The storms weather is definitely something else even with this helmet on the breaths I make are visible which makes me worried a little as if the environment from this point is going to be a harsh escape including the fall of snow being so rapid as well. It makes me think if we are going to make it if the weather is like this.
I stand from my sitting position on my makeshift bed, I stretch a little and see jasmine wearing full gear as well. I walk over to the door and open it a little to see if the cost is clear for us to make our escape. One thing catches my attention is that Jacksons room has light coming from it which means he is very much awake and active, this is going to be hard to execute without him knowing something is off.
I see Mark open his door ready to leave and nods towards me basically notifying me that Merry is also ready as I can’t see her door as my door prevents me from looking towards the direction of the stairs but more towards the window at the end of the hallway. I begin to walk towards the stairs keeping my hand close to my pistol so that in the case of needing to use it I can quicker out of the group.
As we all walk with the cold and loud roar of the wind coming from the storm. It reminds me of the day I met them, it is all so very similar but also very different. When we reach the bottom of the staircase the footsteps of a person from behind us is heard and as the last person to reach the bottom I am also the first person to be seen.
As I look back I see a person dressed like soldier but with clear distention of who is working with. there are common sign for people who are irregular military and rebel groups and that is having your helmet painted a deep red for some reason, I guess it is easier to see and it is very much associated for yes I am enemy to you but not others. I quickly pull out my pistol but was not fast enough for him to raise his gun and fire a couple shots at us, well more me than the others.
I hear the click of his gun, surprised I heard it. I take advantage of it either being out of ammo or jammed and rush towards the guy with my pistol back in its holster and with my knife out. I sweep his feet knocking him down to the floor hearing the thud of him through the helmet. I then go to being down my knife to his helmet to get rid of his potential to see. The knife in hand stop mere centimetres from his helmet as his managed to bring an arm to block it in time. During this time of trying to push the knife down I grab my pistol and point it towards his helmet roughly where the temple should and before I pull the trigger I freeze and hesitate to shoot him. As I sit there struggling to pull the trigger he takes advantage of this and pushes me off him having the reverse situation happening although I doubt he is aiming for my temple and won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
I close my eyes waiting for pain to flood my mind, I hear the bang but fell nothing I open my eyes to see the person I was fighting slumped against the wall I stand and look down the stair well I see jasmine holding her pistol and connected the dots. I owe her one. I take a deep breath and stand up grabbing my pistol from my now dead enemy. See him slumped over with the hole in his helmet and a slow small stream of red coming from it makes a pit in my stomach looking at it.
I holster my pistol and make a quick dash to the front door and hope no one else heard the commotion although it is wishful thinking I mean who wouldn’t have heard It. I open the door felling a little bit of pain but shrug it off think it was just a brose from being pushed off the guy. I look around and see at least two people both set up facing away form the door in the adjacent building looking out into the white…just white that is only what is seen normally but these helmets have thermal vision so there’s that and helmets produce a lot heat to keep the head warm. I open the door wider and feel it pushing back dues to the winds pushing back on it. I hold it open and exit after them into the white hellscape that this storm is only making worse by the hour.
I still see the two men posted in the building looking out into the very harsh blizzard, not long I see two other thermal blobs appear and walk up behind the two. While standing most likely in the open to see both men being strangled out although I am unsure if they are being strangled. After putting up a fight they both fall limp to be claimed by the storm, I feel bad for them.
I turn off the thermal view and look around to see well white just white, how can a storm be this strong to blow this much snow around the place for twenty years and only have the worst of it be at the start and end, makes me wonder if it was bomb and some voodoo bullshit being pulled. It is a good thing that we have been through this kind of thing a lot but not to this harsh of a degree but it should be fine I hope.
I was about to talk before I heard jasmine Shout my name I look around to find her but I felt someone touch my shoulder I look to see who it was and see her, that scared me for a second. “What is it something wrong?” she nods and waves in the direction of everywhere “We can’t see at all in this weather so how are we going to find our way?” I nod and call for the twins so we can regroup not long latter I see them approaching “Did you to find the thing we need?” the thing in question being that of a snow viewer which is what farmers and miners use to see in the snow while working and it just make snow invisible to the eye if worn and has always confused me on how it does that but I don’t wish or want to delve into that rabbit hole.
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They nod in confirmation and Mark hand it to me, I adjust the strap of the contraption to wear over my helmet, with me fiddling around with the camaras a little I can see close to normally except for a few scopes like NODs which are annoying process to even figure out why. I turn on the SV and see clear as day which is amazing as if I were to just see blue lights from the helmets and white I would have gone crazy in my opinion. “Well form a line kid’s we are going for walk in the city that is experiencing a storm like no other” they form behind me with one person grabbing my shoulder and so on so forth. Simple really.
With my map in the corner of my view I know where I am in the city and I am a lot further out the I thought from the house, almost two blocks we have travelled with out realizing. I look around seeing the inside of an incomplete building and find a route that is quick and doubtfully safe. I start to walk in the direction of where the front entrance should be which is facing the direction of the military base with our load and gear we have it should take us and hour if we are slow and maybe half an hour on top of that if shit goes south.
We a short amount of time we walked roughly 4 blocks. I stop noticing some people ahead which means unwelcome news but also how did they get here and have they been here this entire time and if so do they know of the plan to escape? I more worried about how long these guys have been here question there the other questions in my head. I move closer a building next to me and think for a second of how to get past as I can’t really go straight at them as they are most likely using thermal view to find us so how with out causing me death from hypothermia do I get past. Lower the temperature produced in the helmet to keep me warm, I think I would die before I reached them which is hypothermia so that is outlined. Maybe covering key parts that produce the most heat and cool other sections to fit in with the scenery that they see. Blue and reds of different shades.
That could work, I just got to hope I cool the helmet to point it won’t affect me to the point of getting in the way of functioning like normal. I start to feel the pain from earlier, I have to ask Merry to check it for me when we are in the vehicle to make a quick escape. I start to cool down key area that produce a massive amount of heat and grab things from around the area and throw it over the helmet like cloth and moved it around to where I could see a good amount. Before I leave I take deep breath and tell the others to stay put and wait for me. I pull out my knife and pistol and make my move and hope my plan of disguising myself works.
As I walk closer the more I have to be careful as if I move to much I could risk showing myself before I could ambush them. As I get closer I start to think of how do I get rid of this person? How do I deal with him non-lethally? If I can produce enough force to but his head with the handle side of my knife I could knock him out but that is unlikely. I have to by myself time so I can deal with the other guy next to him.
I take another deep breath in and out and start to run forward to leg sweep the guy like I did to the man in the house. As I reach perfect distance to the do the technique they still have not reacted to me being here at all. I quickly back off and head for other person they turn to me and stumble back a little to the sight of me. the other person is a fake he is not real so I am dealing with one person and not knowing where the other is this is not good to start a fight.
I preform the leg sweep on them and see them fall to the ground I look to my right, left, up and down and see the other person nowhere I look back at the leg sweep guy and aim for where the camaras are located. As I swipe down on his helmet with precision knowing the points of where a camara should be located I meet some resistance with blocks and slight movements of his head to keep me from hitting the camaras from the outside not knowing what is going on it may look like a person flaying around a knife at a person who know how to block it easily.
I bring my gun up and aim for his shoulder, he sees the gun and acts accordingly when you see a gun pulled on you panic a little and start to put up even more resistance to get out of the situation. I pull the trigger and feel the recoil of It and the result of his shoulder bleeding badly which is good for me and bad for him as he can no longer use his arm and I can have an easier time taking out these camaras.
As I do with still them putting a fight to the bitter end. As I take out the last one I stand and look around to find the other person that is still missing even though I was fight his friend. The question of where the person was answered quicker than realizing you are dead as I saw the slight disruption in the SVs view. Cloaking. A sharp pain started to flare in the side of my Abdomen as a knife is seen stabbing into me I slash in the general direction of where it came from seeing a slight amount of blood come from the swing.
This is not good as pain from the fresh wound I have just gained and the pervious pain from earlier which I finally look at and see why I am in pain, I was stabbed and shot in really bad locations for a sustained fight. As I have limited amount time to disarm and get him out of action as the cold from the storm is actively killing me.
How fun, this is just my luck isn’t it.