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Chapter 12: Old Ties
They had to have been walking for several hours at this point, the jungle seemed to go on and on forever, about another 100 feet they came to an edge, a small valley, inside the valley a clearing with the facility sitting smack dab in the middle.
"I think we're finally here, or we just stumbled upon a different freelancer facility," Tom said as he sat his bag down before getting out some binoculars. Kokobiel was right behind him as he looked down into the valley as well.
"I do believe you are correct." Kokobiel said.
"But where's the shed with all our gear?" Berum asked.
Tom scanned the nearby forest with the binoculars as he looked for the shed, a small gray building came into view maybe 30 yards from their position.
"Think I found it, just a bit of a walk but we'll still have a height advantage when we get to it," Tom said as he pointed over to it before picking his bag back up and putting the binoculars back into his bag. Kokobiel started the lead as he went towards the shed, the three soon following behind. They reached the shed, it had begun rusting sometime recently seeing the rust was creeping its way down the walls, Kokobiel was the first to open the door as he turned on the flashlight, the smell that hit them was that of mildew. There was three large boxes set up in the shed, Tom tried to open the one in the far right but its lid wouldn't budge.
"Move aside, they gave me a key for a reason," Olga said as she unlocked the crate lifting the lid open.
"They gave you a key, special muffin aren't ya?" Tom said as he looked into the crate, it was several ammo bags, mags, and basic medical supplies. Olga unlocked the other two as they looked through, torso armor, helmets, night vision goggles, a strange looking device, a sniper and superior fire power then they had currently, small and large firearms. Kokobiel whistled as he saw the crates.
"Some serious gear, they weren't kidding when they said we should be able to get this done by ourselves," Kokobiel said as he got some of the gear on taking a rifle as he checked its ammo. Berum followed suit as he picked up the device, it was an arm brace of some sort.
"The hell is this?" Berum asked.
"Don't know, never seen it before." Olga replied.
"Oh, pass it here I think I've seen one of those before," Tom said as he grabbed the arm brace sliding it on, the brace hissed before it deployed a glove around Tom's hand before he clenched his hand. It made a mechanical wearing noise before he pointed it to the ground as it charged before making a loud hiss and then shutting back down.
"Well that was anticlimactic," Tom said as he inspected the glove for a switch or a button.
"That's what she said," Kokobiel said as he checked the sights on his new gun.
"Oh shut up ya dumb brute," Tom said as he looked back into the crate which Berum had gotten the brace out of. Nothing else was in there related to the brace, Tom rolled his eyes before grabbing some of the gear and shutting the crate.
"Who knows, maybe the brace is some tracker of sorts, maybe it allows you to see the enemy on a map." Olga said.
"Like a video game?" Berum asked.
"Yes, like a video game, it's just gonna pop and have little red dots," Olga said as she smacked Berum upside the head. Berum rubbed the back of his head as he looked embarrassed on what he said.
"No, these usually shoot a dart or manage to turn the wearer invisible, guess these ones are busted," Tom said as he walked back out the shed.
"Well maybe there's different ones and not just those two," Berum said as he followed behind Tom, the other two joined behind Berum.
"Well if there is, this one is really shitty and I could care less about it, but they are warm." Tom said, Berum shook his head in disagreement as the group slowly made their way down into the valley.
"Well, why'd you get to keep them then?" Berum said.
"Because I want them, are we really gonna fight over some arm braces that don't even work?" Tom said as he looked back to Berum.
"No sir," Berum said.
"Good, also we are the same rank, none of that sir shit," Tom said as he turned back around and began making his way down a rock face of the valley. The other three followed as they began getting closer to the facility, Kokobiel looked through some binoculars as he looked into the facility, nothing much going on he could see. Two guards on the wall and one on a catwalk, clearly dressed in freelancer uniforms but no freelancer patches.
"Seems these geniuses took the clothes but couldn't keep on the patches, two on wall one on an inner catwalk," Kokobiel said as he put away the binoculars and brought out the sniper.
"Yeah I see some sort of movement but can you not smell whatever that horrid smell is?" Tom said as he covered his nose trying to block out the smell.
The group shook their heads as Kokobiel took the first shot, dropping the catwalk dude, then a second and third in rapid succession dropping both people on the wall.
"Guess no one is actually in the walls, just trying to make it seem real, move up," Kokobiel said as he put the sniper back on his back.
"If I get shot as soon as I walk in there, I'm haunting your ass then killing you myself," Tom said as he began moving up towards the facility, he went to the wall as he kneeled down ushering Berum over. Berum followed suite as he stepped onto Tom's hands before he boosted Berum over the wall, Olga following then Kokobiel. After getting Kokobiel over the wall he stood up to see Kokobiel waiting with his hand out as he sat atop of the wall, Tom took his hand as Kokobiel pulled him up over the wall. He went over the wall and onto the ground before Kokobiel joined him, Olga and Berum were waiting on them as they looked around before moving forward to the back side of the base. Tom and Kokobiel went to the front side, a metal door with a keypad was at the front, Kokobiel went up to it before punching in a password, a click before the door flashed a green light on top and opened slightly.
"Holy shit that worked," Kokobiel said as he opened the door more.
"Wait hold on, you risked that not working and alerting who knows how many guards!?" Tom scream whispered at Kokobiel before shutting up and giving him an aggravated look. Kokobiel gave a shit eating grin in return before sliding into the door, Tom soon followed behind him. The corridor was surprisingly empty and the smell had been filtered out as it went through the vents, they slowly moved further into the facility before they were met with a crossroads.
"I say we go left, you keep the front and ill watch our six" Tom said.
Kokobiel nodded before he checked the corners then made a left as Tom followed behind him, still quiet, still no people. They finally made their way to a door before they slowly opened it, the two were greeted by a dark room with a display table in the middle, on the table a map sat, small notes about bases, stashes, hideouts, and drop offs. Suddenly the lights flipped on, Tom turned back to look before Kokobiel pulled him behind the table as a shot rang out.
"See I have unwanted guests with me tonight" a voice said presumably from their attacker before an audible eject then metal click was heard.
"Now I really don't want to kill you so if ya just stand up slowly I won't have to do so" the voice said. Tom looked over to Kokobiel as he shook his head in disagreement, Tom reached for his side arm as he prepared himself.
"And why should we trust you?" Tom responded.
"Because either you die or we both live, so what do you think about that?" The voice responded, it sounded closer now. Kokobiel moved to jump out before he got a kick to the face flinging him back. Tom looked up, aiming his sidearm only to be met by two barrels; it was a silent standoff as he looked up to see his attacker's face. Covered by a mask and a helmet it was impossible to tell who it was, Tom could feel his heart beating in his chest, his hands began to tremble, this was it, he was dying right here.
"Wait, Tom, I thought you were dead, when you left Sampi all those years ago I thought you died, no database had you on file for the past few years, w-where have you been!?" The figure before him said as he lowered his arm before embracing Tom deeply.
Tom sat there in shock as he lowered his sidearm, he didn't know who this was or why he wasn't dead right now.
"W-who are you?" Tom asked. The figure let go as he came back to look at Tom.
"R-really you don't recognize my voice? It's me Tom, it's Morgan," Morgan said, Tom now noticing the sadness in his voice and tears swelling up in his eyes, Morgan slowly took off the mask and helmet, a large scar down his face with several burn marks across it. Morgan had a strange genetic disease which turned his fur brown compared to the rest of the families blue, a sleeping gene is what the doctors called it, he had a metal arm now, seemed to be specialized and was loaded with shotgun cartridges, he wore a coat that was a little big for him, mostly a brown leather with black strips. Tom hadn't heard his name in years, his own brother and they were about to kill each other, it seemed to be a fitting end to how they left off. Then something snapped in Tom as memories came back to him.
"I didn't leave you, you were the one who tried to convince me that we were better of not remembering our parents!" Tom said in anger as he stood up and pointing down to Morgan.
"You are the reason I ran away because I was still just a kid! I couldn't handle the fact they were gone yet and you gave me no time to grieve!" Tom yelled out.
"Because we couldn't just stay there and die in the cold I just wanted to protect you, I was sad they were gone and it took me a long time to realize what I did was wrong!" Morgan yelled back as he got up only to point back to Tom with a metal arm.
"And what happened to scarlet? Where did she go, huh? Because I don't see her here!" Tom said, his voice cracked as sadness entered.
"She didn't leave like you did, she's still alive, I just don't see her much anymore, but she's safe where she is, I make sure of that!" Morgan yelled out as tears rolled down his cheeks.
"I just wanted to keep you safe as well, and knowing you were out that and I had no idea if you were alive or dead scared me, I'm sorry I really am I don't want to fight you!" Morgan yelled as he became a mess of emotion, more sadness than anger filled his voice.
"Then why didn't you follow me that night!?" Tom yelled back.
"Because I thought you would come back! I thought you would realize I didn't really mean what I said and you would come back." Morgan finally yelled out slowly calming in the middle of the sentence. The two stood there in silence for a moment, Tom could fill tears swelling up in his eyes.
"I'm just happy to see you are alive and I'm sorry about your friend." Morgan said. Tom burst into tears as he tackled Morgan into a large hug as he broke down just once again, happy to see his brother again even after all that happened. Kokobiel groaned as he slowly sat up, Tom got off Morgan as he wiped his eyes before going to check on Kokobiel, Morgan followed behind as he tried to get himself together. Kokobiel scrambled for his gun as he saw Morgan come towards him.
"Wait hold on, he's not going to hurt us, he just didn't know he was attacking." Tom said.
"The fuck you mean he's not going to hurt us he kicked me square in the jaw?!" Kokobiel got to the gun, Tom pinned the gun to his chest.
"You aren't going to shoot him! He is my brother!" Tom yelled out. Kokobiel stopped as he looked up to Tom as he racked his brain before he let go of the gun and pushed Tom off of him.
"He's your brother, I thought you said your family died in a fire?" Kokobiel asked.
"Our parents did, Me, Tom and our cousin made it out," Morgan said as he came up to Kokobiel tossing him an ice bag he had grabbed from a nearby fridge.
"Oh, I'm sorry for both of your losses," Kokobiel said as he took the ice bag and put it to the left side of his jaw.
"See, you can trust him." Tom said, Kokobiel rolled his eyes as he stood up before looking around the room.
"What is this place?" Kokobiel asked.
"From what I have found a fully blown layout of almost every resistance point of interest, meaning somewhere among our ranks is a spy." Morgan said as he looked at the map.
"Wait hold on, you're part of the resistance!?" Kokobiel said in shock.
"Yeah, and if you try to tell anyone I'll make sure to gut you before you can even take your next piss," Morgan said coldly as he took out a camera and began snapping pictures of the table. Kokobiel shut up quickly as he picked up his gun and put it back onto its sling, he lifted his radio as he called Olga and Berum.
"You two we found our main objective, get over here." Kokobiel said into the radio. Soon the two appear at the doorway before entering, Olga the first to enter aims her gun up at Morgan.
"Who's he!?" Olga yelled out.
"Calm your tits, he's okay to have around." Kokobiel said, Olga stood there for a moment with her gun raised before lowering it, Berum followed her lead as she let the gun down.
"And who exactly is he?" Berum asked.
"That would be my brother, Morgan, we haven't seen each other in years." Tom said, Morgan took the last photo before looking up to the two.
"Yes that would be me, more freelancers I see," Morgan said before he put the camera away.
"You're the local rebel general!" Olga said as Morgan put away the camera, she lifted the gun ready to fire before time ran in the way.
"Hold on this doesn't have to result in more death!" Tom said as he held up his hands in protest.
"You're siding with the enemy Greinger?!" Olga shouted as she now aimed her gun at Tom, Berum now brought up his gun pointing towards Morgan.
"No, I'm siding with my brother, he wouldn't hurt us if we just went our separate ways!" Tom yelled back.
"Clayton, arrest Greinger for insubordination!" Olga yelled as she continued to aim at him.
"Im sorry but I can't do that Olga, I know for a fact I can trust his word more than yours," Kokobiel said as he aimed his gun towards Olga.
"No, cmon we can just get through this, just lower the guns and we all make out, I like that idea!" Tom yelled out as he looked between the four. As Tom looked back he saw Morgan with his metal arm raised towards Berum, doesn't look like there was much power to his words. Then a shot rang out then a second one before Olga and Berum fell to the ground. Tom looked over to Kokobiel to see his gun let off a little smoke as he huffed before dropping the gun and sitting down. Morgan lowered his arm as he went over to Kokobiel.
"Get up, it was either them or us, and you made the right choice." Morgan said as he offered a hand to Kokobiel.
"But was it the right choice, I just killed a brother and sister, people I knew, people I was getting along with, I know I've killed before but never on a level like this." Kokobiel said as his eyes filled with tears as he held his head as he put his head between his knees.
"Sometimes the right choice just means living longer, clearly they didn't see the right choice in the moment but they were given more than one option." Morgan said as he sat next to Kokobiel. Tom went to the bodies as kneeled down to Olgas body, he straightened her out as he rested her arms atop of her chest before doing the same to Berum, he had become numb as he saw them drop, he just wished to give them their last respects.
"I should have never taken the offer when they gave it to me, I was never built for the military," Tom said to himself as his voice filled with sorrow before he sucked it up.
"We have to get moving now, like Morgan said, them or us," Tom said as he took Olga's and Berum's bag as he looked through them for supplies.
"You're not even going to give us time to mourn their deaths, I need time to accept the fact I just killed a squad mate!" Kokobiel yelled out as he looked up at Tom.
"You'll have to do it as we move, Freelancer recovery team is probably already heading this way since you blabbered over the radio about finding the main objective! So either get your ass up or go to a public hanging where you're the main attraction!" Tom yelled as he began to walk out the door. Kokobiel and Morgan took a while to join him as he began to head out of the base.
"Morgan, take us to the nearest hide out or whatever you rebels live in."
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