If Po Survived (ST3 AU)

Chapter 11: The Military Base

Shortly after their conversation, they arrived at the military base and everyone stepped out of the helicopter. Po looked up. "Whoa...It's big!"

"Trust me, it gets a little small once you get used to it." Dutch said simply. "Anyway, we need you to tell Captain Richard of what happened."
Ron tilted his head. "Captain Richard?"

"He's like one of our leaders, like Miles." Dutch said before they started walking up to the base, but then a soldier popped up.

"HALT! This is a restricted area!" The soldier said.

"Relax, private. It's just me! We need to see Captain Richard immediately. It's important."

"Sorry sir, Captain Richard isn't here. He left shortly after you did and we've been trying to contact him all day."

"Where did he go?" Ron asked.

The soldier shrugged. "You'll have to ask Lenny. He's in the communications center with Fiona."

Dutch then urged the others to follow him and they did, following him inside to where several tubbies that were part of the military were working on some kind of machine. There were two with goggles, one crimson red and the other a purplish blue.

"Work! Work, you stupid thing!" The blue tubby said as he banged the machine with his wrench.

"Lenny! That clearly isn't working!" The crimson tubby cried out.

Dutch and the others walked over, Po giggling at the fact they were acting so childish to try and fix a machine.

Lenny and the crimson tubby turned. "Oh, hey guys! What's up?"

"We're looking for Captain Richard." Dutch said. "Do you two know where he went?"

"Oh, yeah! He went to an old fortress a few hours ago." The crimson tubby said. "Hasn't come back in a long while though."

Lenny nodded before seeing Walten, Ron, and Po. "Who's the snowball, my apparent long lost twin, and another red tubby?"

"I'm The Guardian, or just Walten now." The Guardian introduced. "The blue tubby is Ron and the red one is Po."

Po waved with a small smile and Ron nodded.

The crimson tubby lifted her goggles, showing she actually had purple eyes and walked over. "Fiona! And over there is Lenny, and you've already met Dutch." She said as she shook their hands.

Po smiled. "It's nice to meet you!"

Fiona smiled back.

Dutch then faced Lenny again. "So, why were you banging a wrench on the communications machine?"

Lenny groaned. "It's broken. I can't fix it! I tried to contact Richard an hour after he left, but the stupid thing is stupidly refusing to stupidly fix!"

"Hang on, maybe I can help? I'm an engineer!" Ron said as he walked over.

"That would help a lot." Lenny said as he watched Ron walk over to the machine and observe it.

"Well, I'll go to that fortress and pick up Richard and try to see what's going on. Lenny, you take The Guardian and Po. They'll tell you what happened."

Lenny nodded and then urged Po and Walten to follow him, which they did, Po waving goodbye to Fiona in the process.

Dutch then looked at Ron. "See anything?"

"Lenny's right. It's broken. No communications are gonna get in or out."

"Dammit. I guess I'll go get Miles and the others after getting Richard." Dutch said before walking off to the helicopter.

Ron then faced the communications machine again and saw Fiona walk over. "How do you propose we fix it?"

"I guess we just try." Fiona said. "I hope everyone's ok.."

"Don't worry. This should be fine. Those New Borns seemed easy to kill...I hope."

"You may have to fill me in on that. I have no idea what you mean." Fiona said.

Ron stayed silent for a moment before speaking again. "It's a long story..."

Meanwhile, Lenny took Po and Walten to a room where he began to record. "Alright. So, what happened?"

Po stayed silent, hugging herself.

Walten gave her a small look of concern before sighing. "Noo Noo, an artificial machine that took care of Po here and her friends infected the custard, turning half of them into monsters. Whoever eats it dies and then turns into one. Po didn't eat the custard, so she survived. I stopped Tink from killing her and we've been traveling for so long to get here ever since. But now," He clenched his fist. "Now there isn't a way to save them. Noo Noo is dead, but The New Borns aren't. They'll kill every single living thing if they aren't destroyed. Killing the army isn't gonna stop them either. The machines are infected too, and they'll keep creating New Born after New Born."

Lenny then stopped the recording and sighed. "Looks like we have a lot of work to do. Thank you. I'll make sure to have a team go and destroy the custards when Dutch gets back with Richard. Hopefully Miles and Anne too."

Meanwhile...

Dutch walked around The Fortress, horrified by the dead Bull New Born that was nearby until he heard coughing and quickly rushed into a room and then went wide eyed when he saw Richard on the floor, looking injured. "Captain Richard! You're alive!"

Richard looked up and then gave a shocked expression. "Dutch? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to rescue you, sir." Dutch said as he walked over and helped Cpt. Richard up to his feet. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine." He replied.

Dutch then looked around and turned back to Richard. "What happened here, sir?"

Richard looked down, horrified by his partner and his whole team being murdered by the horde of New Borns and that Bull New Born. "We were attacked by a huge army of mindless and armless zombies of some kind." He said, and then looked up with teary eyes and a pale face. "Finn didn't make it. None of them did. They killed everyone."

"I'm so sorry, sir." Dutch said. "What about the distress call?"

"No one was ever here before we arrived. It was a trap."

"This is awful news...Where's the army now?"

Richard sounded emotionless, but grave. "The army is headed towards base."

Dutch went wide eyed. "WHAT?! We have to get back to base and warn the others!!" He exclaimed and ran out of the room with Richard behind him, but then Richard stopped and his eyes went...black.

"No." He snarled and pulled out a pistol, aiming it at Dutch. "You're not going anywhere."

Dutch was confused before he gasped and then felt the bullet go through his heart. He went stiff before falling onto the ground, bleeding as his body went limp.

Richard breathed heavily before throwing aside the gun and grinning. "Have fun staying here. Oh, wait. You're dead." He began to weakly chuckle before he began to laugh louder and louder.

"HEHEHEHE...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"