"How would I have known that they had a basketball all-star on their side?" Miley said as she thought about the complete curb-stomp that was that match.
"Urggh... where am I?" Silver groggily lifted her head up and took in the surrounding. "Am I dead? Are we dead?"
"Heya sleeping beauty bout time you woke up." Catherine said to Silver, who was still lying on the floor.
Chattering could be heard from the crowd stand as the audience discussed what will happen to them. Haven and Samantha were still tied up at the commentary table and were dead silent. Silver got up, her sapphire eyes looked over at the US team, they were still celebrating their victory.
"W-what's going to happen to us?" Engie was clearly shaking. The loser of this match is suppose to die but she wondered if they would really just accept their fate.
"Alright, you know the deal." The enemy Captain waltzed up to them, her comrades followed behind her. "You have to kill yourselves now." She pointed towards the UCNA team.
"Wait what? We have to do it?" Catherine complained.
"Yeah, we're not going to waste our ammo... which we have a lot of but we're still not going to use them." Sweeper answered.
The UCNA soldiers looked at each other. Dealer gave a light punch to Sweeper's side and whispered to her. "Nice going idiot, why don't you tell them about all the nukes we have in the back of our jeep."
"Soooooo... how are we going to kill ourselves?" Catherine scratched her head.
"You know, just force yourselves to shut down." Savage moved her hands like she was turning on and off a switch. "Or you could shoot yourselves if you want."
"No." Miley matter-of-factly replied.
"What? But we won..." Savage was at a lost for words, they had made everything clear from the beginning, the losers had to die.
"Well I think the whole basketball idea was stupid so I'm just going to ignore it."
"You can't just... we made a deal!" Savage started shouting at the enemy team.
"What deal? I never heard of it." Catherine crossed her arms and looked off to the distance, pretending to ignore the screaming.
"You're willful-ignorance doesn't work, you were all there and you all agreed to it!" The Captain was about to start a fight but was held back by Reaper and Dealer.
"We don't know what willful-ignorance means and we don't want to know!" Annie proudly shouted back.
"S-she doesn't speak for us." Engie quicky cutted in.
Savage was about to say something but a commotion could be heard from one of the entrances to the gym. A door was wide open and a group had formed around it. The mass of brown cloth were swirming around, moving in and out, picking up something.
"What's going on over there?" Sweeper tried to sneak a peek from where she was standing.
Suddenly, Bill stepped out from the crowd, with a Wendigo Electric Rifle in his hand.
"You did it Bill!" The once tired Silver seem to lit up again as a few members of Those at the Threshold stepped up with weapon in hand.
"Sorry it took a while to find the guns, ya got a lotta rooms with junk in em." Bill lifted his gun up at the US soldiers, soon the rest of the armed cult members raised their weapons as well.
"Uhhhhhh... Captain! I think this might be a problem!" Dealer slowly backed away.
"It seems like Fort Long Road Bravo will still be standing." Miley smiled with a hint of superiority.
"Of all the dishonourable things... dammit RETREAT! Get back to base!" Savage yelled, she ran up and grabbed the rocket launcher as the rest of her team made a getaway. They ran through the door that they smashed in earlier except for Mirabelle who made a bigger hole to the side of the entrance as she ran through stone and metal.
"I think that should settle things for now." Miley walked up to Bill, Silver and Catherine were looking for their weapons from a small pile of boxes.
"Sorry bout showing up so late, had to go back and forth carrying these things over." Bill smiled, if he was any second later the encounter would have likely turned into a brawl.
Silver approached the two, carrying her gun like it was her own child. "Thanks for pulling through with my request Bill."
"No problem, like I said before, we would've probably end up dead along with you."
"Gonna be honest and say that I'm actually impressed with Annie, she managed to swipe our guns as well as those around and hid them in record time." Catherine was walking by, she still hadn't found her gun.
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Miley couldn't help but be impressed by it too, even though she was really pissed off. She gazed over to where Annie and Engie were hanging around. The two were goofing off, at a closer glance, it was just Annie fooling around as she lifted the smaller android, much to her dismay, into the air and ran around the gym. There was nothing Miley could say that would make her understand the trouble she put them in and so, with a sigh, Miley decided to keep a closer eye on her weapon and hopefully prevent another basketball game from happening.
A large boom could be heard from the northern side of the base. As panic spread through the crowd, the UCNA soldiers made their way towards the sound. As they reached their destination they could see that there was rubble everywhere and the door was replaced with a large hole.
"Take that you cowards!" Savage shouted from her jeep. Before the UCNA soldiers could even respond, the jeep sped up and drove off into the distance.
They stood there looking at the damage that was done to their base, they hadn't finished cleaning up the prior damages and now they have to deal with this. The base was falling apart by the day.
"Did, uh, anyone else see the basketball model holding a rocket launcher on top of that vehicle?" Catherine asked.
Far away from this mess, Guard was diligently patrolling around the US base. Hours have passed since the other US soldiers departed and, so far, nothing has happened.
"Even in war, guard duty is still kinda boring..." Guard stopped and looked wistfully off into the distance. They gave themself a slap on the cheeks with both hands before continuing the patrol. "Come on Guard-3759, now is not the time to be down, I have a base to defend."
A few more minutes passed by and soon Guard wished for another person to be around. Back at the bank, the Guard androids main job was to keep the prisoners in check and to make sure that they didn't step out of line. They worked in groups of threes which allowed them to have nice chats with each other during the downtime.
Even though they had only worked at the bank for 8 months, there was still a strong sense of nostalgia. The basketball matches were fun to watch, the Guard androids could even play on the court when things weren't busy.
With the patrol on the outside of the base done, there was nothing left to do but go inside and clean up the base. The place was filled with dirt and dust, something must be done about it. A clean work environment is a productive work environment Guard thought.
Sweep, sweep, sweep. The mop quickly went back and forth down the hallways. Things had to be done the old way as the base wasn't equipped with the latest in cleaning machines. Hard work always pays off Guard thought.
In no time at all, the hallway floors were no longer covered in grime. Now it was rooms time to get cleaned. Each room was checked and then ordered on a list from dirtiest to cleanest. Always keep track of what to do Guard thought.
Room after room was cleaned until Guard reached the lounge, it was surprisingly one of the cleaner rooms. Before work could even begin, the sound of a door sliding open could be heard.
"Did they come back?" Guard thought aloud, it has been some time since they departed.
Strangely, nothing else was heard after the door opened, no loud noises and no arguing. If everyone did come back there would've been a loud commotion, the silence kept Guard on edge as they slowly approached the door of the lounge, with a hand closely held near the pistol on their hip. Guard wondered if too much caution was being used, they could've been tired from the trip.
Just then, footsteps could be heard heading towards the lounge. Whoever it was, they were trying to be quiet as possible as they made there way, fortunately, Guard units were equipped with high-tech sensing components that allowed them to keep track of the movements of individuals in a small radius. Guard leaned beside the door waiting for them to pass, if they were friendlies then nothing would happen but if they appear to be hostiles then Guard would launch a surprise attack.
The footsteps stopped at the entrance of the door. One minute passed and nothing happened, only the buzzing that came from the air conditioner could be heard. No movement and no sound made it hard to track the unknown entity, Guard was certain that someone was behind, or at least near, the door. Possibilities raced through the android's head, Could they have sensed me through the walls?. Gripping tightly on the pistol's grip, Guard raised the gun up. Waiting would only allow them to strike first, a non-lethal take-down of those behind the door was the safest option, if they were her friends then Guard would apologize afterwards.
Guard pressed a button on the door causing it to slide open, no one was there. Seeing an opening, the lone android rushed through the door in hopes of catching the enemy off guard. No one was to the left, before Guard could even turn to the right something tried to grab the pistol but Guard pulled out of the way fast enough for them to miss. Two shots were fired, one at the right shoulder and another to left leg, causing the unknown threat to fall down.
A shot was fired that knocked the pistol from Guard's hand, another stranger appeared down the hallway. Noises could be heard from above, Guard looked up to see that someone was clinging onto the ceiling, before they could even pull back to the lounge, the ceiling person immediately jumped down and tackled Guard to the floor.
"Nielsen is hit, I repeat, Nielsen is hit!" Shouted one of the figures.
Guard quickly shoved the person off and got up. A stinging sensation swept through Guard's body as it flung backwards, their skin felt like it was on fire, time seemed to slow down, it was a few seconds later before the sound of a shotgun firing could be properly registered.
"The target seems to be down." Guard, sprawled on the floor, looked at the person who said that. It was the man that Guard shot, he was holding the shotgun in his good arm and his face was covered but the voice was masculine. He could barely stand as he leaned against the wall, red liquid dripping down his black military outfit.
"It's a negative, sir. No signs of anyone else in this building." Two more figures appeared.
"Just this one then..." The figure with the shotgun said, he turned away to look at the one who shot the pistol from Guard's hand.
Using the opportunity, Guard swiftly leaned forward and grabbed the man's leg. The liquid that came out of the figure that was shot was clearly blood, meaning that they were human. The chance that the rest were also human was high. Guard could easily snap this person's leg in half but before anything could be done more gunfire was heard and Guard fell back onto the ground.
"Watch yourself, androids don't go down that easily." A figure approached Guard's body and leaned down. "She's still operational. The bullets didn't go in too deep, the skin managed to deflect most of it, but the concussive force did a number on her insides knocking her out."
"Should we finish her off?"
"No take this one back, we need more information on what's going on."