22 Walk-Through Part 2 (1/2)
2035
The female Savage's body crumples to the ground and the other two Savages don't have time to run before a loud machine gun fires at them. Sid turns to the frightened helicopter passengers. Among the hazmat wearing foreigners, two figures are crouched and holding weapons.
”Whoooop! I almost couldn't hold backa, boss. Iko told me to waaaait.” Pheno exclaims while hopping out of the helicopter.
His short legs take jolly steps toward his leader. He is around 150 cm. His short frame is muscled and holds the machine gun steady. Three of the relief workers rush out to their fallen and injured comrade. He winces at their touches and shoos a woman's hands away from his bruised face.
”Exceptional work, Sub—,” Sid says.
”That's what we do! That's what we do!” Pheno exclaims.
Pheno keeps happily marching past Sid.
”What is your destination?” Sid asks.
”Gonna go tell the others we're all set and safe,” Pheno replies.
”I concur.”
Pheno gives a wave with his weapon and springs over scattered pieces of equipment and tent material. Chairs, folding tables, and cooking supplies are splayed around in disorder. The civilians had dropped everything before running for their lives.
Ika remains in the helicopter with the other two relief workers. He is taking a suppressor off his weapon. It isn't his sniper rifle. He must have had to discard it earlier during the firefight. Ika sets the suppressor down beside himself and looks at one of the relief workers. They are thanking him.
Sid turns back to the rest of the crew that remained in the camp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
”What the heck?! Was he hiding in the 'copter the entire time? Is that why you couldn't find him?”
AFFIRMATIVE
MASSIVE HEAT SIGNATURES COMBINE
INTRICATE PROCESSES RUNNING SIMULTANEOUSLY SLOWS DOWN THE PROCESSING OF CALCULATIONS
WITHOUT FURTHER DATA BEING PROVIDED
”Sooooo, you're blaming me?”
NEGATIVE
”You just blamed me for complicating everything before you could run the calculations for how many people were in that 'copter!”
NEGATIVE
”…”
THE AIRCRAFT THAT SUBJECT 002 CONCEALED HIMSELF WITHIN APPEARS TO HAVE OVERHEAD ROTOR BLADES THAT LIFT AND PROPULSE IT VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY
MOST COMMONLY KNOWN AS A HELICOPTER
”Don't blame me for Ika's sneaky ways. We can switch now before you start antagonizing our Subjects.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sid's body is walking toward Carla when it misses a step and stumbles into the hood of a car.
”Oooh. Watch it, big guy! Adrenaline messing you up?”
”Something like that.” Sid mutters.
Sid leans against the hood for a moment before snorting and wiping a bit of blood off the side of his mouth.
”You okay, boss? What did you spray at that guy? Poison? Do you carry radiation pills full of bile? Was it vomit?!” Carla circles him as he walks over to Robert and the kid he has under his arm.
”Dan get back?” Sid questions while ignoring Carla.
Robert shakes his head and grabs the young woman's head as she comes around his side.
”Did you make him bite his own tongue and he choked on his blood?” Carla exclaims.
”Were we watching the same thing? How the hell would he blind someone with their own mouth blood as they choked?” Robert asks.
”Telecommunications!” Carla yells while gripping Robert's hand on her head.
”I don't think that means what you think it means,” Robert responds with a calm voice.
Robert releases her head and adjusts the child under his arm. The kid is starting to squirm and make growling noises. Which isn't unusual for the curly headed brat. It seems violence still doesn't affect the child adversely. They're such a wild one.
Sid walks toward the other end of the camp to the small burning fire. Dan should have rounded the camp and gotten to Nard by now.
”Telekinesthetics!” Carla yells after some thought.
”Stop talking to me!” Robert yells back.
Sid grabs a shovel that is lying tangled in a destroyed tent. The flames have traveled uphill and spread a bit wider. When he gets to the small flames, he digs up the dirt farther out around it, so it no longer has grass to feed on. Then he walks into the woods with the shovel in hand. Hopefully, it burns out on its' own. It's a miracle it didn't continue to the trees already.
”Come on. Right over this hill and you'll be able to sit, ” Dan encourages.
”You keep saying that,…but…I don't…,” the injured man complains.
”Cuz we keep stopping to let you catch your breath. If we stop again you won't have to worry about breathing.” Dan's voice grumbles.
”Why'd he send you?... You're… always…har…sh,” the injured man breathlessly mutters.
”Who else can lug you around?” Dan replies while dragging the other man along.
Sid sees Dan slowly walking with Nard's dark arm strung over his shoulders. Dan's face is red with exertion. Both men are sweating, but Nard is panting at the other male's side. His shirt is plastered to him with sweat and blood. A red stain at his side seems to be the issue. He is looking down at the ground and gripping his side while grimacing.
”Hey.”
Nard looks up in surprise. The braids obstruct his vision for a moment, but with a jerk of his head, he can clearly see his leader.
Sid walks up to the two and places a hand at Nard's neck. Nard tries to stand taller as Sid examines him.
”Where were you hit?” Sid asks.
”On my side, by a bullet. Some scrapes and stuff from getting away from those cocktails. Thank god for their awful aim,” Nard reports.
Sid takes Nard's other arm and helps them get back to camp.
When they get back to camp, the fire upon the hill seems to be slowly dying down. The civilians are back. Some are fixing their tents and gathering their fallen equipment. Others are speaking to the relief workers. The injured relief worker is on a walkie-talkie.
Sid and Dan put Nard in the back of an open van. Dan stays behind to steady the injured man, and Sid walks over to their trigger-happy medic. Pheno is patching up Priya's injured shoulder.
”Are you alright?” Sid asks.
”I'm fine. One of those douches stabbed me in the shoulder from behind,” Priya reports.
Priya blows out her breath as Pheno finishes stitching up the gash. Turner is hovering at her side.
”I'm gonna need you to go and see if their leader is still knocked out in the woods. Take Robert with you,” Sid orders.
”Whaaa—!” Turner protests.
Turner points over at Priya and gapes at his boss.
”She needs me,” Turner insists.
Priya tsked at the womanizer, ”Get away from me. You've been no help. Just bugging me while I bled out. Go be useful.”
”Aaaaah. Priyaaa. You don't mean that.”
”Get!” Pheno shoos Turner.
The reluctant male walks off, but checks over his shoulder a few times, before speaking with Robert by the van. Robert returns the child to Dan before joining Turner.
A helicopter can be heard coming in their direction. The injured relief worker waves his hands as they come overhead.
”Heyyy!!” He yells at the helicopter.
The large military helicopter doesn't land, but a door slides open and two people lower a large basket that is holding two crates. Three of the relief workers break away from the civilians to take down the crates. The basket is raised, and two more crates are lowered. The military helicopter retreats the way it came.
The injured relief worker limps over to Sid.
”Thanks, buddy. I don't know what would have happened without your quick thinking,” The young man says.
”Hmm. No problem. We deal with these guys all the time,” Sid reponds.
”What? Is that why—”
”You actually caught us in the middle of something. Why'd you land so suddenly?”
”We thought people were running to get out of the way of the helicopter and cheering.” The man blushes as he goes over their entrance within his mind.
”Not screaming and yelling for you to leave?” Sid laughs to himself imagining the frantic waving the civilians probably did to warn the helicopter passengers.
”Hey, we're all first timers here.” The man rubs the back of his head and checks for blood.
Sid looks over at the hazmat wearing relief team. They are struggling to open the crate with their crowbars.
”Clearly,” Sid says before walking over to the confused group.
The man follows beside Sid.
”I'm Faco, from America. We're apart of a program called Purple Diamond. They send supplies to third world countries and warzones. We registered with them after getting funding for this project.”
”Hey, hand that over here.”
A round woman looks over at Sid. Her peripheral vision is blocked by the hazmat helmet she is wearing. She doesn't protest as Sid takes the crowbar from her hands. It only takes a few seconds for him to open the crate for them. One of the men says he understands what he needs to do, and Sid passes the crowbar over to him. The women surround the worker as he struggles. Finally, he opens the crate and they split up to open the remaining two.
Civilians start surrounding the crates and the workers.
”Ah, Ah! Line up, people!” Priya yells from the back of a truck.
Pheno has bandaged her shoulder up and is working on Nard in the open trunk of a van.
The civilians follow Priya's orders without much squalling. Several lines wait to receive whatever is within those crates.
Finally, jugs of water, preserved food, fruits, blankets, and toiletries are being passed out. A weight is lifted off everyone's shoulders.