Life and Times of a Keyboard Warrior

Lock and Load

24
27th of February
Markus

My eyes fly open. A blinding light collides with my retinas, and I groan. What's happening...

"Professor, Markus is awake!" I hear someone yell. A name floats into my mind. It's Daria, I remember now.

"Dare, what's going on? Where am I?" I mutter, my voice low and raspy. My eyes still hurt. The right side of my face throbs dully.

"We found you in a clearing last night. You'd passed out due to exhaustion, you hadn't had enough sleep over the last few days because we'd pranked you and then you ran off looking for Yuki." Daria explains, her voice subdued, grieving.

"Yuki..." I groan, then it connects. I shoot upright, my mind awake suddenly. "Where's Yuki, did you find her? Tell me!" I demand.

"We haven't found her, the only reason we found you was because you shot off Heath's rocket thing." She rears back, frightened of my sudden energy. I hurtle out of bed, but lose my footing and crash to the ground.

"Markus, what are you doing?" I hear Professor Repeatro ask me, leaning into my room. He looks like he's aged five years in a day. "You should be resting, we finally got Mia to go to sleep and she shouldn't be woken up."

"I need to find Yuki, I have to." I mumble, forcing myself to stand. Luckily I'm still dressed, and once I've gained my balance, I start loading up. My Glock and knife, spare mags and Heath's rocket launcher and bandolier, which were propped up by the door.

"Markus, you need rest. Everyone else is already out there searching, and Alicia has gone to the nearest police station to put out a missing persons report." The Professor grimaces.

"I have to do something, she's my friend." I answer back.

"And she's my daughter, Kennedy. How do you think I feel, having to stay back and watch over you, while my own flesh and blood is lost out there?" The Professor snaps at me. I've not seen him angry before, ever. It's really frightening, the sheer menace in his mismatched eyes daring me to curl up in a ball and cry. The room is frozen for about five seconds, then the Professor sniffs loudly and shakes his head.

"I'm sorry Markus, but this entire situation is gut-wrenching to anyone, but to a father, it's almost hell on earth, not knowing whether my daughter will find her way back to me on her own feet, or in a coffin..." The Professor sighs, eyes closed and face down.

"I can't say I understand sir, but I'd feel bad if I was just sitting here cooling my heels while everyone else was searching for her." I explain meekly, expecting another outburst. The Professor glowers at me, but he knows the feeling better than me.

"I guess you could go out, but you have to be very careful. Daria will go with you, and you should take every precaution necessary." He warns me wearily. I nod quickly, hoping to get out before he changes his mind.

A door opens off in the distance, and the Professor rushes to it. I follow him out, hoping that it's the search party coming back with Yuki. It turns out it's just Alicia, back from the police station. Her eyes are red and puffy, but she composes herself long enough to recount her time at the station, filing the report. The couple look collectively shattered, and it's hard not to get caught up in the feeling.

"Are they gonna send search and rescue, dogs, helicopters?" I ask.

"They sent out a call while I was in the station, everyone but the dog squad responded immediately." Alicia sniffs, leaning on her husband for support. He grips her tightly, watching us with unfocused eyes.

"In that case, we'll need all hands on deck until the authorities arrive." I say enthusiastically. I turn and walk back to my room, Daria following me. I ready myself, retrieving my belt holster with my knife and gun attached. I swing Heath's Panzershreik over my shoulder, along with the bandolier half full of rockets.

"I'm ready to go." Daria says, slinging a satchel full of water and other supplies over her shoulder. She's changed into more conservative clothes, ones that she probably wouldn't miss if they broke in the bush. She looks really good, but that's not the point.

"Let's go." I reply, and she nods. We make our way down to the beach, wandering across the sand towards the indentation left in the sand by Mia's unfortunate first shot with Heath's launcher. We can start here.

"Where was she the last time you saw her?" Daria asks me. I point over to a spot on the sand where she was running last night, before heath shot at me. A cursory glance across the sand reveals nothing, all evidence having been expunged by the tidal movements. We move further down, skirting the very edges of the forest.

"In there is where we found you last night." Daria states, pointing across me towards the forest. "Straight through here."

I subconsciously rub my face, tracing the scratch lines with my fingers. I remember the wolf attack, and shooting off the rocket that saved my life. "Can we go see it?" I ask no one in particular.

"I guess so, though we gave it a pretty thorough search after we got you out." Daria says, and we move into the forest. After a minute or two of walking, we reach the open glade again. Memories come flooding back, the wolf attacking me, launching the flare, passing out. I go across to the waterfall. I go to sit down, when suddenly a pain shoots up my spine. I twist around, searching for the source of the pain. It's just rocks, though...

No, it's not just rocks. Upon closer examination, I realize that one of the 'rocks' is actually the moss covered corner of a large steel crate. A handle is barely visible, covered up by the weeds and half buried in the ground.

"Daria, come help me with this." I wave her over, and together we heave and tug, eventually dragging the crate out of the ground. It's large, about 3 feet long and 2 foot wide, painted camo green. Looks sorta military, like a supply crate, but what would it be doing out here...?

I test the latches. They open, but the damp and conditions around the waterfall has accelerated rusting, and the lid is stuck fast. I pull out my knife, and stab the edge into the tiny gap in the seal. I put all my weight into it, and a minute later, I'm reward with the scraping sound of success. I sheath my knife, then I throw off the lid with the same vigor a kid would display on Christmas Day, opening his presents.

"Wow..." I mumble, gazing at the contents. I was right, the box is military, because stacked within it are two pistol cases, several boxes of ammunition and a proper flare gun, with two flares extra. I extract the gun cases, clicking the first one open. Inside is a .357 Derringer, it's four barrels still gleaming like the day they were made. Inside the other case is a Desert Eagle, the .50 cal Action Express variant. My eyes nearly roll out of their sockets.

"Daria, holy crap. I've always wanted one of these, my dad has one that he stole from a downed enemy when he was on duty, but he always keeps it in a cabinet and I'm not allowed to use it." My eyes sparkle as I take in my prize. It has a dusty chrome sorta finish to it, with a sleek black handle. The irons sights have red dots painted in them. A proper weapon, and I've got enough ammo for it to last a decade.

I hear slight clicking as Daria picks up the Derringer, palming it, testing its weight in her hand. She seems satisfied, because she pockets it. "What else is in that box, Mark?"

"Some ammo for our guns, a flare gun with two spares and some other junk." I reply, twirling my new Eagle around my finger. "Musta been a supply drop, but the guns are brand new so it can't be that old a drop."

"Nothing in there that identifies it?"

"Not as far as I can see."

Suddenly, the sound of crackling shoots from the undergrowth. Daria and I twist as one, then we raise our new weapons to the threat. Something's coming at us, and it doesn't become clear what it is until a large, glassy eye is staring at me from the darkness.

The massive barrel of an Anti-Material Rifle points out at me, barely visible beneath the undergrowth. I shudder.