longer feels as weak as before and has renewed vigor for himself. "Alright then. Not out of this yet." He says to himself, a new determined state for him to survive. "Time to get going. I'm not done—"
*BANG*
A splash of water hits the side of his face. It takes him a second to process what happened as he looks at one of the water bottles next to his head and sees a bullet has ripped through a few of the bottles. His eyes widen as he looks forward and sees a figure in the dark. "Holy—!"
*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*
Several more shots ring out as Eli throws himself to the side as the bullets rip through more of the bottles behind him. He makes it to a column of concrete for a second before moving to another one as more bullets trail behind him and slam into the wall and floor behind him. He sprints through the room and continues going as fast as he can with his heart practically beating out of his chest. He trips as he makes it to a side room and slams onto the ground but as more bullets impact around him, he quickly crawls his way forward under some shelves and keeps going until he's got plenty of cover around him. He's in another storage room of sorts and theirs tons of shelves around him. He's found himself covered by a few shelves that were knocked closer together, allowing him some semblance of cover. He holds his crowbar close to his chest as he pulls out his gun as the room around gets peppered with bullet fire. He's shaking, breathing heavily, can hear his heartbeat in his head over the bullets impacting everything around him. He looks up as the crates, wooden and metal, are shot up, cloth bags and other bottles of liquids being broken apart around him. He covers his head with his hands as some glass falls on him.
After a tense few more seconds of gunfire… it stops.
Slowly he lowers his arms and peeks his eyes up. The area around him is darker than normal since most of the lights in his spot have long since gone out but he's gotten used to the fark he can make his way out of his little hidey-hole, albeit very slowly and extremely carefully. He makes it back to the doorway he entered through and places his back against the wall, slowly laying the crowbar on the ground without making any noise. As he gets close to the edge, he looks around and spots a piece of a broken mirror on the ground. Grabbing it, he uses it to peak around the corner slowly so he doesn't get shot directly. It takes a second for him to scan the area around but finds nothing outwardly going after him.
A second later he slowly pokes his head out and looks around. A few of the lights that were on before are now blown out and shot up but the room is still sufficiently lit up. He just about jumps back around the corner when he spots a figure far into the room he was in before but they don't seem to looking directly at him. They seem to be scanning the area but not really looking too carefully about the place. In fact some of its movements seem a bit sluggish as it holds a rifle. A really futuristic looking rifle he's never seen before.
What's interesting is the fact that the figure is wearing the same armor as the long dead soldiers he saw outside near the destroyed tank. "What?" He mutters quietly in confusion. A crack somewhere else in the room forces him back against the wall. He holds his breath for a second before he looks back outside. He looks around and sees the same figure he saw earlier but now he sees at least one more moving into the room. They are wearing the same armor as the first one, carrying a similar looking rifle.
What puzzles him as that all the creatures he saw before were completely feral, rabid and straight up charged him with the intent to tear him apart with teeth and claws. These ones aren't snarling or throwing themselves around. He's not sure if its because of the helmets they are wearing but the fact they were using guns of some kind is interesting.
The first one he saw and that had opened fire on him looks to be slightly slumped over and swaying a little with his rifle held in one hand at his side. He reaches behind him and grabs what looks like a large block that he can only assume is the weapons magazine, from about what he can tell from his location and the darkness in the place. It simply knocks the magazine that's in the rifle off, letting it clatter on the ground, eliciting a look from the other Lombax before it goes milling about with its weapon clutched in its hand but also swaying and trudging along. The first one places its magazine into its rifle and goes moving around. The creatures are almost completely kitted out and the amount of firepower that one rifle did to the area around him was bad.
The situation he has himself in is not good and he's got to deal with them. Otherwise he can't get the supplies he needs to actually survive. The water helped but now he needs food, otherwise he just might not survive the night, nor be strong enough to actually come back to get the stuff. He needs to deal with them now.
With a low but quiet growl of frustration he pulls out his pistol. He pulls out the magazine, checks the rounds, the chamber and locks it back into place. "16 rounds." He reaches into his pockets and feels around for some more ammo.
He freezes as he realizes he doesn't have anymore magazines on him.
"Goddamnit." He mutters in frustration. With low ammo, barely any weapons, his confidence is at an all-time pretty much low end. Well, it was already at a low end considering he has near absolute zero confidence in his bullets actually being able to penetrate their futuristic armor. He would prefer if he actually had more ammo to use, a lot more, without worrying about running out so soon, but he'll just have to make do. He holds up his pistol in one hand and grabs the crowbar in the other. He decides to head deeper into the room he's in for another way out as going back out the way door he came through into the open is liable to get him rinsed with bullets. He decides to get just a little bit of attention off of himself and grab a metal bottle that wasn't broken in the gunfire. He moves away from the door and makes it to a shelf. Before he rounds it, he gets ready to throw the metal bottle with as much heft as he can. "Please let this work." With a small grunt of effort, he tosses it as hard as he can back out the door and crouch walks deeper into the room.
*CLANG*
His heart almost skips a beat at the loud noise of the bottle hitting something, then subsequent more noises as it scrapes on the ground and hits more stuff. While hears the Lombax shuffle a bit, he continues making his way through the room, doing everything he can to keep his weapons in hand and trying to limit as much noise as possible for himself. His heavy breathing isn't doing him any favors, especially with the dusty and stale air he is breathing. He has to becareful too for coughing as well because that would be a beacon for them to spot him. 'Just keep moving. Try and get behind them.' He grunts as he makes it over a box and comes across a wide open doorway leading him to a hallway back into the main room. Theirs another doorway leading into another smaller room just across from him. He peaks out and sees back into the main room of the Lombaxes making their way to where he made the noise. 'Okay, good.' He makes his way across the hallway to the room. 'Just need to relocate so I can—'
His train of thought completely grinds to a halt as another figure moves in front of him. It steps out from the side of the room and into the doorway. He stops right in front of it as stands there as such an imposing figure, fully blocking his way forward. Just like the others this one is wearing the same armor as the others but closer he can see smaller details. Like the armor he saw outside, this one is cracked and has small pieces missing from it which shows fur, skin and the bodysuit underneath in some spots. It has two bandoliers on its chest but one of them seems to be torn and is just dangling off its shoulder, and the somewhat intact one has several pouches filled with magazines although it seems theirs only one spare mag in the pouches. It's rifle is still held by its hand at its side… and in the moment that seems frozen to Eli starts to pick back up as he sees the Lombax staring at him slowly brings its rifle back up to him.
Without wasting a beat, Eli charges.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*
As he pushes himself forward he opens fire with his pistol, sending five rounds at the Lombax. His shots are not focused anywhere specific. He just needs to distract it enough in order to allow himself to close the distance and stop it from using its rifle. Most of his shots ping and deflect off the armor, further proving his point that his meager pistol cannot penetrate the advanced armor. One shot however manages to find itself in one of the cracked open parts of the armor in its side. A small spurt of blood sprays out from the right side of the Lombaxes stomach as Eli's bullet finds its mark. A grunt escapes the Lombax, slightly enhanced but garbled with a piece of static from the helmets voice system it wears.
On reflex it drops its rifle and brings one hand to its side and the other goes to grab Eli. Eli is too fast however as he manages to throw his full body into the Lombaxes midsection, tackling the Lombax to the ground. With the Lombax grunting from the hit, he is stunned enough that Eli manages to sit up and immediately begins to wail on the Lombax with his crowbar.
With the constant banging of metal Eli tries desperately to kill the Lombax with his melee weapon. He hits the armor multiple times even as the Lombax tries to block his strikes a few times.
*Argh*
After a few more times, Eli is halted as the Lombax grips his throat and halts him. Eli tries to grab the arm and pull it off him but the creatures grip strength is too strong for him. Eli chokes as he struggles to breathe. In his focus for trying to release the grip from him, even going as far as smacking the arm with his crowbar but it barely budges, he suddenly finds himself being lifted into the air. His eyes widen as he gets a better grasp of the difference between him and the Lombax soldier. The creature stands half a head taller than but almost easily lifts him above its head. His attempts to break free grow weaker and weaker as oxygen escapes him, even as he's staring right into the visor of the Lombax. His arm with his held crowbar dangles at his side as the Lombax looks at him almost inquisitively, even bringing him in close and tilting its head at him.
Anger starts to take hold of Eli as he remembers the days he's had in this place, how much he had to adapt so quickly and so fast just to survive harder than he ever had before, at least from what he remembers.
Now… he still doesn't want it to end.
He grits his teeth as he glares daggers at the creature in front of him.
"Fuck…" He chokes out, his grip tightening on his crowbar, "… You!" He grunts with a small yell.
With what strength he has still, he thrusts his crowbar forward.
"Graaah!" The Lombax grunts as Eli aims for the hole in the armor from earlier that he shot. The strength the Lombax had before is gone as he drops Eli and grabs his side before recoiling backwards. Elis grabs his throat as he chokes and tries to get his breathing back. After a few seconds his breathing is somewhat better but he looks up and stares at the Lombax as it tries pull the crowbar out. The anger Eli had is still there as he clenches his hands and charges forward. The Lombax looks up as Eli shoulders the creature and grabs the crowbar before pushing as hard as he can. A loud 'squelching' noise can be heard as blood spurts heavily from the wound in the armor. The Lombax collapses onto his back as he tries to tears the weapon out but Eli is still on him, keeping his weakened hand moves away as Eli shoves the crowbar in deeper until the curved end is pretty much all that's left outside. The body twitches and freezes for a second as a gargle can be heard from the creature. Eli takes the opportunity as its body freezes and grabs the end of the crowbar and yanks it to the side. Then he does it again, and again, and again for a few times. He tries to ignore the sounds of flesh tearing and blood pooling from the hole in the armor, as well as from the bottom of the helmet as the Lombax almost seems to be drowning in his own blood. The body lies still soon after and all attempts for it to fight him are gone, its life snuffed out.
With the threat gone, Eli finds himself breathing heavily and tiredness starting to weigh itself on him. He lets go of his crowbar and leaves it in the body. After what he just did, he's not sure if he even wants to get it back. He sits down next to the body as he tries to get his breath back. "… Fuck…" He mutters in tired frustration.
*RTTTTTTTTTTTT*
He throws himself back and takes cover against the wall as a staccato of bullets impact near him. The Lombax body gets peppered as Eli tries to make himself a small target and out of the others line of sight. He was so focused on killing the one creature he forgot the others he needs to deal with. The room he's in has another door that leads back in to the main room and is now allowing some hostile Lombaxes try to kill him. The wall he has for a cover breaks pieces off as concrete dust rains around him. He covers his face with his arm as he almost prays he doesn't get killed in the hail fire. He peaks his eyes out as the gunfire slows a little as he notices something with the body next to him.
It's been shot up. He watches as many of the bullets ping off the armor but they still leave massive dent marks in it, with some bullets impacting the same spots close enough they pierce right through it and hit the body underneath. His eyes widen for a second at the realization, right before a round nearly takes his head as it deflects off the wall next to him. "Fuck!" He shouts at the near miss. He growls out and looks around for a weapon. He finds his pistol next to him so he manages to safely grab it and put it away. May not be as effective as the ones he's currently dealing with but the other creatures are still just as vulnerable to a bullet as he is. He looks around for the dead Lombaxes rifle and spots it next to the body on the otherside of it. He reaches over to try to grab it but another shot nearly hits his hand. "Damnit!" He shouts as he recoils back. He groans angrily as he looks around for anything he can use to shield himself, if only for a second to grab the weapon.
His eyes soon land on the body of the armored Lombax. A grimace forms on his face before he groans and grabs the bodies foot and drags it a little closer. He pulls the body up and rolls it on its side. From there he scoots himself almost under the body to the side of it as he crawls his way the few feet he needs to get to the gun. He starts to get very worried and even more scared as more bullets impact the body, urging him to crawl forward a little bit faster. Soon enough he smiles as he grabs the handle of the gun and frantically pulls himself back to his cover. With him back in cover, he takes a second to look at the rifle. The design of it does have its futuristic set to it.
The weapons has an almost complete all silver metal design to it. It's main body has a long rectangular body to it with many of the slides, charging handle, ejection port and so forth in a typical rifle but this one has a many more buttons, lights and switches on this one than a normal rifle he's seen. Some form of black polymer makes up a covering for the buttstock of the rifle and the handle for his hand, which is much larger and thicker than other gun handles he's seen. On top of the rifle is a carry handle that goes most of the length of the main body of the gun that also doubles as a rear sight. Theirs a small display on the back of the handle that shows a 48 on the yellow and black cracked screen. Eli surmises that it's an ammo counter for the weapon. The end of the main body of the rifle ends in a sharp slant with the barrel extending outwards and ending in a muzzle break.
"Looks simple enough." He mutters as he looks at the rifle at different angles. He looks over at the body and sees the bandolier on the body. He reaches over quickly and yanks it off. The bullets from before tore up the bandolier and allowed him to pull it over with the magazine still in it. He can't wear it but he just needs the ammo for it. Unlike the larger box magazines he saw the other Lombaxes using this one is more in line with a rifles type. The rounds look similar to larger calibers like a .50 cal he's seen before. "Really hope this works." He pockets it and holds the rifle tightly in his hands, getting a feel for it and as he does, the bullets that were peppering his position have finally subsided. He dares not look out the main door where they were shooting from and instead heads back into the hallway. As he gets up, he hears the sounds of footsteps near him. Hunkering near the wall, he looks back and spots one of their shadows moving closer into the room. As soon as he sees a boot, he dashes forward past the hallway and back into the side room he was in before. Navigating his way back to the other door, he huddles near it and peaks out.
One of the soldiers is no where to be seen but the other is looking into the hallway with his rifle held in hand. Eli pulls back and lets out a deep breath.
He steps out with his temporary rifle shouldered. The soldier Lombax turns to Eli as he steps out but can't bring his gun up in time. With his sights set center mass, he pulls the trigger.
"Arh!" Eli shouts as the first few rounds exit his gun but the force of the kickback knocks him back against the wall. He slams against the wall and grunts as his shoulder feels on fire but he ignores it and looks up at this enemy. The Lombax was knocked onto his knees with some noticeable dents in his armor but still alive and kicking. Eli has to throw himself to the side as the Lombax gets up and aims his rifle at him. Heading deeper into the room like before he passes by several pillars as they are lit up by bullet fire around him. He slides to a halt near the side room with the water and quickly goes in and looks over the gun with some proper cover. "Are you freaking kidding me? First gun I get that can work against the armored assholes and now I can't use it without knocking my shoulder out of its socket. How the hell am I supposed to…?" He questions to himself until he looks at some of the dials and buttons on the side of the rifle. Its jumbled mess mostly for him considering the sheer adrenaline he's running on with lack of food at the moment but from what he can gather what the dials and buttons are, the weapons has a much larger degree of customization than just cosmetics or even attachments.
It seems he might even be able to customize the amount of power that goes into each of his rounds as he shoots the gun. "Wow, that's some next level stuff there." He smiles at the weapon. His smiles is quickly wiped away as another bullet impacts the corner of the doorway he's hiding near. "Okay, lets change it a little fast." He quickly skims through the weapons systems as fast as he can and figures out the system that controls the power the rounds are sent out. Not wanting to blow out his shoulder again but still wanting to keep the stopping power needed to punch through their armor he only brings the power down by about 25% of what he had before. He can't go into specifics right now, just needs to make the gun workable for him to use.
With the weapon set, he takes a deep breath now that the gunfire has died down again and prepares himself. He switches the weapon to single fire and waits for a bit. He shoulders the weapon and aims as he listens. Footsteps can be heard as he stays crouched down and prepares himself. The footsteps get louder and faster until they are right outside the door.
Eli moves his finger onto the trigger and tightens his grip on the weapon.
The Lombax steps out and aims its rifle into the room, except it was looking up at his head height. It takes a second for it to notice and look down and sees Eli.
He smiles.
*Bang*
Eli grunts as the bullet exits his gun and slams into the helmet of the Lombax. It pings off as the Lombax grunts and steps back, grabbing the face of its helmet. Eli grunts as the soreness of his shoulder but pushes himself back to his feet and sets his rifle back to full auto. He steps out of the room and sees the Lombax holding its head in its hand as tries to get its bearings together. When it finally does, its too late as it looks up to see Eli staring at it, rifle held at his hip and aimed right at the soldiers chest.
Without giving it a chance to fire back, Eli opens fire. A flurry of bullets let loose from his gun, making his aim go wild for a moment but he's able to correct it easily enough, especially since the close proximity means he doesn't need accuracy, just as many rounds sent as possible into the body of the hostile in front of him. The Lombax's body jerks all about as the bullets impact its armor. Many of them bounce or ricochet off but soon enough the armor gives way and he sees many of them pass through to the body. It only takes a few seconds but soon enough his ammo runs dry and he only hears the sound of the weapons clicking.
Well, actually his ears are ringing painfully from the sound of his weapon but his focus is on the now dead body in front of him. He looks down at it, his weapon held at his side and ready just in case. He notes the many bullet holes adorning the front of the armor, with even one shot he notes was able to ricochet up and hit the neck. A noticeable amount of blood begins to pool around the body. Even with that he's still not sure so he tries to make sure it stays dead.
*Click*
Except he's out of ammo. A moment relief hits him as he's happy the creature went down before he ran out of ammo in his rifle. He goes ahead and reloads his weapon with his last magazine. The seconds he takes to reload it and the body is still unmoving. Not wanting to waste the last of his ammo, even as he searches the body they have no more ammo on them, he brings his rifle back up and makes his way deeper into the main room, watching and scanning around for the last Lombax. The room is silent as before so he makes his way to the side room he saw the Lombax enter through before. He steps are careful but quick as he wants to make sure he gets it in close proximity so can just mag dump into it and just be done with the place ASAP. He's not even sure how much daylight he has left so he needs to speed this up, get his supplies and get back to his base quickly before he passes out. He goes up to the door he saw the Lombax enter into before and carefully makes his way up to it, his aim up and ready to be placed right on his target when he sees it.
As he steps into the doorway, to his confusion he finds nothing there. The room is sparsely open with mostly small miscellaneous items thrown about and the dead body of the first Lombax soldier still dead on the ground. "What the hell?" He mutters quietly to himself when he finds nothing there. He backs up and looks to his left…
His eyes widen as he catches the Lombax stepping out of the hallway between the rooms. It's already bringing its weapon to be trained on him. As quickly as he can he swings his weapon around. He pulls his gun up and immediately opens fire as he does. His gunfire sprays the room and wall next to them but the rest of his shots land on the Lombax. His own shots are throw off course as the Lombaxes aim sprays elsewhere into the room. Eli keeps the trigger held until his gun runs dry. A moment of panic hits him as his only means to puncture their armor has run out and the Lombax has only looked dazed by the attack and is quickly getting back up. Theirs only one thing he can possibly do to fight.
"HRAAAAA!"
Beat the hell out of it.
He charges forward and slams the butt of his rifle into the things helmet. He doesn't stop after the first hit and continues to hit as many times as he can on the thing in an attempt to kill it as fast as he can before it can get a chance to attack him. After about almost half a dozen hits it grabs hits it backhands Eli. He barely manages to pull his rifle up and it takes the brunt of the attack. He grunts from the hit but before he can try to continue attacking it suddenly grabs him and throws him backwards. Eli slams into the wall behind him and grunts from the hit. He groans as he gets back up, holding his side as he does. When he looks up, he watches as the Lombax stands up to its full height and holds its weapon with both hands, ready to gun him down. Before it can, he thinks what his next move he can do to save his ass not let him die here and now.
He refuses to die here and now. He does notice the slight askew state that the Lombaxes helmet is now at, his attempts before allowed him to break the seal on helmet to the rest of the armor. An idea forms in his mind at the best chance he can in order to defeat his opponent. As the Lombax trains its sights on him, Eli throws his rifle at the Lombax. The weapon slams into the creatures helmet, making it recoil from the hit. While its momentarily distracted, Eli charges as fast and as hard as he can and throws his whole body into the creatures midsection. It lets out a grunt from the hit but is still dazed enough for Eli to attack. He elbows the creature in the side of the helmet, dazing some more, and quickly grabs the helmet and pushes it up. With his other hand he grabs his pistol and shoves it right under the creatures chin and pulls the trigger as many times as he can.
*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*
He loses count how many times he fires but he just continues to fire until his pistol runs out of ammo. Even then he still finds himself pulling the trigger as the gun clicks empty. After several empty clicks, he stops, lets out a breath of air he didn't know he was holding, and collapses backwards. His gun falls from his hand and clatters on the ground as he leans back on his hands. He takes deep breaths of air as he tries to calm his rapidly beating heart. He stares at the body, seeing the large amount of blood pooling around the head, and the completely head helmet and visor the Lombax has. He leans forward and lays his head down on the crook of his arm. "… Damn… it's… done…" He mutters to himself quietly. He looks at the blood on his hands and arms. Before he ended up in this new place, he had never even entertained the idea of killing someone else, a living creature for that matter, only in video games.
… He thinks.
"Arh… goddamnit." Eli mutters as he wipes his hands as clean as he can and places it to his head. His headaches are back now that the adrenaline is starting to slightly run down and his mind feels all fuzzy. His memories are starting to feel… odd and its hard to recall a lot of what he remembers before he ended up on this decrepit planet. "What the… fuck man?" He mutters in a depressed state over everything that's happened. He looks up to lay back and rest but he catches a glimpse through a broken piece of the ceiling to the sky.
It's turning orange.
"Damn." With his time running out, he begrudgingly and tiredly pushes himself to his feet and stands up. With a frustrated groan, he grabs his pistol, and gets to work.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" He mutters to himself quietly as he pulls his cargo. That's not being coy with the amount of gear he carries on him, its that he is literally lugging a small transport dolly to carry all the stuff he was able to scavenge.
It looks like one of those flat rolling metal platforms warehouse workers would lug around to carry heavy loads around by hand. The one Eli currently found is not on wheels though and actually uses a sort of anti-gravity pads under it to allow it to move around without actually touching the floor.
Well it would not be touching the ground if all the pads actually worked. When Eli took stock of the supplies he gathered he realized that in his weakened state their was no way he could take it all by hand and especially not make multiple trips to and from his home base, not when its too close to sundown. That's when he looked a little more and found the cargo platform for him to use. It took a second to actually power up, although with some concerning power fluctuations and not all of the pads working. But it was able to slightly drag along the ground on one end of it and still allow him to pull it without as much difficulty to get his supplies and gear back home.
Speaking of supplies, he was able to get a sizeable chunk of equipment to make himself live relatively comfortably for a bit. He packed a large number of bottled waters for him to take, some MRE-type rations from what he can tell, beggars can't choosers; he even grabbed some rifles in a locker and whatever ammo magazines he could find or even look similar. He grabbed whatever clothing he could find and what best feels fitting for him. He even grabbed a bedroll for some proper sleep setup down below in the basement area.
Eli grunts as he continues to pull his scavenged loot. Sweat begins to drip down his face as he struggles to pull it, feeling the sand and dirt part around the platform as it closely drags along the ground. Along with the weight its not easy for him in his weakened state.
But he's almost there. The sun has started setting past the buildings of the ruined city and Eli has passed the outer destroyed section of the research building. "NNNNNNghhhh!" He grunts in exhaustion as he lets go. He takes deep lungfuls of air as he smiles at the elevator in front of him. "Finally." He mutters quietly in relief and presses the button. The doors waste no time in opening and revealing his path to his safe haven.
He lightly chuckles and begins dragging the platform again into the elevator.
*THUNK*
"What?!" He lightly shouts. To his surprise and horror, the last of the grav-pads on the platform have given up and the entire machine has dropped completely onto the ground with a loud 'thunk' noise halfway into the elevator. This surprised him as he audibly called out about this. A look of horror graces his face as he realizes what just happened. He looks up and frantically looks around as he tightly grips the bar on the platform.
"… rrrrrruuuuuuuuuggghhhhh…!" A distant scream can be heard from one of the nearby buildings, spiking his heart rate and making him frantically try to pull the platform.
"You… have got… to be… fucking… kidding… me!" He grunts to himself in hanger as he strains to pull the platform. It barely moves a couple inches from him just pulling it. He stops and breaths heavily as tries to get his breathing under control and try to shake the sore feeling from his arms. He groans as he shimmies around the platform and goes in from the outside and tries to push the platform in. Another inch goes but his feet slide on the dirt and he collapses. He lays there breathing for a second but he quickly rights himself back up when he hears more screams and now more movement from the city around him. He goes back into the elevator and instead of just straight pulling, he grips the bar rightly and yanks the platform back. It moves some but Eli shouts in pain as he almost feels like his arms are about to pop out of their sockets. "God…damnit!" He grunts angrily in pain and frustration and gets ready to go again until he looks up.
He sees movement in the distance, heading for him.
"C'mon! C'mon!" He shouts and begins yanking again and again. Every he does it the platform moves more and more, completely ignoring the fiery feeling shooting up his arms and sending waves of pain through him, desperation hitting him like a truck. Soon enough the platform is inside and he quickly moves along the side and begins rapidly tapping the bottom floor button on the elevator and close door button as well as fast as he can. "C'monc'monc'monc'monc'mon!" He quickly says under his breath as he watches the rest of the feral creatures sprinting towards him. Forgoing hitting the buttons continuously he quickly grabs one of the rifles off the platform and aims at the approaching creatures. His aim is all over the place, he can't keep it steady and his breathing is haggard and heavy. The weapon is almost shaking violently in his arms as he can barely keep it held up. He doesn't immediately open fire, instead he waits and prays for the doors to close soon.
Just as the feral Lombaxes cross the outer ruins of the research building…
*Ding*
He breathes in relief as the doors begin closing.
*THUNK*
And just in time because as soon as they close, Eli catches the barest hint of the angry feral animalistic face of the Lombaxes before it closes and he hears the sounds of them slamming into the elevator doors. He wasn't able to see exactly how many were heading right for him as he wasn't paying attention but he just knows their were a lot of them. "Close… so close…" He just about collapses onto his pile as he struggles to keep himself from passing out. His rifle is left laying with the others in the pile. He just lays there holding himself up as he feels the elevator slowly descend into the basement.
*Ding*
And just like that he's back at his sanctuary. He looks up and smiles at his place. "Thank god." He mutters in thanks and wipes his brow of sweat. He looks down at the platform and scowls at it. "No thanks to you at the end there. Nya!" He shouts and kicks the damn thing.
Interestingly enough, a small sound emanates from it and slightly lifts off the ground again.
"…"
… Nothing is said by him. He simply drags the infernal contraption into the room and out of the elevator. When he's out, he walks up to the elevator controls in the room and simply turns off the elevator and shuts it down, not taking any chances of one of the ferals up top calling the elevator and being inside for him to meet down in his home. With that done, a wave of relief washes over him… and the burden of heavy tiredness nearly floors him. He collapses to his knees and lays his head on the wall, taking the moment to relax and not constantly push himself. His eyelids grow heavy and as much as he wants to fall asleep then and there, he prefers to have some sort of comfort.
He crawls over to the platform and grabs the bedroll he got. With it in hand, he moves a little bit away from it… and collapses onto the floor fully. His upper body and head are propped up by the bedroll and even though it's a little bit dusty, one smack from his hand clears that up, it feels almost as good as the bed he slept in the day before.
Without wasting a single moment, his eyes close, a deep steady rhythm takes his breath and his body relaxes as sleep overtakes him. The sound rough breathing, slight snoring, and the steady hum of the generator running.
Outside of the research building, the image is one of chaos. Many of the area is littered with the feral Lombaxes, mind lost and terror driven creatures as they scour the area for any sort of sustenance to eat. A large number of them are gathered around the remnant of the Center for Advanced Lombax Research building. Dozens of them try to climb, rip and tear at the door and what remains of the building but to no avail. Eventually they'll lose interest and go about their searching.
Above all this, theirs a figure staring down at the building from high above. One of the few still standing but partially broken high rise buildings has a figure wrapped in shadowy darkness staring down at the building. It watched as the intruder of the city barely managed to make it back to its safe haven.
Eye's narrow as it watches the Lombaxes turned feral prowling about.
A small sigh escapes it… before it turns around and walks deeper into the building and drops down out of sight to a lower floor.
And there it be. Eli has managed to scavenge some much needed and truly desperate supplies he desperately required. Safe to say now he can properly rest up, recuperate and learn about this new world he lives on. He's got a lot of new and useful equipment for him to use and he needs to get to work in getting everything setup and ready for him to properly survive now. While he's got a break for now, he's still not out of the woods yet.
Time for him to get to work. He's got a whole slew of equipment to get familiar with, repair, fix up and make his own.
Guest: He's got a lot of work to do and will need to get what he needs to live, and to keep his sanity all things considered in what is essentially a desolate planet.
Redblackmark: I'm glad you like it. I hope you continue to like it.
Omega97: As am I. Glad you like it and I am eager as well to get to the point with Rivet.
Weavile101: As things go my schedule when it comes to writing is pretty bad and I apologize, but I will do what I can to continue writing out and getting everything uploaded when I can. I'm glad you enjoy my work.
Thank you all for your support. Things are shaping up nicely for this story I feel like. Really allows me to make good progress when I don't have to stick to a specific script of sorts. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Hope you all have fun reading, but most of all, have a great day each and every one of you.