No Escape, a Team Fortress 2 Story.

Medic's medical issue

Zis is not very good. Merasmus disappeared the moment the lights went out, and someone knocked my glasses off. Not very gut in this case. In a panic, I dropped ze medigun and fled to the exit doors. The white letters gave off an eerie red glow as I escaped outside. For whatever reason, it had turned nacht outside. Zis is extremely strange, is it not? It had just been the afternoon, and yet, zee sun had disappeared in a snap. There were other strange things like the howling of a grey wolf, yes the one that ze father had owned as a pet. Ze still remember that dog, and how I strangled it after stabbing it with a scalpel. Ja, ze father was also of the medical profession like me. Like father like son, eh?

The grey wolf was the first animal and patient I have dissected and marked my first step towards becoming ze doctor. Ze second sound was multiple gun shots, like there was a battle occurring right on the Mann Co, Building Campus. It reminded me of ze days of war, when ze fought the Allied powers and was a medical doctor. Ze was promptly terminated from ze job as chief surgeon after the war and following that, lost ze medical license. I moved to America in the year of 1948 under a false name, called John Doe, and was hired at Mann Co, where ze have been working as the Medic of the mercenary team ever since. Ze gunfire didn't make sense in my mind, and I thought I was a dummkopf! Zis can't be possible can't it? The war ended years ago, yet I can hear the screaming of zee country men and the sound of explosions.

Zee must have had a mental breakdown or something, or it must be that tumour affecting my brain, causing all these vivid hallucinations. Ze hear the sound of marching, and I see a long column of men dressed as soldiers. Their rounded helmets gives me ze anxiety. One of them cries out to me in a voice strained over the sound of falling bombs and hail fire of bullets, "Ludwig, do you remember me?" He used my real name, Ludwig, and I looked around to see if anyone else had heard them call out. There was nothing around me but white walls all of sudden. Zee diploma on the wall reads, "Ludwig Muller, Graduate of Munich Medical School." in crisp script. "Come on doktor, You remember me don't you? You killed me in my sleep and removed my heart, and lied to the officials. Does that sound familiar?" spoke one of the soldiers. This hallucination was so realistic, it couldn't exist at all. Perhaps, it was magic-induced? No, I am a man of science, and magic is not rational.  Merasmus is nothing more than a magician using smoke and mirrors. If I watch closely, I might be able to break out of zis delusion. I need to play dumb to buy me some time.

"Uh no, you must have gotten the wrong mann, zis is a simple misunderstanding. My name is uh....Budwig Soller, now get out of my office." Zis should buy me some time to figure out the workings of this illusion. Another soldier pointed an automatic rifle up into the air and fired into the ceiling. The sound startled me and I fell back through an open door. "You can't fool us good doktor with a fake name. After all, we have had had your disgusting face in our minds ever since you killed us. And now, we shall kill you, slowly..." The bullets seemed too real, and the distinctive sound of a semiautomatic weapon firing, ratatatatatataatatataaat.....Zis can't be? "Your kind little junge, told us everything after he revived us, and he brought you to us." spoke a brutish soldier taller than the rest, and he pointed his rifle at me in a lazy manner. "So, good doktor. You know what to do next. Crawl onto the surgery table and await for the procedure. Or, I will put a bullet into your head."

In the far corner of the room, I saw Scout watching me. Everything was normal except for his eyes, which glowed with a menacing energy within. One that I was all too familiar with. So, Merasmus was right! Zis was all magic, a force stronger than mine, and it was being directed to harm me specifically by Scout! I meekly turned to see a blue bed with leather straps hanging off the side. Dozens of sharp surgical tools lay on an adjacent table, all ready for cutting and tearing into flesh and muscle. I swallowed ze spit down the throat and strapped myself in. The group of soldiers filed into the small surgical room, their faces turned to shadow. A soldier walked towards me, and I realised that his entire head has no skin left. The only thing left was a smiling white skull sitting on top of charred flesh that loosely resembled a neck. "Doktor, doktor, doktor, doktor.....You took my skin away after I was sent into the hospital. You stole my flesh and now, I shall steal yours. " he then laughed and picked up an object I recognised as the tool I had used to slowly rip off zis soldier's skin. There was still fresh blood on it.

I cried out to the entire group and tried to persuade them that this was all madness, insanity, and completely bonkers. But, my shouts and hollering turned into a gutteral cry of pain as the first soldier slowly tore away all my skin. The skull-headed soldier wrapped my skin around his head like a mask and walked out of the room. If all else failed, I still had a backup plan: Satan. I have fooled that dummkopf Satan before into giving me another chance at life, so I shall do it again. I was going to go to Hell after this, I know it.

Scout appeared beside my bed and uttered a strange mix of words that sounded jumbled up and clumsy to my ears. Then, Scout was gone again, having vanished in a thick cloud of green smoke. More of the soldiers came and went with their prize. Each demanded something of my body as a repayment for how much suffering I caused to them. Some wanted my bones, others wanted my muscles. My tongue, my stomach, and my intestines were all ripped out one by one. Eventually I had lost consciousness when they had removed everything from my body and only left a bloodied mess of blood, left over organs, and bits of hair stuck together in a ball. I didn't even know how I was even functioning at that point. But, I knew, Hell would be waiting my arrival and soon, I would be back on Earth once more alive.

I awoke again and heard the sound of men murmuring and laughing above me. I wriggled my arms and legs, but they were strapped into the bed. Impossible. They had just removed them, and now I was completely whole again. Was this an act of God? No...I see the throng of soldiers parting and the skull-faces man walk up. He says something about wanting my skin and I begin to panic. This was all repeat of what just happened! Too late, I realise that Scout had used his magic to keep me trapped in a loop, forever....