{DR34D} - Madness Combat

H34L

[Holy shit! A thousand reads! That was very cash money of you guys. Big thanks to everyone who read it, even bigger thanks to the people that are voting, commenting with feedback or support, and pinning this book to their libraries. Really cool everyone, good hustle.]

I met the Doc soon after that last episode. He's a good guy, a lot more serious than any of his workers, but he's not against.. I'll say, improvisation.
He's the man with the plan, he's got a hand in most of the sketchy shit in Nevada. Fake IDs, arms dealing, faction partnerships... if you want something, he knows about it an' how to get it.
Most importantly, he's the one payin' us. An' havin' status as his greatest an' most unkillable mercs, that leaves us pretty well off. Damn, guess not as unkillable as previously thought, huh?

Hank had us stop just outside Nexus City, it's the closest thing to true civilization in Nevada, which means it's basically a meetin' point for people like us.
The ninja told us to stay in the truck while he went out. It took a while for Doc to find us, that or he was just makin' sure we wouldn't get jumped by some cannibals while we spoke. Whatever the reason, it took long enough for me to realize that Sanford is pretty much unbeatable in Rock, Paper, Scissors. I'm glad he doesn't like to bet as much as I do, because I played more rounds than I probably should've.
After losin' from paper to scissors, Hank knocked on the van. Sanford opened his door to get out and I followed suit.
"Sanford," the Doc said. "Deimos."
It didn't seem like the sort of thing that Hank would've told him, and now I'm sure he wouldn't've. But that's the kind of guy Doc is, I'd bet on him knowin' about me before Hank did.

Sanford raised his hand in a half-wave and I just sort of nodded in greetin'. Doc returned the nod and turned his attention back to Hank.
"So you got chased out of the Outer-Nevada base?" He asked.
"Yeah," Hank said. "The.. 7-25... whatever it is."
"7-26," Sanford corrected. "7-25 is the one with the huge armory. Big former AAHW one."
"Yeah, right. 7-36 or whatever," Hank said, makin' Doc raise a brow.
"You should move to 7-03. Sanford, just make sure he doesn't get lost. Or... feed himself to Zeds, or something. Deimos, follow me. Dismissed."
Sanford tapped me on the shoulder while Hank moved back to the van. "Good luck. And don't smoke, he hates it."
"Uh huh... I'll be safe."
"Do that. I think Hank is betting you'll die, I'm gonna see if I can put money into that."

Doc has a really nice car. I think it's cursed though. Not only is that actually liable, because it's Doc, but the one time I drove it (and blew it up), I died. Like, less than a day later.
Anyways, Doc is a really careful driver, right? At least 'till there's bad guys. But since there weren't, it took us a solid hour to get to his place. I mean, he was going 45 on an empty highway. Fuck that guy, really. When we finally get to his place, it's night. Or... whatever night in Nevada would be called. It's when all the clocks show that it's nighttime even though it never gets darker.
I was tired. I'd ran from a killing machine (and failed), basically the military (and failed), Jebus (and... actually we kinda kicked ass in that fight).

Doc struck up a conversation as we neared our destination. He started with something like, "Deimos, you..."
Uh... hold on... "Deimos, you should..."
Fuck, I lost it. I forgot. That's... weird. Forgettin' your life story isn't somethin' very common. It was... uh... he said "Deimos, you should know..." and then it was... fuck! Why the fuck can't I remember this? I can remember everything else about that conversation.
Doc had a dark brown, straight, even mohawk. He cut it a few weeks later. He didn't have his medical visor on, the one with red tinted glasses. He did have his mask on, he made it himself to filter air so he could be fine if the AAHW used chemical weapons. His car was a Nevadean Agency-30 model. It was the car me and Sanford took before we died.
I mean I died. Hank and Sanford will be fine, I'm sure of it.
Right? It's... they're fine.

Shut the fuck up, Deimos, makin' yourself paranoid isn't going to help you get back to them faster. Just dodge, weave, kill the undead, and find your way out... keep tellin' this story, take your mind off things.

His place is this big facility, potentially former-AAHW but I've never spent enough time there to make sure. It has stairs that lead up to the second floor on one side, but a door to the first floor on to the right of that. I only know about two rooms.
I know there's more, because one time when me and Sanford were being briefed on a mission, I heard something through the wall. Like something was moving and thrashing around on a bed. After a few minutes, whatever it was got up. There were a few sounds, like keys on a computer being pressed, and then it stopped. I never figured it out.

Aside from that slightly creepy experience, the Doc's house really doesn't look that evil. You might be thinkin' 'evil? who in your team is evil?' to which I say 'you've never seen Hank's room'.
But as I said. It's a bit messy, disorganized, definitely incriminating, but... it wouldn't really make me think that he's trying to kill me, which is about the vibe that Hank gave off.
"Arm."
I wheeled around at that, havin' been gazing around his house. I think I reacted with some kind of "huh?"
"Your arm. Give it to me," Doc said, uninterested. He looked focused on something else, but... when isn't he?
"Uh... I don't think it comes off."
Doc looked up from his communicator. I could just feel how stupid that sounded.

I was tired, okay? I'd been through a lot that day.

Doc muttered a "fuck it," and jabbed a needle into my side.
I yelped in pain, and promptly blacked out.

[Sorry this took so long, and sorry for any fuck ups in both continuity and quality.]