The King of Fighters '94 Rebirth

Chapter 8: Survivors

"They are mercenaries like us, if they really are capable, they will survive this, without saying that looking for reinforcements it's the best we can do even for them." After Clark have finished his sentence, he realized that Ralf was taking so long to react. "Ralf, are you listening to me?" He asked him worried. "Take your binoculars and see what I'm seeing." Ralf got a serious expression and Clark understood that something was wrong, he took his own binoculars from his backpack and tried to look at the same direction Ralf was looking. "The plane did not crash? The pilot managed to land on the ground and even so the plane is full of flames, just some pieces were left." Clark said to Ralf which took out his binoculars from his eyes to talk to Clark, keeping it on the backpack and hurrying himself. "If the plane did not crash and exploded that hour, probably there was some shooting." Ralf gave it a pause and threw his backpack on the back. "So, what is your plan Ralf?" Clark was confused with his partner's reaction, but he knew that he was the type which act without thinking and was worried. "If the plane really had crashed, we would hear the explosion soon after, but have you saw the time interval that occurred before having an explosion?" Ralf began his explanation. "You're right." Clark agreed and just heard. "If somebody survived, it might be somewhere near that area." Ralf was just finishing when Clark was already warning him. "Ralf, don't you remember that the mercenaries jump from the plane?" Clark knew that Ralf would not let somebody's death end without punishment. "Yeah, but what about the co-pilot and the pilot? There was gunfire until the plane to blow." After hearing Ralf, Clark started to understand what had happened. "Wait!" He also kept his binoculars and other items inside the backpack putting it on his back. "What do you mean by 'wait'?" Ralf asked impatient. "It all make sense now." Clark gave Ralf a sign with his right hand opened for him to not leave yet. "That two we killed were not Brazilians, because they spoke our language, besides, these armed tents here in Brazil and guns like these we took from them are Brazilians, they are here for trafficking and for some reason they also want to put an end to the village, probably for knowing too much." He began to walk expecting Ralf to follow him. "All right, but what do you intend to do now?" Ralf started walking behind Clark not understanding very well his intentions. "Ikari Village's base would not stand still with the disappearance from its own mercenaries and a lost plane, mainly being so near to discover that something went wrong. What I want to say is that our new superiors will not rest until they find us, and when I say 'find us' I'm also referring the others that we lost contact, it may seem cruel, but we can't have the luxury of looking soldier for soldier without knowing the possibility of they still be alive and put on risk our lives in vain." When Clark finished, Ralf understood that it would not be an easy choice but, Clark was right and they needed to accomplish their mission. "Do you intend to take a way to the village or are we going to act like we always did?" Ralf said that because the two were used to risk their lives on dangerous missions and leave alive from enemy bases, not that it would be an excuse to risk their lives without great opportunities of success "We will need to do both, they must be aware of our escape routes, run away is not an option, but is one of our ways." Clark was letting clear that they would find a way against that gang.

A few minutes have passed with the two always checking their way with a map and a compass until the inevitable happened, Ralf's radio started to talk. "Okay, what do we do?" Ralf asked to Clark in the doubt of answer and what to say. "The important thing is to answer, you always improvise." Clark replied with a smile on his face and Ralf soon took the call. "Patrol here, boss?" Ralf started to talk trying to fool his enemy. "Have you found any lead of them?" the deep and a little raucous voice was speaking from the other side of the line. "We found a parachute tied in a tree, we didn't have any contact with the enemy...Y" Ralf menaced to stop talking just to destroy the radio communicator, throwing it on the ground and stepping on it strongly to make it to part into the half "Was about to say 'yet'?" Clark asked laughing "Now he must think we are exactly where we were when we fell here, this will buy us some time." Ralf was smart and daring giving this false signal to the gang leader hinting survivors from the plane, it was his temperament of not letting nothing cheap for his enemies. "Let's get this opportunity and leave this place." Ralf ended walking not a little happy giving Clark a signal to follow him. "It's rare to see you serious." Clark said following Ralf's trail and already readying his gun. "You know this type of guys angers me, pretending to be one of them and pretend to work for that miserable that could have killed our partners doesn't make me happy." Ralf replied his partner and soon stopped signing to Clark to stop too. The two soon saw the source of a noise, a wolf growling approaching himself from the road, they tried to make silence but since Ralf's radio broke in the middle of the talk with the gang boss, soon it was time for Clark's radio communicator start talking warning their presence and calling the animal to the middle. "Damn!" Ralf murmured throwing his assault rifle on the ground. "What do you intend to do?" Clark asked even speculating what could be. "We can't make noise, right? Guns without suppressors are going to get in our way at this moment." When Ralf finished to talk, the wolf ran into a great onslaught above him. "Vulcan... Punch!" Ralf shouted the name of one of his fighting techniques by seeing the wolf above him, almost reaching his neck, he triggered a sequence of punches only using the right arm engulfed in flames. The animal's body fell on his front completely burned and Clark was surprised even already knowing the skill. "Poor animal." Clark said. "It was a wild animal, If I were to let him live it would be my body on the ground." Ralf said taking his rifle on the ground and running from there.