Fragged

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  No, the worst part came when we pushed our way through the crowd and just managed to barely catch a glimpse of Freddie and Brendo’s rig pulling out of the base and peeling away at as high a speed as it could.

  “That fucker…” Brendo trailed off disappointedly before pulling the hefty looking automatic weapon off his back, “Come on then, let’s get rid of these mutant shit-flingers!”

  I must admit, I was briefly stunned by his choice of words, but once he’d started firing I got caught up in the heat of it all and pulled my lever action rifle off my back, “Chad, get these guys to go downstairs.”

  “No need,” Chad huffed back amusedly as the crowd started to shuffle around us, “they’re doin’ it themselves.”

  I smiled at that for a moment, remembering just how useful it was when the Freemen started to use their brains, but that moment was quickly overshadowed by a Mutie coming right for me as the crowd that was acting as a meat shield dispersed.

  For a second I thought I was as good as dead, but then Pete fired off a single round and blew off the thing’s leg, causing it to squeal and keel onto the building’s stairs where Brendo finished it off with a quick, three round burst to the head.

  It was good having someone geared for combat in our group and not just one of us with an auto-aiming rifle, especially one that I was starting to get the feeling could be trusted.

  I wasn’t given much time to think about that though as the fight finally started to require my full attention.

  With little regard for my safety, I started walking for the building’s exit without so much as a shield in my free hand, and started shooting at the Muties.

  My aim was slightly off at first, which I chalked up to the unreliability of firing something that was supposed to be significantly longer, but I eventually got the hang of it and was able to start blowing decent holes through the Muties.

  Granted I wasn’t landing any kill shots, but I was doing enough that the others could put them down while I turned my attention to the next one of my targets.

  +1 Firearm Skill

  Firearm Skill: 13/100

  Level Progression: 160/200

  We were holding up well for a while there, in fact by the time the last of the Freemen had gotten themselves locked away and safe downstairs we’d actually gotten us to a point where they probably didn’t need to be hiding.

  The issue there was that we quickly became overconfident, and while we were putting down the Muties with relative ease, we were about to be greeted with one Hell of a surprise.

  “You guys hear that!?” Chad called over the gunfire, “I think it’s coming from behind us!”

  You feel that rumbling? Or perhaps you hear the crashing of trees in the distance? Or maybe you’re about to get crushed underfoot by one of these big softies because you haven’t got the intelligence to get out of the way? Either way, have fun.

  “Ah… shit…” I trailed off as I looked behind me and saw the massive, green neck of one of the most gentle but also most destructive forces in Thren.

  Brontosauruses man, those things’ll mess you up in ways that you didn’t know you were capable of being messed with, and we had one coming right for us through the trees.

  Chapter Six

  At first I thought we had nothing more to worry about beyond getting out of the way, but then one of the long-neck’s hefty legs came crashing through the compound’s rear wall and I realised just how much trouble we were in.

  “What the fuck do we do!?” Miles barked as he and Brendo put down one of the few remaining Muties.

  I went to answer him, but realised I didn’t have a response.

  Shooting the thing was likely to send it barging toward the main building, but if we left it to do its own thing it may very well have done that without any help from us.

  “Get out of the way!” Pete finally ordered when it became clear that I’d almost completely zoned out.

  We were quick to listen to him, and thank fuck we did as the massive dino came crashing through the base, missing the main building by a mile as, through the darkness, three more followed up behind it.

  “Fuckin’ Hell…” I said as I watched after the dinos, following the path of destruction, “Where do you s’pose they’re headin’ off to in such a hurry?”

  I was trying to be funny, but that desire quickly dropped off when I saw Brendo’s concerned face as he said “I think they’re runnin’ from something.” before pointing out through the fresh gap in our wall.

  My eyes took a few seconds to adjust, and when they did I really wished that they hadn’t.

  “What… in the everlasting fuck, is that?” Pete muttered as we all crowded together and looked out at the large, burning green eyes in the forest.

  “Nothin’ good…” I replied nervously after noticing that whatever it was looked to be getting into a position to attack.

  Ah, I see that you’ve been graced with the good doctors’ latest monstrous creation. It’s astonishing, but what’s more astonishing is the fact that they were surprised that their blend of bear, porcupine, armadillo, and Mutie managed to escape. Anyway, you should probably be running.

  “When the Hell did that thing get added in?” Brendo asked as we started to slowly back away into the compound.

  “Why would we have that information?” Miles replied snidely.

  “Well, I don’t know, I was hoping at least one of us had taken a second to look at the patch notes.” Brendo bit back.

  “Guys, can we please focus on the issue at hand?” I asked out of the corner of my mouth, “Anyone have any sugges-”

  I didn’t get the opportunity to finish my sentence before the creature came rolling towards us at full speed, its spines flashing past us as we dove for cover and tried to keep our eyes on it at the same time.

  “Where’d it go?” I asked after recovering from my dive and aiming around.

  I didn’t get a response.

  “Guys!” I snapped, getting their attention instantly, “Where’d the fuckin’ thing go?”

  Most of the guys didn’t even bother trying to respond, but Brendo was managing to stammer a bit as he looked out toward the main gate.

  I went to ask what was wrong with him then stopped when I saw four sets of green eyes at the gate’s mouth, the beasts that they belonged to snarling and frothing at the mouth as they looked between us.

  Now, I know that this is going to make me sound like the absolute worst leader in the whole wide world, but I truly hoped that they picked anyone but me.

  No such luck though.

  One of the creatures had locked its gaze on me, and I swear I could almost make out a smile peering at me through its coat of thick, spiny fur right before it curled up into a ball, repositioned itself slightly, and then came barrelling toward me.

  Without wasting a second, I ran, piss-bolted more like it, right for the nearest building, catching Brendo and Miles in tow as Pete and Chad went for another one of the structures.

  In the moment before I broke through the threshold of the building, I snuck a look behind me and saw that the bear-beast had next to no actual maneuverability when rolling, and that it had crashed right into the main building.

  “You saw that description, right?” Brendo asked as we thundered our way up the stairs, “I seriously doubt that regular ammunition is going to stop those things.”

  “Agreed,” I replied as calmly as I could, “look, I think the best thing for us to do right now is to keep runnin’ and dodging.”

  “Seriously?” Miles scoffed as we ducked down a hall and hid in the nearest room, “We’re really gonna be a bunch of pussies?”

  “I resent that.” I said with a half-smile before nodding and sighing, “But you’re right, there’s no telling what’s gonna happen if we don’t kill those things.”

  “With what?” Brendo asked with a disbelieving huff, “I’m sorry, but I don’t see any clear way to take them out, and I don’t like going into fights blind.”

  He
had a point, it was a point that was somewhat irritating, but I respected the logic behind it.

  “Their bellies.” Miles suggested, “We go for their bellies. It’s the only thing that makes sense, right?”

  “Yeah, unless that armour wraps all the way around their body.” Brendo replied, “And that’s operating under the assumption that we’re gonna get much of an opportunity to aim before they do that Sonic thing.”

  I wanted to chuckled at his little joke, but didn’t get the chance before the courtyard started to fill up with gunfire.

  “What the Hell are you doing!?” Miles roared out the window after we all shot up and saw Pete just having an absolute ball of a time with some kind of assault rifle.

  “Pest control!” Pete laughed back as he resumed firing, “Found this laying on the ground in the building!”

  Assuming it was just another one of the Freemen dumping random crap around the base, I decided to turn my attention to the more pressing matter of whether or not Pete saw the monster rolling up behind him.

  I was just about to yell out his name when, with a decent-sized explosion, the bear went flying away while maintaining its ball-form.

  While comical, it wasn’t enough for me to not get slightly shitty that at some point either Chad or Pete had gotten claymores and not said anything about it.

  “Come on,” I said, guiding us back toward the exit, “I guess we better help him out.”

  “Help him out?” Brendo chuckled, “He seems to have the situation pretty much handled.”

  “Yeah, except for the fact that he’s still not managed to kill one, and he’s starting to get cocky.” Miles replied before I could as we went down the stairs as fast as we could without actually running, “He’s definitely landing hits, but I didn’t see any indication that what he was doing had any effect beyond pissing them off.”

  At first I wasn’t sure why none of us seemed to be particularly panicked, but then I realised that it probably had something to do with the fact that Pete doing what he was had kind of shown us that there wasn’t that much to be scared of. That was something that was only further proven as we got to the bottom of the stairs and looked out the door to see the entirely too amused Pete diving out of an oncoming bear with ease.

  “Well, that’s slightly disappointing…” I muttered as I realised just how simple it was to avoid the creatures, “And here I thought they might actually be…”

  My words faded away as I watched the monster Pete was shooting drop to its arse, shuffle around until its back was facing him, and, before Pete had a chance to react, launched a barrage of spines in his direction.

  Pete managed to drop down into a prone position, but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid all the spines, catching one in the shoulder and another in his gut.

  In case you hadn’t guessed, that was enough to bring stress back into the equation.

  Chapter Seven

  “Help me, you bloody pricks!” Pete growled while we stared on dumbfounded by what had just happened.

  As much as it pains me to admit, I was actually the last of the group to start moving, but to my credit I did so without any care for my health, and I was the one who grabbed Pete by his arms and dragged him to the safety of the building Chad was still taking cover in.

  “Goddamn…” Pete muttered after prodding the spine in his gut, “That went proper bad, didn’t it?”

  “That’s an understatement,” I chuckled as I peeked out of the door to see that the bear-things were still lurking, “good news is that I don’t think they’re gonna try to get in.”

  “Agreed,” Chad replied, “one of ‘em came up to the door before and just kinda froze and walked away.”

  “Some kinda bug?” Brendo suggested, “I mean, they are fairly new, aren’t they?”

  “Nah, well, maybe half that, but I think it’s mainly because they know they can’t fit through the doorframe.” Chad clarified, “Big fuckers seem to know that once we’re in here we’re just too much trouble.”

  “As long as they don’t fire that spine attack thing through the doorway,” Miles added, “speaking of, Pete, are you alright?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Survivalist perk and all that crap.” Pete replied coolly, “With that being said, some blood wouldn’t go amiss.”

  “We’ve got some on the…” Brendo started then trailed off.

  “You were gonna say that there was some on the truck, weren’t you?” I asked with a sort of apologetic smile, “Is this kinda thing normal for Freddie? Does he tend to just pull the ripcord at the first opportunity?”

  “No way,” Brendo replied, shaking his head, “usually he’s the first one into the shit and the last one out.”

  “Guessin’ he just decided we weren’t worth it then, eh?” Pete scoffed, “Typical fuckin’ Freddie… Always the hero, as long as it benefits him.”

  “Hey, it ain’t like that.” Brendo bit back defensively before realising that he didn’t have a follow-up.

  “Whatever the case,” I said, hoping to break away from the particularly sore subject, “we need to figure out what we’re gonna do.”

  “And it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if we figured out where the Hell Paul’s hiding,” Chad chuckled, “you reckon he’s still with our ‘architect’?”

  “To be perfectly honest, I haven’t actually been thinking all that much about Paul.” I replied, hearing how bitchy I sounded only once the words had left my mouth, “I mean… I’m sure he’s safe.”

  “You seem real convinced,” Pete light-heartedly jabbed, “but I think you’re right, we’d have gotten a notification otherwise.”

  “Hey, guys?” Miles whispered out through the corner of his mouth, “Am I the only one thinkin’ that that might be a problem?”

  “Oh for-” I managed to get out before grabbing Pete and getting him clear of the doorway as the creature let loose another volley of spines through it.

  “Motherfuck!” Brendo yelped as he was riddled with the spines, “Miles, get me the fuck outta here!”

  And just like that we were split up again, Miles taking Brendo up the stairs with Chad while Pete and I were left to squat up against the wall in what looked to be some kind of broom closet.

  “Why the Hell would they even have something like this?” Pete chuckled, looking around the shelves while I peeked around the corner to see that the spiny back of one of the creatures was pushed up against the doorframe, “I mean, I get attention to detail and wanting to make it as realistic as possible, but a broom closet? That just seems excessive.”

  “Not if you just want nooks for people to take cover in.” I replied as I flopped back down beside him, “How’re you holdin’ up?”

  Pete didn’t respond for a moment as he checked over his stats, then shrugged and smiled, “I should be good for a few more minutes.”

  “And what happens in a few more minutes?”

  “I’m gonna pass out and then bleed out.”

  “Heh, up front much?”

  “When have I been anything but?”

  I did appreciate that about Pete, he didn’t mess about. If something needed to be said, he’d say it, but in thinking that I realised that I had another, slightly deeper question for him.

  “Why didn’t you warn me about Freddie?” I asked, clearly shocking Pete with the sudden and somewhat dramatic subject change.

  “When do you think I should’ve brought up the fact that he’s a bit of a pussy?” Pete replied coolly, “When he was standing in front of us? When he had armed men all over the shop?”

  “Alright, alright, I get it.” I chuckled, “There weren’t a ton of opportunities, and it probably didn’t help much that I buggered off with Chad, eh?”

  “It did not. Don’t fixate on it too much though, I should’ve at least planned for something like this to go down.”

  “You mean giant as fuck Mutie bears attacking the base?” I asked, “Seriously, there’s no way you could’ve known tonight was going to go down the way it
did, and I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say that you figured as long as Brendo was with you things would be good?”

  Pete appeared to think that over for a few seconds, then smiled and nodded, “More or less. Those two were s’posed to be inseparable.”

  I went to ask about whether or not he’d considered taking Brendo hostage, but stopped as the roof directly above us started to shudder and powder us with dust.

  “How the fuck did it get up there?” I muttered as I pointed my stubbie rifle at the ceiling.

  “Not a fuckin’ clue… maybe that one that got shot away with the claymore bounced back or somethin’?”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” I said apparently completely forgetting that something was about to drop down on top of us, “where did you get that claymore?”

  “Really? You want to ask me that now?”

  “Well, it doesn’t seem like there’s gonna be much of a chance to do it later, y’know?”

  I really wasn’t trying to sound as brash as I was coming across, but in all fairness I was pretty damn sure I was about three seconds from becoming a pin cushion, and for whatever reason I had to know exactly where in the Hell he got the claymore from.

  Pete clearly didn’t want to tell me though, but, after being left with nothing more from me and the sound of the roof so close to caving in, he buckled, “I have a whole stack of them upstairs…”

  “What!?” I practically shrieked, “Why have you been keeping them from us!?”

  “Uh, because they’re my claymores.” Pete replied matter-of-factly, “I knew that if you lot knew about them you’d just hijack them from me.”

  “We wouldn’t ‘hijack them’,” I snapped as the ceiling started to truly give way, “we would’ve used them to, you know, prevent shit like Muties and Bear…ies from getting into the Goddamn compou-”

  “You lot done bickerin’ or what?” Brendo asked through the tiny hole in the ceiling, “Been able to hear you this entire time.”

  “And you didn’t think to mention that it was you tools who were comin’ through?” I sniped bitterly, hitting poor Brendo with the aggression that was supposed to be for Pete, “We could’ve shot you!”