Broken Road (a RiDe and TaNi love story)

Chapter 2

It hadn't been long since Takeo made a splint for Richtofen's foot did Dempsey grow bored.  Hoping to relieve this, he went to explore the new area in search of a gun better than his pistol.  So far, he had only found chalk drawings of guns, making him question what the hell they were for.  He traced the drawing of a shotgun, deft fingers feeling every crevice of the wall.

"So fucking weird," he whispered, a frown etched into his features.  A gasp came from his lips when seeing the word "points" in his vision, white in coloring with the same color of a few numbers below it—1980.  More numbers were displayed in the bottom right of his vision that read 1500.  His eyes widened in fear, retracting his hand and the numbers disappeared.

"What the hell is wrong with me!?" he yelped, looking at his hands to see if the numbers would appear again.  Luckily, they did not.

A sigh of relief escaped him as he went to a closed door, trying to open it.  He was shocked to see the numbers once again, but the bottom right numbers displayed 1000 this time.  Looking pale as a sheet, he pulled his hand away and the numbers once again disappeared.  The American rushed back to the bunker as quickly as he could, desperate to talk to someone about this and hope he hadn't gone mad.

Upon arrival, all heads turned to see Dempsey heavily panting and pale.  Nikolai quickly helped his comrade to sit on the floor next to everyone.  Worried glances came even from the German, surprised that the marine could look so frightened.

"Comrade, what happened?" inquired Nikolai, his only answer being heavy panting and mumbled gibberish.

Richtofen slowly sat up, gently patting Dempsey's shoulder.  "Dempshey, speak," he frowned, immediately jumping back when the American gnashed his teeth at him.

"I'm not a dog!" came the angered reply.

"And he is back.  What happened?"

Dempsey turned to Nikolai, shakily explaining what he had seen.  It was eerie to hear about, but the Russian imagined it was even worse to experience.

"Zhe point system," Richtofen muttered, pulling out his journal to document everything Dempsey had explained to them.  He ignored the pointed and curious looks from the other three, continuing his documentation.  He wanted to see this for himself.  Before he could get up, Takeo had somehow already known what the German was wanting to do and stopped him.

"No," he frowned, "you must lest."  Richtofen frowned, irritated that Dempsey and Nikolai had left to try the point system while he had to remain on the metal table with his foot up.

Takeo felt bad for Richtofen and gently held his hand to assure the Doctor he had a friend in the samurai.  Richtofen gave a glance and small smile before sighing, looking back to the wall.

"This is the gun where it happened, then the door is right there," Dempsey explained, pointing to the chalk drawing with a door on the right of it.  With a slow nod, the Russian reached out a shaky hand to the chalk drawing, his eyes widening when seeing the things Dempsey had mentioned.  The only difference was his points were at 1660.

"S-Strange," he stuttered out, a touch afraid.  He felt truly frightened.  This shot gun, however, had been one he'd wanted to use for a while now.  He cautiously reached out his other hand as if to take the gun into his hands, near fainting when seeing the real gun appear and his points drop down to 160.

Dempsey jumped in shock.  This was almost too much for him to handle.  Just what was the Germans working on and why does everything have to cost now?

Nikolai did not complain.  He held the gun happily as he thought of the fun he could have with it.

"Come, comrade, let us go back," he grinned and led Dempsey back, carrying his gun happily.

Dempsey trudged behind, worried when seeing Richtofen asleep as they walked into the bunker.  Takeo was holding him protectively the way an older brother would, but the American had taken it as a lover's embrace, growing jealous...jealous?  Why was he jealous?  It's not like the German doctor was his...but he felt as if he wanted him to be.  That was ridiculous.

"As soon as he's awake, we gotta get movin'," the American frowned, sitting by Richtofen and hoping he would wake soon.