Chapter Text
When a new person appears in Purgatory they are given a chance to start a new life. Of course, their new life depended on where they are washed up to. If they are washes up on the northwestern coast, they are welcomed to an army of renegade slave traders. If they are washes up on the shore where Joseph Seed reigns - may God have mercy in their soul. So people new to Purgatory didn't have much in how exactly to start their new life, and some had no choice at all. Even the son of Anton Castillo did not have such luxury.
When Diego found himself on the shore, he became very scared that he was completely alone. He imagined his adventures on an abandoned island many times before, but not without at least some kind of equipment or at least a knife. A knife is a universal tool for survival in the wild, but right now the only useful thing he had was a belt. And when he saw the familiar walls of the Hotel Paraiso in the distance, he fell into complete confusion. The last thing he wanted to see now, as strange as it may seem, was views of his home country.
At first, he hid in the thicket of the forest, carefully wandered around the perimeter of the base. Diego was not sure if he should be surprised that the coastal valley under Yarans control just became a new miniature Yara. The only thing that made him worry less was that the cursed PG-240 was not sprayed across the fields. But in the end Diego was caught when he tried to leave the valley through the southwestern gorge.
Thus his freedom lasted for a little less than an hour and thus his imprisonment began. Diego was kept on the upper floors of the Hotel Paraiso, where he already had his own room back when he life. He was not allowed to go below the third floor, and when he was allowed, he had to be accompanied by soldiers. Somehow he now found himself under more security than he had ever been in life; he became more free, but now the soldiers were watching his every step.
Right now Diego was hanging out all by himself on the roof of the hotel that was a little overgrown with flowers and plants from the marble vases. Leaning his elbows on the balustrade, holding a tiger lily flower in front of his nose, focusing his gaze back and forth on the flower and the landscape behind it – a prophylaxis from myopia. Nothing has changed, only now everything is completely different, he thought to himself.
But despite the complete restriction of his freedoms, now he was spending more time with his father. Now Anton was not as busy as before. His leukemia had disappeared without a trace, and he no longer wore thick layers of makeup to hide his cancer-ravaged face. And he himself became much calmer and more patient, leisurely, and less cruel. He began to spend more time with his son, but also allowed him to calmly wander around the base without his direct supervision, albeit accompanied by a horde of soldiers. He and Diego even made some car models together one time. His gluing of the model was faster and more accurate than Diego’s. He was completely immersed in his craft, having a barely noticeable smile on his mouth. Diego had never seen his father like this so calm. So happy.
But his policy did not changed at all. Before, his ambitions were only smoldering the embers of his ill heart, but now he was burning with them. And when he learned that the commander-in-chief of the enemy army was a slave trader from Central Asia, he took it as a challenge. He wanted to capture the entire peninsula in order to establish his own order on it, which now seemed more feasible than on the real Yara.
Father never said what “paradise” should be like or what it would be like exactly, Diego thought to himself while looking into the distance at the gorge leading to the northern valley. Diego was given a thousand and one explanations from his father of what had to be done to Yara for it to become paradise, but there were almost no specifics. Will there be freedom of speech? Free education? Free healthcare? Affordable mortgage?.. Hold up, where the hell I’m going with this? At least now Anton Castillo could approach the idea of creating paradise in reality with a cool head, not driven by illness and time.
The center of the peninsula was already under the control of the Yarans. There was small commune of religious cultists settled on the south of the peninsula, who did not seem particularly dangerous, there fore the main military forces were located in the northern part of the central forest and in the northern valley, where the main battlefront was. News about the capture, loss and recapture of the outpost in the center of the northern valley came so often that Diego was already counting how many times one of the sides had recaptured it - he drew a line on the edge of a draught of a flash grenade. Seeing the soldier-messenger running out of the gorge, Diego threw the tiger lily on the balustrade and had already prepared a pencil to add a new line to the enemy-soldiers score.
However, the messenger brought the news so surprising that no one expected to hear - the attack on the central outpost was not only , but this time the outpost was reclaimed for good.
It was difficult to get to the central outpost from the west side of the valley due to the inconsistently located passible paths from the slopes. Even though the top of the slope provided a good view of the entire valley, going down from there was still a hassle. The scout-soldier reported that he did not see anyone entering the outpost. It was already difficult to know that for sure because of the oncoming night, but in order to get to the central outpost unseen, located on a completely open area, one had to be a hereditary ninja. But just in case when the squad reached the forest just west of the outpost they sent a soldier to reconnaissance. The battle promised to not take long.
“Yeah, the outpost is in shambles…” said Grant Brody, the commander of their squad.
“They know that they’ll have to defend it somehow since they need this outpost so much?” asked Adams.
“This’s just their general approach to… Well, to everything in general. Lorenzo said that at the end of Castillo’s reign people were forced to become slaves for any kind of crime. Complete totalitarianism,” answered him John.
“Ha! One more reason to be glad that we didn’t live long enough to see this.”
“Yeah, I’m still working for fucking Hoyt. And I’m very, fucking, glad,” said Lugo.
“Be glad that you are still alive, soldier,” said the commander.
Their conversation was interrupted by a rustle from the forest. An out of breath soldier appeared from behind the trees, struggling to cross a forest flooded with knee-deep water.
“"Star",” said the commander. The soldier did not answer. Brody repeated, “"Star"! Answer or we'll shoot!”
“Ugh, you know who I am! "Texas"!” Lugo answered, crawling out from the swamp onto the shoal where the squad was waiting. “Phew, goddamnit. I’m not going back there!”
“You will, soldier. How many people are there?”
“There's no one there! Just ash, soot, smoke and decay. I even went to the outpost itself. It’s empty.”
“You’re sure? The previous squad also entered the outpost thinking it was clear.”
“I checked the entire outpost, checked the eastern exit. There’s nobody there.”
“Riggs, check it just in case. They could have gotten out when he left.
Riggs squatted down and looked at the outpost through the scope of his sniper rifle.
“I don’t see anyone,” he said.
“Oh, are you sure? Maybe I should go again and check each barrel for some idiot?” asked Lugo still breathing heavily.
“You can calm down. I won’t be sending you on reconnaissance anymore,” reassured him Brody. “Okay, let's go.”
The squad entered the water and went to the outpost. They walked slowly, not just to not make too much noise, but also because they could not move more quickly. Having crossed the water flood and climbed the hill, they entered the outpost. Covered in soot and thick layers of burnt plants the orange soil was still a little warm from the fire. There was smell that red poison floating in the air that the Yarans used to kill all the soldiers at the outpost, including some of their own. This throat-stinging smell could be felt even through the wet rags tied around their faces. The outpost itself was, more or less, intact, although completely burned out. The charred concrete buildings were covered in soot; all the wooden furniture was destroyed. Only the concrete blocks in front of the south building were still standing.
“Take a look, boys. This is the paradise that President Yara dreams about,” said Grant.
“So empty,” muttered Simon.
“And what do you expect after such a fire?” asked him Adams, poking a pile of ashes left from some log or a corpse. “Of course no one survived.”
“Squad. Stop talking,” the commander addressed his soldiers. “We take defensive positions inside buildings. There should be boxes with Negevs on the second floor of the radio station.”
“What Negevs?! Everything burned to hell.”
“Then let’s check if anything survived. Still worth checking the outpost.”
The squad dispersed around the outpost. Sand and burnt earth crunched under their feet. The birds that circled the outpost before were no longer there. They either flew away or burned in the fire. Burnt bodies were laying all over the outpost; soldiers, their comrades and their enemies. There were no signs that there might be living people here.
Brody and Lugo checked the building in the northern side of the outpost, which was a radio station before the fire. All equipment, furniture, wallpaper – everything burnt down. Radio communication was a luxury on the peninsula. The needed technology could be found in special cave-traps, where resided creatures made from strange dark liquid and where the escape was a fleeting possibility. They had already lost a dozen men trying to rescue a batch of RPGs from one such cave. And these Yarans burned everything to hell. They’re just castrating themselves, thought Brody to himself.
Riggs went with them to take the position on the roof, as the radio station's roof was the highest point in the whole central forest and provided a view of a couple of miles around. But the passage to the roof was blocked. Maybe the soldiers were trying to hide from the gas on the second floor and barricaded it? He tried to open the hatch by force, but gave up when the commander called him.
While the rest of the squad checked the buildings, Simon and Adams were outside. Adams came to the east gate, checking if the Yarans were coming from the east, while Simon ran around the first floor of the south building, checking it for enemies. Stepping outside, he stood in front of the building and lazily looked over the outpost area. He was already heading towards his comrades to regroup when he tripped over a body lying on the ground. He had no intention other than to curse under his breath, but when he looked back, he immediately stopped, confused by what he saw.
The body were covered with a thick layer of soot and earth. But that was not what bothered him. A dozen of our soldiers and five people from their army died here. But there’s more corpses? He walked closer to the body and bent over it. Taking a closer look at it, he noticed that the body itself looked unusual. Under the layer of dirt, was visible light unharmed skin, and the shape of the burnt man’s face was not the same as that of the Yarans. Did the Yarans have Asians in their army?
He didn’t even have time to say a word to report the strange corpse, when a shiv launched into his throat, and he was already began to choke on his own blood. The Asian man, who was pretending to be dead, bared his teeth in effort, trying to keep the shiv in the throat, not allowing the soldier to pull away. As soon as the soldier tried to move his head back, the Asian made moved hand, cutting the soldier’s throat. Simon fell to his knees and grabbed his throat, and meanwhile the Asian man quietly but quickly squatted up and propped up the soldier with his hand to carefully put him on the other burnt corpse near them. And before Adams could look in their direction, the Asian man disappeared behind the building.
Tetsuo drew first blood.
Adams did not even immediately realize that Simon had been killed - it was difficult to see anything in the darkness. The remaining soldiers gathered in the center of the outpost.
“Everything burned to hell,” reported Riggs. “The radio, the wiring. Even the Negevs were burned down.”
“Yeah, well, shouldn’t have expected anything else,” Brody rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. “How the fire was strong enough from this red crap that the fire burned metal?”
“Whatever that crap is, it’s a lousy fire starter if it’s…” He stopped. There were many piles of burnt rubbish left in the building; machine guns could have been among them. “…Wait. Where exactly were the machine guns stored?”
“On the second floor in the corner of the radio room.”
Riggs was silent for a couple of seconds, remembering what the radio room looked like.
“There was just a pile of burnt wood in the corner. There were no metal parts.”
“So the Yarans were here.” The commander looked to the east, where the lights of their main outpost could be seen in the distance. “When did they manage to take them?”
“Hey,” Lugo called to his comrades. “We have a problem.”
While they were wondering why the machine guns were gone, they did not notice that Simon was not with them. Looking back at Lugo, it immediately became clear what happened to him. He was lying on a burnt corpse. His blood had already begun to drip down from the corpse to the ground and soak into the blackened soil.
The others hurried to the body while looking around for the killer. Having surrounded the body of the dead comrade, they immediately stood on guard, expecting a new attack from the invisible enemy.
“No lollygagging. They could be anywhere,” ordered Brody.
“We need to take cover. The concrete blocks will do,” suggested John.
“Yes, let's go for them. Adams…” And then Brody realized that another soldier was missing. “Where’s Adams?”
Lugo looked back and pointed to the opposite side of the outpost.
“There he is. Hey Adams! Get your ass over here!”
Adams did not answer, but stood there swaying a little. He raised his hand, as if trying to take something from behind his back. Suddenly his eyes rolled back and bloody tears flowed from them. Letting out a long groan, he fell to the ground, there was a large machete wound in the back of his head. There was sound of quick footsteps somewhere in the darkness.
“Quickly, the blocks! Watch your back!” commanded Brody and jumped behind the blocks along with his comrades.
While they were running for cover, someone started to shoot at them, and as soon as they jumped behind the concrete blocks, the shooting immediately stopped. The shooting came from the opposite side of the outpost.
“Keep your head down. We're in their sights,” warned the commander.
“We get it! What should we do?” asked John.
“We’ll either call for reinforcements, or someone’ll have to get them from behind, from outside the outpost.”
“So he can get stabbed like Adams? Grant, bad idea. Call Sam.”
Brody nodded and was already reaching for the radio when a bottle broke on the wall of the building behind them and they were doused with alcohol. The rag in the bottle wasn’t burning, so it didn’t set them on fire, but they couldn’t understand where it was thrown it from.
“What kind of maneuver is this? A dud-Molotov?” John shook the alcohol from his hands and shouted. “Hey! Fucking panties! Come out!”
Nobody answered.
“I see one,” Riggs whispered. “Permission to open fire?”
“Where?”
“There, on the second floor. Saw someone's silhouette hiding under the window. Permission to open fire?”
“Yes, okay, try to get him through concrete. Your caliber can penetrate it.” Brody turned to the rest of the soldiers. “Only Riggs shoots. Let's try to get them out of hiding.”
Riggs began firing at possible enemy hideout. The bullets hit the concrete and dust flew into the air. Some bullets flew over the window and made their way through the wall, but it was not clear if whether he got anyone. There was not even a cry of pain or even the sound of footsteps.
Riggs stopped shooting to reload and to try again, but Brody stopped him:
“Cease fire. Don't waste your ammo, he's not there.”
“Clear. What now?” asked Riggs, but received no answer. Brody fell silent, trying to find a gap between the concrete blocks to look through.
“Why the hell are we sitting here?” John was indignant, looking around, but keeping his head below the blocks. “They’ll get behind us any minute now.”
Brody peeked out from behind his cover. There was definitely no one there where Riggs was shooting… And, barely noticing a gleam of light from something metallic in the corner of his eye, he immediately ducked down, dodging the bullet.
“To the left of the building!” As soon as he shouted this, John and Lugo began shooting at the enemy. “Riggs, keep an eye on the building.”
Neither John nor Lugo managed to hit the enemy. Riggs suddenly fired a shot and there was a scream from the other end of the outpost. Having disobeyed the commander's order, he was able to hit the enemy.
And then the enemy started shooting at them from the west. John didn’t even got up from the block, barely poked the back of his head out from behind the cover, fell to the ground and let out a long groan. Lugo turned him over. John jerked and no longer moaned, he was not moving, staring with empty eyes at the sky. All the remaining soldiers hid behind the blocks, trying to not pay attention to their friend’s body.
“Riggs, where is he?” Brody shouted.
“At the western gate, behind the fence.”
“Lugo, he's yours.”
Lugo tried to shoot the enemy at the western gate. The fence was iron, fastened with iron sheets and scrap metal. But it was thin and easily penetrated by the 7,62 caliber. Lugo fired a bunch of bullets from his gun at the fence, where the enemy should have been. A couple of seconds passed and the shooter appeared from behind the cover again.
“Goddamnit!” Lugo crouched behind cover and began reloading. “How the fuck did he survive?!”
“He laid down on the ground before you started shooting,” explained Riggs. “Try shooting at the bottom of the fence.”
Pulling the shutter of his gun, Lugo immediately received a bullet in the shoulder.
“Bitch!” He fell to the ground and pressed him back against the block.
They started shooting from the second floor of the radio station again, now from two positions at once. Riggs immediately tried to take aim and hit the shooters, but did not have time to fire before they disappeared behind the cover. The shootout escalated into an empty exchange of ammunition. Bullets poured everywhere, but neither into enemies nor into members of the squad.
Fire began to flare up behind them. They were too engrossed in the battle that they did not notice how they had already been approached from behind and sabotaged their cover. They weren't even bothered by the heat from the flames. Only Lugo noticed that the surroundings were brighter. The fire was behind them, right next to the building, but did not reach them yet and did not spread beyond its small source.
“They want to fry us!” Lugo shouted.
“Crap! Riggs, finish off the shooters on the second floor!” ordered the commander.
“I can’t take aim, they’re pressuring us. I need another position.”
“Then hurry up with it! We'll cover you!”
Choosing the moment, without waiting for commander’s order, Riggs jumped out from behind cover and ran to the east of the outpost. Enemy riflemen tried to shoot him, but his comrades opened fire on the windows. While Riggs was running around the outpost, he noticed something strange. The field looked a little different. It wasn't just because now it was illuminated by fire, he was able to see the surroundings even without light. It seemed to him as if there were more bodies on the ground. He stopped at the woman's body, which confused him the most and took a closer look at her. Although the body of the burnt woman wasn’t moving, it seemed alien to him. As if there was something wrong with it.
“What the…”
“Riggs! Get your ass there already!”
Riggs immediately moved towards the cover, made a sharp turn near the barrels in order to jump behind them to cover his comrades from there. Without aiming at the optical sight, he was able to immediately hit the cover where he shot earlier and where the enemy shooters were hiding. He finally hit the enemy. Whether he killed him or not was not important. He carefully watched the windows, reacting to any movement in the window.
“Okay, enough of this crap,” said Brody. “I'm calling for reinforcements.”
“Finally! It's about damn time!” shouted Lugo.
As soon as Brody picked up the radio to call Sam, he cried out loudly in pain. His scream was followed by the sound of glass breaking and the sound of spilling liquid. A bottle of alcohol fell on his head and broke on a concrete block.
“They're on the roof!” Lugo shouted, getting Brody, who was wounded in the head with the Molotov bottle, away from the fire. “Riggs! Get out of there!”
Riggs immediately ran out from behind the barrels and rushed towards his squad, but suddenly lost his balance and screamed in pain. No, he was not shot in the knee by a shooter from the second floor, whom he actually didn’t hit. The woman, pretending to be dead, stabbed him in the calf with a knife, the one he noticed while running from cover to cover. Falling on his stomach to the ground, he immediately pointed his rifle back to shoot the lurking bitch. But she managed to grab the barrel of the rifle and move it to the side so that he could not shoot her. Laughing nervously, the heavily breathing woman in one long step came closer to him and plunged the knife into his ribs.
“Holy shit…” managed to mutter Riggs. He could cry out anything.
Lugo, having dragged his enraged commander into the building, took a position at the window.
“Riggs, where are you!?..” When he glanced at his comrade and seeing the smiling killer near his body, now he too began to grow ferocious. “Oh, you motherfucker!”
He aimed his weapon on the woman who killed his comrade. She covered herself with his body, pulled out the Desert Eagle from the holster on his belt and began to return fire. Luckily for him, her aim was off.
“Lugo, get away from the window!” shouted Brody.
“Call for reinforcements!”
Brody, still holding the radio in his tightly clenched hand, raised it to his mouth.
“Sam! We need-”
Before he could finish speaking, someone attacked him, cutting his shoulder. The room was dark, so the attacker was able to escape immediately. The wound wasn’t deep, the hand didn’t let go if the radio. Sam's unintelligible voice came from the radio.
“Lugo, we’re having an ambush in here!”
“I'm busy! Can you figure it out?”
Brody, gritting his teeth in pain, removed his hand from his hirt shoulder and pulled out a revolver. Peering into the darkness, he was able to make out the silhouette of a man in the darkness of the room. If he had a weapon, he would have already shot us.
“Yes, I can.” And he entered the darkness.
Because of the sounds of gunfire, it was difficult to hear enemy’s footsteps hidden in the darkness. The only source of light was the window where Lugo was under cover. And from time to time he turned his rifle so that the light from his shots illuminated the room a little.
He pointed the revolver at where he thought the enemy was. The explosion of the shot illuminated the room for just a moment. The scene was imprinted on the retina of his eye - a concrete wall, a little to the right of the trajectory of the shot there was a man, his eyes wide open, glancing at the bullet. Redirecting the revolver, Brody fired again. This time the shot illuminated only the wall; the man was nowhere to be seen. He did not have time to fire the third shot - the blade hit his hand and he was forcefully pushed away. Rollin over his head, he tried to fight back, but his fists didn't hit anything.
He expected that the enemy from the darkness would attack him again, but he was distracted by Lugo's screams. While Brody dealt with the annoying killer from the darkness, Lugo’s spent all his ammunition. While he was putting away his rifle to get his pistol, the enemies managed to get to the window, jump over the windowsill and attack him. Two people attacked Lugo at once. The first attacker stuck a machete in his leg, the second attacker plunged the blade into his stomach. Lugo screamed in pain and tried to take his pistol, but one of the attackers tore off his holster with it.
Grant rushed to save Lugo. The enemies who attacked Lugo, seeing Brody, immediately run away, leaving their blades in the soldier’s body. Grant tried to shoot one of the attackers, but missed again.
“Why the fuck are they so fast?!” He ran up to his friend and pulled him away from the window. They no longer were being shot at. It seems that the enemies have also run out of ammo.
Brody pulled the machete from his comrade's leg and got him up to his feet, putting his arm over his shoulders. Lugo tried to remove the machete from his stomach, but was stopped by Grant.
“You're gonna pull out your guts out.”
“Ah… Oh, fuck… We have to get out…”
“Then move your ass!”
They went outside through the side exit of the building. While all of that was happening, the fire had spread to almost all areas of the outpost; they had to walk on heated earth and coals.
“Aaah! Fuck!..” Lugo hissed through his teeth.
“Be patient!” Grant tried to go to places where there were fewer fires. His boots, which were also soaked in alcohol, heating with every step on the hot ground. “Fuck!”
“Grant, we’re in full view. They’ll get us…”
“They would’ve shot us already.”
“They’re strange… Doing so much to scare us… We lost to who… fucking knows…”
“Yeah, the Yarans have new soldiers. We need to report to the base,” Brody tried to get the radio that was in the hand with which he supported Lugo. Then a bullet flew past them and flew into the ground. “Oh, fuck you!”
Brody picked up Lugo and pulled him faster, heading out of the outpost area.
“Then leave me… Get out of here… and call for reinforcements…” Lugo’s voice sounded the more quieter and calmer as the blood flowed out of him.
But Brody wasn't going to leave him. One could already assume that all the other members of the squad were doomed to be captured, and he was not going to give himself and his only surviving comrade to them. He still regrets the last time that happened in his past life.
“Hold on! Just move your feet.” The commander’s voice, despite the fatigue and pain, still sounded like an order.
“Ha… I don’t feel them… And I don’t feel pain… That’s good, right? We are immortal, but now I’ll die without pain…”
Suddenly he twitched and immediately went limp. Something metallic flashed at the edge of Brody’s eye. A stream of blood rushed down his cheek. And all that happened in one second.
Brody looked at his friend. Lugo's head was missing. More precisely, it flew off his torso and fell to the ground, and in its place was a cut neck, looking like a bloody beef tenderloin. He looked around, expecting his neck to be cut off, but there was no one behind him.
This is hell.
The captain stood in complete shock for a second, and then, abandoning the body of his comrade, rushed away from the outpost. Running out of the fence, rolling down the hill and stopping at its foot, he finally turned on the radio and almost shouted the message:
“There are enemies here! Send help!”
“Yeah, we got it already! We’re coming for you!” Sam immediately answered, but then asked, “What’s going on there?”
“They’re among the corpses! They killed everyone! They-”
Something sharp stuck into the back of his head and came out from the other side, right out of his nose. Squinting his eyes at his nose, he was able to see the machete blade from a very unusual angle. And then the blade suddenly moved back, and he fell dead. Sam's voice came from the radio held tightly in the soldier's hand, so the killer picked it up and turned it off.
Yuri took last blood.
“Bravo, answer!” Sam didn't get any answer. “Well, great. Either the scouts or the Yarans fucked us over. Which one of you idiots reported that the outpost is clear?”
“Sam, they are the scouts. Even if their scout fucked them over, he’s with them now,” objected Werner.
Sam rubbed his beard, peering at the outpost. What kind of treacherous trick is this? Have the Yarans completely lost their minds? The fire broke out there once again. What else could possibly be burning there? Coals don't burn with such intensity.
“And you also said that six people would be enough for this job.” Jonron turned her head a little to the side and propped it up with her hand. “Well? Are we coming for them or what?”
“Let's go.” Sam waved his hand, ordering the soldiers to follow him.
They had already descended from the slopes and almost reached the foot of the hill where the outpost was, near a small river. Just a couple of days ago the river was smaller, but after a strong rainfall, it spread through the forest, causing the hillock become a small island. This occasion saved the entire forest from forest fire. But now the water did not allow them to move more faster.
When they almost reached the edge of the forest, Sam put his hand back, ordering the squad to stop. The outpost on the hill was almost completely engulfed in flames.
“Wait.” Sam peered into the fire at the outpost. There were visible silhouettes of people standing in the windows of the outpost buildings. Whoever was there, the fire did not claim them. “No, we’re not going there.”
“Are you crazy?! They'll burn the entire Bravo squad to hell! And when they recover, they’ll get skinned during interrogations,” objected Werner.
“Oh, so you’re propose to join them? No, if we go there, we’ll get killed… And they’ve already noticed us.”
“You’re just making excuses,old man,” said Jonron and started moving briskly towards the outpost, despite Sam’s warnings. “Let's go before-”
They were immediately shot at. Sam's squad immediately ducked down and retreated to the river. A bullet grazed Jonron’s ear, and she roared in pain.
“You bastards!” Having jumped over the river in the wake of her comrades, she immediately turned around and shouted, “I’ll fucking kill you all! You hear me?!”
“No, you won’t be. Idiot, I told you they’ve already noticed us! They have a good position and we…” Sam looked back at the outpost. The silhouettes in the windows were gone. “We have no idea where they are.”
“What do you mean we don’t know? They're there! What else do you need to know?”
“And they know that we are here! And your squeals are a dead giveaway.”
“Then we’ll get them from the north, what else?”
“Well, we can try that. Werner,” Sam turned to the only soldier he trusted. “Take two soldiers with you and go around them from the north.”
Werner nodded silently and beckoned the two soldiers with his hand, ignoring Jonron.
“Hey! I suggested going north! I want to fight too!”
“You’re too loud and bright,” answered her Werner and turned to Sam. “And what you’ll be doing?”
“I was thinking of going a little south and attacking at the same time as you. But since you left me Mercedes, we’ll sit here. We’ll attack when you’ll divert all the attention.”
“Yes, you!..” Jonron curled her lips and, it seemed, for the first time in her life she did not respond with rudeness to rudeness.
“It's time to grow up, Jonron. This’s not a child’s revolution,” one of the soldiers told her before going.
The squad moved out to the position, and Sam and Jonron remained on the spot. Sam squinted, trying to look at the outpost, and Jonron, whom he ordered not to move at all, got on her toes also trying to see what was happening at the outpost.
About ten minutes later began the shooting at the outpost.
“Well, they got distracted. Jonron, let's go.”
Sam crouched down and moved towards the outpost. Jonron did the same. She no longer clowned around and was quiet. Both tried to stay low, trying not to get busted. Sam noted to himself that Jonron, despite her rebellious demeanor, was still obeying him, trying to be on good terms with him and even repeated after him, some of his habits that he acquired due to the needs of a soldier’s life. Maybe this girl isn't so hopeless.
A bullet whistled past them.
“Well, shit!” Sam grabbed Jonron by the shoulder and pulled her to the ground. Several more bullets flew directly above them. “We’re busted!”
“To the right!” immediately shouted Jonron. “There's a ravine there!”
This time Sam listened to her. They ran into the ravine, and the shooting immediately.
“What kind of defense is this?” asked Jonron breathing heavily. “How many of them are there?”
“Yes, it’s hopeless. No getting through.”
“What’re we going to do?”
Sam sighed heavily and took out his radio:
“Werner, abort the operation. The outpost is their.”
“Got it, Sam!” Werner answered. “Stand down! We’re going back!”
Sam put the radio away and wiped the sweat from his face. Jonron let out a long sigh.
“Well, that sucks. And you promised that I finally be in a real battle!”
“Well, sorry that I can’t foresee this-”
Jonron wasn’t listening to him. She slid down the hill with such speed that the enemies at the outpost did not have time to react to her descent, collecting all the dirt and ash in the process.
“Hey, wait!” - After waiting a little, Sam also went down the hill.
Strange as it may seem, he was not shoot at by the enemy. The squad gathered at the same place where they separated. Everyone were alright. One man was hit by a bullet, another one was just scratched by the bullets, but everyone was alive.
“Well, how did it go?” Sam asked Werner.
“Fucking bad, that's how. When they started shooting, we tried to return fire, but I don't think we’ve killed anyone. You can’t get through there, not with this equipment,” answered Werner.
“Yes, I already understood. Fuck… Well, at least we somehow got out of this strategic impasse.”
“Seriously?” Jonron was indignant, rubbing the wound on her ear. “What was it all for then?”
“We’ll change the strategy. Right now, we’re going to Hoyt, report everything and think about what to do next. Maybe we'll be able bring Jason in.”
“O-oh! The Jason?” asked Werner. “I thought there’s no reason with him.”
“Well, now he’ll have one.”
His brother was in the squad, and he is ready to fight tooth and nail for his family and friends. We’ll finally get his ass involved in the war. If only we could find him.
When the morning came a squad of Yarans soldiers was sent to the central outpost. They were not expecting that the Yakuza would made the outpost a greater ash-land than before, nor that the Yakuza would be alive at all. They all were still cautiously looking over the area around the outpost, and even scared the Yaran squad with their strange appearance – the Yakuza smeared themselves in soot and ash and looked like walking burnt corpses. They not only exceeded the expectations, but also shocked everyone with the fact that they managed to do all that without any losses, and how exactly they achieved victory.
The night before, when they just arrived at the central outpost, the first thing the Yakuza did was covering themselves in soot, ash, and dirt to make themselves harder to see in the dark. Everyone hid in the nooks and crannies of buildings, among the burnt rubble, in the space between fences and buildings. Tetsuo and Aoi even decided to hide in plain sight and play dead, which, in hindsight, allowed them to deal with the enemy squad a little faster and take them by surprise. Hideki, Tetsuo and Yuri gave away their ammo they were equipped with to the others, and were dealing with the soldiers with their machetes. The rest of the Yakuza divided into two groups, were distracting the soldiers, and prevented reinforcements from approaching the outpost.
In the morning they returned to the eastern outpost to personally report what had happened to General Jose and wash themselves from the filth. Right now, the Yakuza were washing themselves with a water hose outside the hospital. There was no save access to water at the central outpost, so they could only wash off the dirt here, where there was a well. Those Yakuzas who had already washed themselves, came in to the hospital to be examined and get their burns treated.
Yuri was the last one in line for the wash and stood at the end of the line for the checkup, considering herself to be the least injured. But Teresa insisted to treat her out of the line – apparently she was very interested to know what had happened in the night. Yuri had not reported about what happened to General Jose, who was doing God knows what and was God knows where.
“Ah! You’re rubbing too hard,” Yuri said to Teresa, who was wiping her face with cotton soaked in alcohol. “Didn’t you say that blood poisoning is no longer a threat?”
“Then you shouldn’t have covered yourself in mud. You look like a scarecrow. You better tell me why you did this? Were you really that desperate?”
“You’re talking about how we covered ourselves in soot or how we killed the men like animals?”
“About everything. Nobody in their right mind would come up with such a act.”
Yuri sighed heavily and was silent for a while trying to find the right words. But finding none, she gave a honest answered:
“Better not ask. I’m also in complete shock… The outpost is recaptured, the enemy is in a stupor. We bought your army some advantage. That’s all that matters.”
“There was no need to be so ruthless. We haven’t won the war yet and strategies like this will not last long.”
“Then we’ll come up with new ones.”
“Oh, you’re so reckless. So…” Teresa grinned.
“"So naive", right?”
“No, you just reminded me of my old friend in arms… He was always so optimistic even when there was no hope left.” Teresa rubbed the bridge of her nose, hiding a tear from her eye. “You got very lucky with where you were washed up, on the same shore as your comrades. Fate itself brought you together again.”
“I don’t think so. I am certainly glad to meet my alive siblings. But the rest… They are not my friends. And I'm not their friend. But I have a… debt I have to repay, so to speak.”
“Debt?.. Oh, you got yourself into debt you’re still paying it off. I see.”
“No, no,” Yuri grinned and sighed heavily. “More like the opposite.”
“No? Then what?”
Yuri looked into Teresa's eyes. Yuri was no longer smiling; her eyes were cold as steel, which made Teresa feel uneasy. She was silent for a few seconds and then answered:
“You better not know.” Yuri got out of bed and headed outside, but she did thank Teresa. “Thank you for your concern.”
Leaving Teresa in complete bewilderment and shock, Yuri went to General Jose for the report. One of the soldiers who accompanied Jose yesterday, and who now was resting from Jose’s presence, clarified that Jose was in the arsenal of the outpost right now, where he was cursing Juan Cortez with all his vocabulary. Entering the arsenal, Yuri witnessed an unusual spectacle where one of the actors was ready to burst with anger, and the other one was silently grinning while watching the first one’s performance.
“Alright, Cortez, alright. Then I will explain to you in the language that you, stupid scum, will understand. Don’t make the shit you want to make, do what you are asked to do. What you are doing is cumbersome, unmanageable, heavy scrap metal. Where the fuck are we going to get plastic discs for your weapon?!”
“There is a stock of CDs with pirated music. There’s no other use for it, so.”
“Great! It will be enough for a whole one battle! And how about carrying it around, did you thought of that?!”
Juan turned to the table and easily picked up the Discos Locos.
“When I create my Resolvers, I always take into account the weight so that even you can lift it. It's not my fault your soldiers are such weak pussies.”
Jose bared his teeth and took the Resolver from Juan. He immediately almost dropped his hands from the weight, holding this colossus in his hands. Raising the weapon to the chest level, he curled his lips in anger and hissed:
“This crap will go down in history. Unlike you.” Jose threw the Discos Locos into Juan’s hands. He frowned, but remained silent, not responding to his impudence. “Start making normal weapons.”
Jose turned towards the exit and, seeing Yuri in the passage, immediately stared at her in shock.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“I came to report on the night battle for the central outpost, General.”
“Oh!” Juan’s expression immediately changed. “So this is our new military recruit! It was clear even from afar that you put on quite a show down there!”
“I… wasn’t there alone.”
“Yes, you have a shared responsibility in this fuckery,” Jose turned all attention to himself once again. “I don't need your excuses. You’ve really fucked up, big time!”
When boss - and in this case the general - says that you "really fucked up", this puts the subordinate into a stupor and causes them to panic. And in the army this will mean severe punishment. But this was not Yuri’s first or last "boss", so she remained completely calm.
“Didn’t you yourself avoid using fire and deadly chemicals?” she asked in response. “The entire outpost burned down, but the second fire did not burn anything important. And it wasn't as big as the previous one.”
“Oh! Oh really? You managed to fucking burn everything there that didn’t burn the previous time! Like the one and only Negev batch, that was there! You want to get praised for burnt weapons?”
“The machine guns are intact. We dragged them to the roof of the outpost to save them from the fire.”
“So then!..” Jose paused and calmed down a little. “So then. Okay, good. What about the bodies of the soldiers?”
“Some got burn a little, but we pulled them away from the fire. They’ll recover quickly.”
“Okay, great,” Jose took a deep breath. “Well, at least you thought about something before going through with that.”
And Yuri grinned at this remark.
“I didn’t think that a person like you wouldn’t give a damn about what we did there,” she said.
“Oh, don't worry. I don’t care, really,” Jose assured her. “And the fact that you, Yakuzas, are a bunch of fucking scumbags - yes, you proved it.”
Juan chuckled.
“Speak for yourself, El Pequeño.”
Jose looked back at Juan. Juan's joke did annoy him, reminded him of the past. And neither the young general nor the old warrior was going to forget what the other did during the other’s lifetime.
“So, you need a detailed report on what happened?” Yuri asked.
“No, fuck, don't!” Jose strained his voice almost to the point of squealing. “You helped us get the outpost! Thanks, thank you for your work, now leave me alone!” Jose pointed to Juan. “Pester him with your stories!”
“Yes! Tell me! I beg you, dilute his whining with your fantastic story!”
Jose looked at Juan and made such a sour face that the room became uneasy, now not only because of his whining.
“I'm surrounded by idiots.” After these words, he headed towards the exit. Although Yuri immediately stepped away to let him pass, he pushed her hard with his shoulder.
“I’ve never seen such a small person be given such an important position,” she said when Jose came far away from the arsenal and looked at Juan. “Why was he elected a general?”
“Better ask why he was elected a general again.” Juan crossed his arms over his chest and, still smiling, began the conversation. “So. You’re the head of the Yakuza? I didn’t think they would choose a woman for the role.”
“They had to choose between me or death. I wouldn’t say that the choice was not forced.”
“Well, at least they had a choice, you know. The last thing I would want to do in the world of the dead is work for the army I fought against. And I didn’t even had time to understand that I was washed up on some shore of some other-wordly world before Anton’s soldiers tied me up.”
“But you did choose over death, did you? You work for them, as I see it.”
“Yeah, that’s true…” Juan didn’t smile. “You have no idea what kind of atrocities they are now ready to do to since people are now, fucking, immortal.”
“Well, at least you're doing what you love. Are you some kind of gunsmith?”
“Yes, I am!” Juan immediately lit up with a smile again. “I make weapons out of anything that can shoot almost anything. For someone - it is rubbish, but for a professional it is a weapon that will change the course of the war. This is "Resolver".”
His speech should have impressed Yuri, but after yesterday nothing could have surprised her more. Well, at least for now.
Yuri looked around the armory. She had never seen such sophisticated and ugly weapons.
“Need something quiet, with a large supply of ammunition,” she finally said.
“Oh, then El Susurro will suit you. Does not overheat, unlike suppressors, and shoots almost silently and from quite afar. In my opinion - the most boring.”
“It'll do.”
“You sure? There are more interesting options here.”
There was a strange invention standing at the table that looked like a backpack.
“Like this, for example? What is this anyway?” she asked, examining the metal monstrosity.
“This is “Supremo”. One of my inventions.” Juan lifted the jalopy onto the table and ran his hand over the colossus. “With it Libertad was able to conquer all of Yara. And now it helps Anton’s army. Ha, the irony.”
“Looks like a rocket launcher.”
“And it is! Only thing is that it shoots fireworks.” Juan snapped his fingers. “This one will suit your style of battling! Detonates in less than a second! There's also a jetpack, that will crisp everyone and thing around you. That’ll also suit you.”
“From a stealth point of view or making fire?”
“About both. Enemy will shit themselves from shock and from fear. There was no such confusion even in the previous fire.”
“It was a one-time strategy.”
Juan waved his hand.
“Believe me, such tactics will be more than enough to clear most of the outposts. No one can be prepared for a massacre from out of nowhere.”
“Don't expect it to work every time. They can come up with a countermeasure.”
“Then take Supremo as a countermeasure to the countermeasure! When all the cards are played, the best ace in the hole can only be a new deck of cards.”
“…We’ll do without it, thank you.”
Juan chuckled.
“What? Afraid of getting your hair burnt?”
“We are not this kind of soldiers. My men and I are operating in shadows because… Well, to be honest, only half of us would pass for soldiers. The rest either help the others or don't bother them. This is the first thing. Secondly, this thins probably is probably thirty kilograms-”
“No, no, it’s not as heavy as it looks. It weighs fifteen kilos.”
“And it will most likely make a lot of noise when moving. That counters the stealth.”
“Then give it to one of your men. Let him hide somewhere outside the outpost, and at the key moment, he’ll destroy the entire outpost!”
Yuri thought about it. This can actually be useful.
“I'll think about it. Thank you.”
“Do think about it! The proposal is short-lived.”
Yuri frowned. Why is he trying so hard to give me his toy?
“As I understand it, none of your weapons left the outpost, correct? You want me to take at least something, right? Although you didn't have the same enthusiasm when you offered me your hole-puncher.”
“Well, yes… That’s true.” Juan grinned and nodded his head. Taking an extinguished cigar from the ashtray, he re-lit it with the fire of his self-made flamethrower. “You remind me of one guerrilla with whom we claimed Yara. She single-handedly cleared checkpoints and other infrastructure from Anton’s soldiers. Only had a dog by her side, a tramp…” Juan said with a grin, and then added dryly, “until she fled to America when she was needed the most. Coward…”
“Sounds like it was only thanks to her that your revolution was successful.”
“So it was. She united everyone, and without her everything went wrong. And in the end it all came to… Shit.”
Juan lowered his head and took a drag from his cigar. Seeing such a sour expression on Juan's face was unexpected.
“I think I’ll take El Susurro,” Yuri broke the silence. “But, most likely, I’ll come back for another gun.”
Juan raised his head and cheered up a little. He immediately came to the table where the invention stood on a wooden stand. Giving Yuri the gun, he asked her:
“I’ll be glad to give my junk into good hands. And, you’re saying, you'll come back again?”
“I’ll send my people for weapons that will be useful in our new tactics.”
“Why not take something that might be useful right now?”
“We came up with this tactic together. Who will be doing do what. I was the one, who suggested making the fire. A commander without generals is like a king without advisers.”
“Well, everything is better than a president without his marbles.” Juan laughed loudly, but when he saw Yuri’s lack of expression on her face, he became a little upset. “Ugh, you're so boring.”
“I guess I’ll be going to my people. I was glad to meet you.”
“I’ll be glad to chat more!” Juan said loudly.
Going outside to the outpost area illuminated by the scorching sun, Yuri gradually began to come to her senses and digest the impressions of the past day. What a strange soldier. There is something about him… Psychopathic and… Hypocritical. If he wants to fight so much, then why doesn’t he go into battle himself? And his inventions are incredible and horrible.
She looked around. The Yarans at the outpost were wary of the Yakuza, like they were wild dogs. Nobody bothered them, and no one came near them. If a group of soldiers noticed one of the Yakuza walk by, they would immediately fall silent and gave them with a stern look. At least they were not harassed, perhaps they were scared of them. And the Yakuza looked at everyone else in the same arrogant way, even at their own leader. They really looked like a pack of wild dogs in the shadow of the hospital building.
“Well? So what awaits us?” Tetsuo asked Yuri as she approached them.
“We won’t be executed, don’t worry,” she answered. “You saw for yourself how shocked everyone is by our methods. But we gave a more than exactable result; the general doesn’t care about anything else.”
“"Exactable"?! We busted our asses there! Aoi and I almost got burned alive while we were pretending to be dead!”
“It was your idea,” noted Aoi, scratching off the skin on her cheek that had slightly peeled off from the fire. “Stop whining. You knew what you were getting into.”
“But Yuri wasn’t against this?” he immediately objected. “And I won’t be doing that again! And all that was just the beginning, goddamnit.”
“I also didn’t like that we were trying so hard to scare them. Are we changing tactics or what?” Aoi asked Yuri.
“What for?” asked Hideki. “I like this kind of fight. No wasting time reloading, it's easier to focus on combat.”
Koheku curled his lips at his impudence.
“Yeah, yeah. Only in next battle you’ll hastily reloading weapons.”
“We can’t do this every battle. We won't have enough nerves for this.” Yuri sighed heavily. “Believe me. Even Mari got tired from this from time to time.”
“I don’t believe it. She for sure even after all that would be demanding for more.”
“You just don’t…” Yuri paused and rubbed her right forearm. The lumpy scars that formed a smooth pattern of waves reminded her of missing tattoos. That day, even with them, she forgot the promise she made to herself. Again. And how many times I’ll have to screw myself like this to save my ass? “Okay. Let's think about what they’ll do in response to our little show.”
Like the last time, before concurring of the central outpost, everyone offered their ideas on how the battle should be fought, who should be doing what, and upon being told that the local weapons dealer was ready to give his strange inventions to them, Tetsuo and Hideki came over to him right away.
The only thing that did not fit into their plans were the Yaran soldiers, with whom they would have to go into battle together.