Assault (Red vs Blue)

24: Ten Steps Back

24: Ten Steps Back

Present Day: Temple of the Key (The planet Chorus)

Shots began to ring out almost immediately after Freckles had announced hostiles were present. The whole group ducked, bullets barely missing most of them. Tucker yelled for the whole group to run, and he was surprised when everyone listened to him and took off almost instantly. York and Maine were providing cover fire; though their attempts really didn't seem to be doing much. Everyone still had to dodge stray bullets as best they could while trying to put as much distance between themselves and Charon's soldiers as possible. However, with having to travel in such a large group, Tucker wasn't exactly feeling too confident in their odds of escaping.

"Everyone, wait! Let's duck in here!" Grey hollered as she veered off and slipped into what appeared to be a cave.

"Follow her!" Church ordered as he ducked into the cave as well, everyone else close on his heels.

The floor of the cave was on a bit of an incline and was covered in ice, making for a bit of a difficult entry when coming in at a full run. Tucker slipped as he tried to come to a stop, but managed to gain control just before he would've ended up smacking into his team leader. Caboose, on the other hand, wasn't able to stop — he slammed into Tucker, the force pushing him into Church. The three of them went down in a pile of limbs and weapons, with plenty of swearing coming out of the aqua and cobalt clad soldiers. By the time they managed to right themselves, the freelancers — who'd ended up a pretty good distance behind everyone else — were entering the cave.

"Ya know, it seriously surprises me that the three of you haven't gotten killed yet," York commented.

"Technically, only two of us haven't died yet," Tucker pointed out as he shook some snow off his rifle. "Our fearless leader here has died, what, three times now?"

"Twice, dipshit. Getting trapped in the memory unit doesn't count as dying," Church corrected as he picked up his sniper rifle. "I wasn't dead while I was in there; I just wanted to be. There's a difference."

York just shook his head. "I'm not even attempt to keep this conversation going. Carolina explained the whole thing to me before, and I really don't feel like reopening that weird can of worms."

Church looked at the freelancer. "Right. Because all the things that have happened to me are the weirdest things to have ever happened to anyone in this group. I don't think so."

"Do you guys think we lost the pirates by ducking in here?" Tucker asked, trying to redirect the conversation before an argument could start.

Before anyone else could say anything, an eerie-sounding voice echoed through the cave. The entire group jumped and went on high alert, trying to see if they could find the source of the noise. York and Maine immediately shifted into battle mode, ready to take on whatever might be coming for them. Tucker felt his grip on his own rifle reflexively tighten.

"What is making that noise?" Grey squeaked, sounding terrified again.

The voice moaned again, and Tucker tensed up more. "Fucking hell! Don't tell me we're gonna have to deal with alien zombies or some other weird shit. I'm not prepared for that!"

Caboose scoffed dramatically. "Oh, my God, I know! Tell me about it! Zombies have just been super played out lately. It's a little silly if you ask me."

"Nobody asked for your opinion on zombies, Caboose. That's not even what we're dealing with here. At least, I don't think it is. It better not be," Church said.