Chapter 38 - Bloody tears...

Blain: … You’re saying we have a snitch here somewhere…? [br]
Scyth: *nods* Without a doubt…[br]
Blain: But… Why…? [br]
Scyth: I don’t know… But Cooper was murdered for a reason… The GUN is closing in on us and we can not form a counter assault without the tactical operations centre… Someone doesn’t want us to get out alive…[br]
[br]
Blain: *sighs* [br]
Scyth: So… What’s the plan…? [br]
Blain: I don’t know… We can evacuate everyone to the bunker below while we take on the fight…[br]
[br]
Scyth: Bunker…? [br]
Blain: Yeah… It’s a nuke shelter… [br]
[br]
Scyth: Alright… [br]
Blain: Inform everyone of Cooper’s death… Make sure only the ones relevant will know about it. We don’t wanna cause unnecessary panic… [br]
[br]
Scyth: *nods* [br]
Blain: Where’s his body? [br]
Scyth: Still at COMScann… Rico is at the scene…[br]
Blain: Wait… His right hand and eye were missing right…? [br]
Scyth: *nods* [br]
Blain: … Why? [br]
Scyth: COMScann has a fingerprint analyzer and iris scan to identify authorizations. I think whoever killed him granted himself access to COMScann to frack everything up for us… [br]
[br]
Blain: Right… I’m gonna take a look… [br]
[br]
Scyth: Will do… Keep you’re eyes open and watch you’re back, Blain…[br]
Blain: You too… [br]
[br]
And with that, I walked away… [br]
[br]
When I arrived, I saw a few guys standing there. I saw Rico bending over the corpse. As soon as I called his name, Rico looked up and I went to him. [br]
[br]
Rico: Nasty way to go, huh sarge? [br]
Blain: Yeah… What do you know…? [br]
Rico: Well his throat is slit, his right hand is missing and his right eye got poked out. The blood hasn’t thickened yet, so he’s dead for probably around 6 to 8 hours. But I think that wasn’t the cause of his death… [br]
[br]
Blain: You know what killed him…? [br]
Rico: Take a look… [br]
[br]
Rico rolled up the sleeve and pointed to a very small dot on the arm where a little bit of blood was flowing out. It looked as if he was injected with something… [br]
[br]
Blain: An injection…? [br]
Rico: Yeah… Though I have no idea what was used on him… The killer probably has access to the sickbay… But… That’s all based on a speculation… I’m a medic, not a forensic analyzer… I’m doing all I can…[br]
[br]
Blain: Yeah I know… [br]
Rico: How many people know about this…? [br]
Blain: Something like this won’t stay a secret for long… [br]
Rico: *nods* [br]
Blain: Is there something I can do…? [br]
Rico: *sighs and shakes no* No sir… All we can do now to watch our backs from now on… And try to find him before its too late…[br]
[br]
For the rest of the day, I was worried… Not scared, just worried… I started to pay attention to people if they behaved differently… I looked for things that seemed out of the ordinary… Nothing… I was starting to get paranoid… Every time when I was alone in a corridor, I constantly turned my head to see if I was being followed. Nothing… Come on, Blain, get a grip… The answer should be easy, right…? Check out the new guys first… See if anyone looks suspicious or acts differently… Look for something that stands out… Nothing… There has to be something… Who wanted us dead the most…? Was it possible that someone from the GUN was with us…? We do have a few dozens of humans… Most of them were old people and kids… Except for Jones… But Jones is with the ICA, and is wanted by the GUN, and they want him dead… So it can’t be Jones… So no human could have done this… Someone on our side…? A furrie…? If so, why? He or she wouldn’t gain anything by delivering us to the GUN… Come on, damn it… Think… Think for fracks sake… But no matter how hard I tried, I never came with an answer… It just didn’t make any sense… [br]
[br]
It was late in evening when I went to see how Jarod was doing. Once I got in the sickbay, I didn’t see him. I only saw Vilani sitting near some guy… Holy shoot, is that really Jarod…? I didn’t recognize him at first… He looked bad… His uniform was covered with dust, mud and blood stains. His jacket and trousers were ripped… I only recognized him because Vilani was with him… Jarod wasn’t awake… Vilani wasn’t awake either… I sat there for a moment looking at them until Vilani slowly opened her eyes… I could see her eyes were red and soggy… [br]
[br]
Blain: Hey Vilani…… [br]
Vilani: O-Oh hey sergeant…. *wipes her face* [br]
Blain: How you doing…? [br]
Vilani: *shakes her head* [br]
Blain: Hm…? [br]
Vilani: I-I don’t know… I really don’t… I-I’m… I’m worried about Jarod… [br]
Blain: How’s he doing……? [br]
Vilani: He eh… A-A few guys found him… O-On the outskirts of Azerbaijan… And… He was shot… He got hit in the pelvis… [br]
[br]
Blain: Oh… [br]
Vilani: They said that… He was crawling towards the city… To get Shifty… B-But… [br]
Blain: Where’s Shifty now…? [br]
Vilani: Jarod told me that… That Shifty was wounded… A-And… Jarod had to put him out of his misery…… He didn’t want to… He wanted to take him back… B-But… If Jarod did that… He wouldn’t be here right now… Jarod…… He was crying his eyes out… They couldn’t calm him down… He kept on crying and struggled to get free and wanted to get Shifty back but… They sedated him… And he finally calmed down… I stayed with him ever since I found out he got back… And he told me everything until he fell asleep from exhaustion… He hasn’t woke up since… [br]
[br]
Blain: *nods slowly* [br]
Vilani: And it scares me to see him like this… I can see his eyes twitching… He talks in his sleep… His hands twitches… Sometimes… He wakes up, sits upright and yells for Shifty… Then he falls back to sleep… It’s painful to see him like this… And… When he told me that Shifty died, it came as a shock to me… I’ve always liked Shifty… But he was Jarod’s lifelong friend… And he had to kill his lifelong friend… It places a burden him… But… Also on me… And… I don’t know how to deal with it… [br]
[br]
Blain: You can’t deal with it on your own… You need to stick together like you always did… That’s what Nicole and I still do… Things aren’t easy, I know… Especially with your kid coming… There isn’t much I can do… And I realize that… But if you ever feel the need to talk… You know where I am… Nicole talks a lot with you too… So if you want to talk to her as well, she’ll be here for the both of you… I know she will… [br]
[br]
Vilani: *nods slowly* [br]
Blain: Alright… Try to get some rest, ok…? [br]
Vilani: I will… [br]
[br]
I squeezed Jarod’s hand before I left… Then I looked back at Vilani… It didn’t take you long to realize that she really had a hard time with everything happening around her… She’s still young… And it broke my heart to see her like that… I never use that phrase, because technically, I don’t have a heart… But that’s the only way I can describe what I saw that evening in the sickbay… Before I left, I gently scratched Vilani under her chin and then I got out of the sickbay… [br]
[br]
Shifty’s dead… I couldn’t believe it at first… I’ve known him for so many years and to realize he’s won’t be with us anymore was something that was difficult to accept. Jarod and Shifty were lifelong friends who shared everything that they’ve ever been through. And to hear that Jarod shot Shifty to put him out of misery… I couldn’t do it if someone asked me to… But Jarod did… But now look where it got him… After hearing what Vilani said, I knew that Jarod was mentally instable after putting Shifty out of his misery… Like she said, it placed a burden on Jarod, but also on Vilani to see Jarod like this…[br]
[br]
When I was on my back to my room, I noticed lieutenant Mallow and his squad were still at the same spot where I last saw them, and were still accompanied by that prisoner. Tavish was there as well with Rico… [br]
[br]
Tavish/Rico: Sergeant… [br]
Blain: Evening guys… Still don’t know what to do with that prisoner, lieutenant Mallow…? [br]
Mallow: No sir. We wanted to lock him away somewhere, but for some reason, they didn’t let us… So I guess we’re stuck with him. All day long, he’s been blabbering to us… [br]
[br]
Human: El furka sabahr… [br]
Mallow: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know that by now. El furca zabaar. Same to you, buddy. [br]
Rico: … *laughs* [br]
Mallow: What? [br]
Rico: He just called you a son of a dog, sir. *laughs* [br]
[br]
Mallow: … Well I call him an asshole. [br]
Human: Ash holl… [br]
Blain: Now he calls YOU an asshole… Hehehe…[br]
Mallow: Pffft… [br]
Tavish: How’d you know that anyway? [br]
Rico: What? [br]
Tavish: With what he just said? [br]
Rico: Oh. I studied foreign languages at university. [br]
Mallow: What language is that? [br]
Rico: Atealian. It’s only spoken by humans at Cantaloniun Islands. [br]
Mallow: … Maybe you can translate something for me. [br]
Rico: What is it, sir? [br]
Mallow: We found these documents he was carrying. Maybe you can translate that for us. [br]
Rico: Let me take a look. [br]
[br]
Mallow handed him the documents and Rico took a look at it. It stayed silent for a long time as he was trying to figure out what it says… [br]
[br]
Rico: Looks like he’s a refugee. It says here that he was a soldier. A civil war broke out, he refused his duty and he fled the islands with his sister, wife and kids. Sister died when hostile civil forces patrolled the checkpoints near the harbour and found out he didn’t had the right papers and was member of the opposite forces. They tried to get away, but they opened fire on them which resulted in the death of his sister. Wife and kids barely escaped. He made contact with the underground to get to his embassy so that he, his wife and kids could safely get to the other side. [br]
[br]
Mallow: I see. [br]
Rico: “Ahmed”…? Que muawhira masdem ya musdemdja nazee…?[br]
[br]
At that point, the human looked up baffled to Rico and looked at him for a short moment… [br]
[br]
Rico: Muawhira mashdem ya musdemdja nazee shukaran…? Howahl…? [br]
Human: *shakes head slowly* [br]
Rico: … Tariq yen spass…? [br]
Human: … Yallah… Inhs baraq yallah… [br]
Rico: … [br]
[br]
Mallow: What’d you asked…? [br]
Rico: I asked him what happened to his wife and kids… [br]
Mallow: … What happened…? [br]
Rico: Their all dead… [br]
Human: *sighs* [br]
[br]
I never liked humans. I always hated them. But this one… I saw him sitting like that… With a desolate look in his eyes… Nicole once said that not all humans are bad… Just as much that not all furries are good. I just had a hard time with trusting humans… But after hearing what Rico said that happened to him… I don’t know. It was as if a switch was turned on which changed my opinion on this particular human… Even though the human and we were worlds apart, we could relate to him in some way. It made me think that we’re not that different as a living being, if we put our personal feelings and clashes aside. I think that everyone noticed that as we stared at him while he was looking down… At some point, we saw a tear going down his face… [br]
[br]
Blain: … Come on… Get those cuffs off of him… Let him go… [br]
Rico: Brash kentjure de el bash matti… [br]
Human: … Saraghti bah anahr da jusudi… Vericere alderashma… Lachomwuahira eshder barach tsu mi da hirachya… *smiles weakly*[br]
[br]
Rico: Hehehe… [br]
Mallow: What’d you say? [br]
Rico: I told him we were gonna get his cuffs off and that he could go… [br]
Mallow: And what’d he say? [br]
Rico: Well, he said that he was happy to finally hear someone speaks his language and that I pretty much suck at it when it comes to pronunciation. But he’s thankful. [br]
[br]
Then all of a sudden, we heard a loud pistol shot, and we saw the human fell down… There was a hole in his head, and when we turned around, we saw Scyth standing there, holding a pistol with a smoking barrel…[br]
[br]
Tavish: What the frack?!! The hell did you do?![br]
Scyth: … You heard what happened today?[br]
Tavish: Well, yeah, I know what happen-[br]
Scyth: You don’t realize how serious the situation is right now, do you? [br]
Tavish: … [br]
Scyth: …. We don’t take human prisoners. [br]
[br]
Scyth stood there for a short moment while he was looking at everyone… Then he turned around and walked away… [br]
[br]
Mallow: *sighs* [br]
Eleanor: What the frack… That guy has issues… [br]
Rico: … Scyth has always been some sort of a mystery… No one seems to know who he is or where he comes from… [br]
[br]
I know all to well who Scyth is…[br]
[br]
Tavish: Well I heard a story about Scyth… [br]
Rico: You did? [br]
Tavish: Yeah. This one time, we had P.O.W’s. He watched them and waited until everyone left… He handed out cigarettes to the prisoners, hell, even gave them a light. Then something just snapped inside of him… He took his aim with his rifle and shot every prisoner… [br]
[br]
Gino: What? [br]
Tavish: Yeah! About 20 of ‘em. [br]
Rico: Well I heard it was more then 40. [br]
Scyth: Tavish! [br]
[br]
We didn’t noticed that Scyth was standing behind us again…[br]
[br]
Scyth: It’s Tavish right…? [br]
Tavish: Y-Yeah… [br]
Scyth: *nods*… [br]
[br]
I saw that Scyth had his hand near his pistol holster… After standing like that while he looked at everyone for a short moment again, he turned around and walked away again. The others sighed in relief after he turned around, but then he turned around once more… [br]
[br]
Scyth: Anyone a smoke…? [br]
Rico/Tavish: No thanks!![br]
Scyth: … How about you? [br]
Gino: *shakes fiercely no while looking scared* [br]
Scyth: *nods* Thought so. [br]
[br]
Then he walked away… This time, they waited until they knew he was gone for sure… [br]
[br]
Fabian: The dude is seriously fracked up… [br]
[br]
That night, everything was tense… I felt nervous… I was being paranoid… For some reason or another… I couldn’t shake the feeling off that something big was about to happen… Something that would seal our fates forever… And that there was no return… I felt as if we could have prevented it, yet nothing happened yet… Or at least, I thought so… What scared me the most is because I didn’t know what was happening… And yet I knew something was happening… And all this time I kept on thinking… What could possibly happen…? Thousands of scenario’s could happen… All I could do was to pray that none was realized… [br]
[br]
At around 2:56 am, someone banged on my door… As soon as I opened it, I saw it was Scyth… Looking all serious like he did when he told me about Cooper’s death… This time… It was Vilani who was hit… I felt as if I got hit with a brick as soon as I heard it… But luckily… Vilani wasn’t murdered… Scyth told me she yelled for help when Mallow arrived… She was shot in her arm, and a medic said that her main artery got hit, which is always a deadly situation… Mallow rushed her to the sickbay while they did everything to keep her alive… For now, her situation is stable… I got dressed and got as quickly as I could to the sickbay… She was in a secured monitored room where you can only get in if you punched the code on the keypad… We weren’t allowed to see her… Only Jarod was for a short moment… All we could do was to look through the window to see how she was doing… [br]
[br]
Jarod: V-Vilani…? Open you’re eyes babe… P-Please… It’s m-me… [br]
Vilani: *gasps* Jarod……? Jarod……![br]
[br]
Vilani grabbed Jarod by his collar and gently pulled him down… And she whispered in his ear… [br]
[br]
Vilani: J-Jarod… I know… I-I know who was behind the death o-of Cooper…… A-And it g-goes deeper then that… I-It’s something you could never imagine… I heard them… [br]
[br]
Jarod: … Who……? [br]
Vilani: I-I can’t tell you right now… The walls have ears… I don’t know w-who to trust…… Tell sergeant Blain what I just told you…… [br]
[br]
Jarod: *nods* [br]
Vilani: I-I’m scared, Jarod… [br]
Jarod: We’ll protect you… [br]
Medic: I’m sorry, but you have to go now. [br]
Jarod: Please, 5 more minutes… [br]
Medic: No, I’m sorry. You’ll have to go. [br]
Jarod: *sighs* [br]
Vilani: Please…… [br]
Jarod: Sssh… It’s ok…… We’ll look out for you…… [br]
Vilani: *nods slowly* [br]
Jarod: Get some rest…… Hang in there, babe…… [br]
[br]
A few moments later, Jarod got back to us… And he took me somewhere apart away from the others…[br]
[br]
Jarod: Vilani knows who killed Cooper… She’s in grave danger, sarge… He wants her dead because she knows…… [br]
[br]
Blain: Alright…… We’ll secure the area…… Lieutenant Mallow? [br]
Mallow: Sir? [br]
[br]
After Jarod told to Mallow with what he just told me, Mallow pointed three guys of his squad to stay on guard… [br]
[br]
Mallow: Gino, Fabian, Eleanor? [br]
Gino/Fabian/Eleanor: Sir? [br]
Mallow: Stay here for the rest of the night. We’ll take over in 5 hours. Don’t let anyone near her. Use deadly force if necessary. Fabian, you’ll stay inside the room with the medic. Eleanor, Gino, you’ll be on guard outside. Questions? [br]
[br]
Gino/Fabian/Eleanor: No sir. [br]
Mallow: Check you’re ammo… [br]
[br]
Leaving Vilani was a hard thing to do… It was painful to see her like this, not to mention that she was pregnant… Who the hell would be so fracking mental to shoot a pregnant woman…? The thought of it just pissed me off… Luckily, she was still alive and her condition was stable… We got three people who would watch her and made sure she was safe… So with that, the rest of us retreated… Thinking she was safe… [br]
[br]
One hour later… [br]
[br]
Gino: Pssh… [br]
Eleanor: What? [br]
Gino: Can you believe this shoot…? [br]
Eleanor: Yeah… I know… It’s fracking madness… Who the hell could do something like this…? [br]
[br]
Gino: I don’t know, but I’ll swear I’ll bite his fracking head off if they know who did something as cowardly, low and disgusting like this… She’s pregnant for fracks sake… [br]
[br]
Eleanor: Yeah… [br]
Gino: Pssh… [br]
Eleanor: You got a smoke? [br]
Gino: Yeah… Here…[br]
Eleanor: Thanks… Got a light as well…? [br]
Gino: … *gives lighter* [br]
Eleanor: Thanks… [br]
Gino: … [br]
Eleanor: But… The thing what’s bothering me the most is- [br]
Gino: Ssh… [br]
Eleanor: What…? [br]
Gino: Someone’s coming… Footsteps around the corner… [br]
[br]
The both listened closely, and Gino gently tapped on the window to warn Fabian inside… Fabian nodded and got up with his weapon ready… The footsteps stopped… It stayed silent for an eerie while… [br]
[br]
Gino: Check the corner… I got your back… [br]
[br]
Eleanor carefully peeked around the corner and shines his flashlight in the poorly illuminated corridor while Gino slowly moved towards him… Nothing happened… No sounds, whatsoever… He looked back at Gino and gestured that everything was clear… Gino gently tapped on the window to get Fabian’s attention and gestured that everything was clear… Fabian sat down again… [br]
[br]
Eleanor: Guess it was just a- [br]
[br]
At that point, a soft “clak” was heard… Eleanor dropped dead in front of Gino with a bullet-hole in his skull… [br]
[br]
Gino: *gasps* Fa-![br]
[br]
And another soft “clak” was heard… The bullet hit Gino in the back of his head as he too fell down dead to the ground… A large posture emerges from the darkness around the corridor while a smaller one emerges from behind where Gino was standing… They both got down so that they wouldn’t be seen through the window… The large posture stands up when he’s near the door… [br]
[br]
???: What’s the code the medic punched in……? [br]
???: 3,1,0,8,8,7,0,1,6… [br]
???: You stay outside…… [br]
[br]
Once the large posture punched in the code, he slowly opened the door… [br]
[br]
Fabian: Whoa, what the-!![br]
[br]
He quickly shot Fabian in the head before he had time to response… Once the medic saw that Fabian was dead, he reached out for his weapon, but he too got shot before he could respond… The large posture got out a syringe, and injected something in Vilani’s arm… And waited… [br]
[br]
A short moment later, Vilani opened her eyes slowly… She looks in horror at the large posture who was sitting next to her… [br]
[br]
Vilani: … Y-You…? [br]
???: Yes… [br]
Vilani: … D-Did you come to k-kill me…? [br]
???: I killed you ten minutes ago… When you were asleep… [br]
Vilani: A-Am I d-dieing……? [br]
???: Yes… It won’t hurt…[br]
Vilani: B-but… M-My b-baby……[br]
???: Ssssh… You’re baby will be fine… [br]
Vilani: *sobs* B-But…… [br]
???: I’m truly sorry for doing this, Vilani… I really am… But I can’t risk you telling them everything…… [br]
[br]
Vilani:*sobs* Y-you’re secret i-is s-safe with… With m-me……! I-I swear on m-my mother’s s-soul, I-I w-wont t-tell a-anyone…![br]
[br]
???: I’m sorry, Vilani… I really am… But I can’t… Sssh…… Close you’re eyes…… [br]
[br]
The large posture watches how Vilani passed away… He soon got joined by the smaller posture that looks in disgust at Vilani's body… [br]
[br]
???: *shakes head* … I never agreed to this…
[br]
???: She jeopardized everything we stand for… You fracked it up before so I can set it right… [br]
[br]
???: I told you, I couldn’t do… It’s a lost cause we’re fighting… GUN would never- [br]
[br]
All of a sudden, the larger posture grabbed the smaller one by its neck and slammed him against the wall… Then he firmly pressed a pistol against his forehead…[br]
[br]
???: Shut the frack up… You’re proceeding as they told you to do… Keep in mind that I’m still watching you’re every move… I can also put a bullet trough you’re head if you try to jeopardize us again… You know what happened last time… Do you understand…? [br]
[br]
???: *nods slowly* [br]
???: Good… *slowers pistol* [br]
[br]

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