WikiLost - E15 - Warpath

Hello my friends! Welcome to the fifteenth episode of WikiLost, and I'm very excited to get to this because now is when the REAL fun begins.If you want to catch up on all the fun, but don't want to read 14 episodes, make sure to check out my recap page where summaries of all the episodes are located. Once you do that, come on back and enjoy the episode!

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Ximena climbed to the top of the watchtower and held up her binoculars, rotating the eyepiece to zoom in towards the beach above the green tree line. In the haze of distance, a column of black was barely visible as it almost faded in with the dark gray of the skies. The camp had faintly heard gunshots, but they had all assumed that Four Stars had won, everybody but Evol. Evol was a known paranoid, his actions usually seemed delusional and irrational, but most of the time he was right. He had ordered a count on all weapons, and that everybody prepare for an offensive attack. Everybody complied reluctantly besides Malcolm, who had stayed in his tent waiting for word from Ximena. He was packing one backpack full of food, clothing, and especially guns. Before, he had packed Ximena’s bag while she was up in the tower, and now, with Ximena opening the tent flap and putting on her backpack, his work was finally put to use. Few words were spoken as they left the camp, mainly to stay as quiet as possible so they wouldn’t be caught escaping, also in pure shock of the audacious move they had just made. They ducked under branches and in between tree trunks, over ajar roots, and through thicks of leaves.

They walked about a mile and found the creek Ximena had been leaving the guns for the past week. There was an indent in the soil from the bags that were left, and the stream had flooded it. As she began to walk through the stream, she kicked her foot into the hole, displacing the wet sand to hide any indication of treachery on her part. Her feet splashed through the water, her boots protected her from the gushes of water but Malcolm wasn’t as fortunate, he took most of the blow of the water, his pant legs got soaked, runoff from them sunk into his boots, wetting his socks and setting him up for blisters.

The group stopped about a minute later, and turned around, seeing the faded outline of a group of eight following them. Malcolm pushed Ximena to the ground and he dropped with her. The group laid on their stomachs behind a bush as the group approached, not recognizing their presence they stopped at the creek. Ximena recognized the man in charge, the people at the camp called him T-Bone, and he was in charge in the event of Lucidus dying.

“Follow the stream, it leads right into their camp on the beach.” T-Bone bent to the stream and cleaned his face off then continued marching towards the camp, followed the by group of seven.

“We gonna stop them?” Malcolm whispered.

“No. They aren’t at the camp anymore.” Ximena said expressionlessly, then she stood and continued walking towards the scientist camp.

Barry walked into the laboratory up on the mountainside with Lexi and Negative. It was out of shape and clearly not maintained. Bob Dave led them to the back of the laboratory, past rows of equipment and experiments that were neglected. Barry looked to his right and saw a large canister on the ground, a label reading “Caution: Hazardous Fumes” a black uppercase DB was on a sticker on the side of it, a sticker that was also present on the hallucinogen canisters.

Bob took them into a large room at the back which was chaotic and disorderly, broken glass scattered all over the floor and tubes were cut, and chips in the brick lay on top of tables and experiments. In the back corner was a table, barely illuminated by a single flickering light bulb, and a man sitting in a chair at it. He was facing the table and in a lab coat. He was shaking, his hands were tightly grasped around a beer bottle and his feet were rolling around an empty one on the ground.

“Reignic!” Bob pounded on the table and the man looked up. Bob Dave turned to the group and showed a face of disappointment. “This is Joe, he’s leader of the chemical weapons branch.” He took a quick glance at him and corrected himself. “Used to be.”

Joe raised a hand and waved casually, a depressed grimace was on his face and his shoulder length hair was messy and a beard was on his face. “He never left this room in a long time if you haven’t noticed, and now if you don’t mind I’m going to ask him a question.” Bob swung his cane over his head and down on Joe’s hand which was clenching the glass bottle. On impact, the bottle broke and the cane smashed his hand into the broken glass. Joe shot out of his drunken state and stopped shaking and began pulling shards of glass out of his hand. “Where’s the explosive mechanisms?” Joe pointed to a cabinet behind him, the third from the right, and Lexi walked over and opened it, revealing empty canisters of the hallucinogen.

“We use these explosive devises in these Reignic capsules our buddy Joe created, hence his nickname. You’ve encountered these before I assume? Reignic’s an altered version of Capsaicin, a hallucinogen that creates panic in the victim. In this case, we’ve managed to cause mass hallucination. The pin that’s in them detonates a small scale explosion that breaks the glass inside these canisters and releases the gas. Outside of the container, the explosion is quite devastating.” He waved his arms around the trashed room. He handed over the canisters to Barry. “They should work for what Captain plans to use them for. You can take the truck.”

The group turned to leave and Bob Dave added in one more comment. “So do you guys plan on staying at the Database?”

“Is that what you call this place?” Negative wondered, reminiscing to just calling it ‘the scientist camp’. Bob nodded his head and the group ran out and began their trip to hand over the explosives.

“In my opinion, you should come outside more often.” Bob left the room and closed the door to the sound of a whiskey bottle popping open.

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“The strings are all tied together.” Bob Dave walked over to Captain, pointing at a thin wire that split into different parts, all tied to different detonation mechanisms. There were 4 devices in the tent with the hostages, and one in each surrounding tent, in total it was enough to kill the squadron Max spotted about two miles away. Bob patted Captain on the back.

“It’s time for you to go, they’re almost here.”

“I’m pulling the wire, you need to go back to Database.” Captain countered Bob.

“No.” Bob placed his hand on Cap’s shoulder “I need to do it. Your camp needs you, I’ve lived my life, and you saved us from those tyrants; it’s the least I can do.”

Captain didn’t have time to argue and shook Bob’s hand and jumped into the truck and the group drove off. Bob grabbed the wire and followed it into the jungle with Max at his side, they hid in the bushes about ten meters from the edge of camp. The wire was buried in the sand and undetectable, and the sound of the car engine faded into the distance in contrast to the sound of footsteps approaching after ten minutes.

Bob stayed still, his heart beat violently in his chest as he gripped the wire, staring intently as the group of eight entered the camp. They stayed in shock at the scattered bodies of their brethren, with bullet holes in their torsos, stab wounds in their necks, and gaping holes in their stomachs. T-Bone split the group up and four people counted dead bodies, not finding a single body of one of the fight survivors. The rest of the people including T-Bone wandered through the camp, their rifles grasped firmly in their hands they looked into each tent before one of them called T-Bone over in response to grunting sounds coming from the center tent.

Looking in through the tent flap, they saw two men tied to a post, their mouths gagged and their limbs bound. They were struggling, flailing around and trying to scream, instead of taking it as the warning the captives intended for it to be, the two took it as a plea for help. T-Bone and the other cut them free and untied their gags.

“T-Bone!” A soldier called from in front of Bob Dave and Max after discovering a section of the wire in the sand after kicking around. He didn’t discover the two hiding, but he knew what the trap was, and tried to warn him. Max grabbed Bob’s arm and yanked it back, pulling the wire and detonating the explosion. Shards of the tents flew through the air, raining down into the sand and spraying into the tree trunks.

There was an eruption of yellow, red, and orange as a wave of heat passed over Bob and Max, knocking the two back. By the time the bright light had settled, the center of the camp was in ruin, the tents were knocked over and pieces of it were scattered on the ground in flames. There were screams for help coming from the smoke. Max ran out of the jungle with a machete drawn and swung it quick, slicing open the neck of the person who called for T-Bone who was sprawled on the ground out of shock. Bob walked up behind him and took his other machete. The two split up and Bob found T-Bone laying on the ground, gasping for air, his lungs were exposed to the air, the charred skin was black and his lungs were being eaten away from the heat. The flesh on his skin was all gone and his arm was blown off, his throat was gone, and his spine was visible. He had no legs, but there were black nubs and shards of bone surrounding him. The people around him were lucky, they were lying dead, not having to suffer the pain T-Bone suffered.

Bob crouched down and hacked at T-Bone’s neck, separating what was left of his head from what was left of his body. Bob and Max met back up, after only having to put down one or two more people that survived. Bob handed the machete over to Max who sheathed it on his back along with his other one. The two began walking down the shore towards Database, waiting for Negative, Barry, or whoever to return with the truck after hearing the explosion sound.

Ximena stumbled into camp after the sound of the explosion. She was caked in dirt and so was Malcolm, the two were exhausted and hurt, they looked sick and whatever skin was exposed under the mud was paled. Ximena bent over and threw up and dropped to the sand. Negative saw her from across camp and ran as fast as she could to her. Nick was there with her, helping her up when Neg arrived.

“Oh God. What happened?” Negative held Ximena in her arms and gave her water. “I got worried, you were supposed to arrive a few hours ago.”

“There’s two groups.” Malcolm panted and Negative handed over a water bottle. “One’s headed towards the beach. We encountered another one on their way here. We ran about five or six miles to you to warn you ahead of time. What was that explosion?”

“It’s the group headed to the beach getting killed.” Negative washed off Ximena’s face with a wet towel “How far behind is the group headed here?”

“About an hour at most.” Ximena built up the strength to utter some words.

“Nick, deal with them, I need to gather as many people as I can.” She stood up and began walking, before turning back to Malcolm. “How many were there?”

“Only about five, but they have our best guns.” Malcolm said.

Negative began running up the mountain, and into the laboratory, bringing Lexi along with her.

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“Alright fucker, speak.” Negative bashed Reignic’s head into the table. She continued until blood dripped from his forehead. “TALK TO ME YOU DRUNK!” She slammed his head against the table one more time but he was still void of response. She grabbed him by the front of his collar and pulled him up from his chair. “How did you make the gas?” She yelled into his face, still with no response. She shrugged and went to her last resort and dropped him to the ground. She picked him back up by his back collar and dragged him through the laboratory, past experiments, equipment, and empty canisters of Reignic Toxin. She kicked him out the door and into the sunlight and he let out a deathly scream.

His eyes watered and turned red after exposure to sunlight for the first time in almost six months. He clawed at his face and Negative walked outside and kicked him back into the laboratory and away from the sun. “You’re going to talk to me you bastard. How did you make the gas?” She held his crying head close to the beam of sunlight, the heat warmed the top of his scalp and he panicked. “It... It… It’s in the plants. It’s a mix of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine and Capsaicinoid.”

“English please.” She pushed his head a little closer to the light and he began crying more.

“It’s Safrole, which comes from the trees. MDMA, ecstasy, whatever you want to call it, we made it here from the sassafras trees around here. We synthesized it and added it to a solution of Dihydrocapsaicin, from peppers. It had addictive properties if exposed to for a long enough period. It was almost going to be used for medical purpose and studies but just by putting it in a can and sticking a pin in it, it became a weapon.” He had calmed down now.

“Do you have any here left?” Negative asked because they had ran out from the supply he had stolen from Four Stars.

“Only early tests. We manufactured it, and we sent our products to Community and they controlled it. We were top secret, our location wasn’t allowed to be known, but when Community broke down, people found out where we were, hence the assholes that took this place over.” Negative pulled him out of the sunlight.

“You’ve been so helpful.” She leaned in and kissed him, then ran into the lab and dug through the cabinets.

She walked out and Reignic was still laying on the ground. “But really, you do need some sunlight.” She picked him up and tossed him outside the door and walked out, locking the laboratory door behind her with one hand while the other carries a box of Reignic Canisters.

Negative, Lexi, Nick, and Barry loaded their backpacks and began walking into the jungle, the chirping of birds and scampering of boars hid their footsteps fairly well. They pushed uphill towards the mountainside, the cool breeze from the atmosphere rushed down the mountainside and into their faces, blowing their long and unkempt hair backwards.

Barry already had a beard, it was dirty blonde, short and thin and it continued to grow. It had already been six months since they’ve crashed, so Barry was surprised that it wasn’t longer, but it was his first time trying to grow a beard so he didn’t know what to expect. His blonde curly hair was not shoulder length and covered his eyes as points, forcing him to constantly pull it to the sides of his face. His clothing was torn, he was wearing the sweater he had crashed in, and he had cut off the sleeves turning it into a tank top of sorts to make the late summer heat more bearable. Nick kept his shirt unbuttoned, exposing his white undershirt. He wore jeans and his dark brown beard was longer than Barry’s, and definitely more scraggly. His black hair was straighter than Barry’s but was shorter only barely able to touch the bottom of his neck. He was able to pull his bangs to the side and they would stay there, and some days he was able to pull his hair back, and slick it there.

“Four Stars has razors and scissors if that’s not enough motivation for you all.” Negative directed her comments towards Nick and Barry, knowing their efforts to try and shave or cut their hair.

“I don’t know…” Barry stopped, hearing the faint crunch of footsteps in the distance. He waved his arm around in a helicopter motion and the group ran to different parts of the forest. Barry set the canisters on one side of the natural trail and tied the wire close to the ground to a tree a little bit behind the canister, giving it some time to spray the gas before the people walked passed it. Barry ran once he was finished, and the five men approached. He crawled to behind a bush in the distance, keeping within range.

The group of men stepped onto the trail and almost immediately, made contact with the trip wire that was set. Two canisters of the gas shot violently into the group’s faces. Reignic had warned them about how unstable the prototype canisters were, and how their mechanisms weren’t as slowed down as the new ones, so they let out a fast burst of gas instead of letting it feed out slowly.

The group panicked even before the effects of the gas took in, but once it did they were panicking even more. Negative shot first, taking one of them down, followed by Nick, then Lexi, and finally Barry. This barrage of gunfire continued until the screaming stopped, killing all five of the men.

The group waited until the smoke cleared then approached the bodies. Each individual had machine guns and two extra clips on their hip. Four of them had backpacks, filled with medical supplies and knives, the other one had a large iron tube strapped to his back, a round, diamond shape piece crowned it. There was a trigger on the bottom and a scope on the top of it. Negative backpeddaled a little at the sight of it.

“What is it?” Barry asked?

“A Panzerfaust, a German rocket propelled weapon. We carried quite a few on board, but I didn’t know Four Stars had any.” Negative said speechless. “This thing would have raised hell if they had made it to camp.” And she picked it up and pulled it over her shoulder next to the rifle, then held a machine gun in her hand. The others picked up the remaining machine guns and backpacks.

Immediately after, the group of four ran the mile and a half back to camp where they fed information to Captain who had just got back from rescuing Max and Bob Dave. He was sitting down with Ximena who was drawing a map to the Four Stars camp, then drawing a map of the camp. Max was taking inventory of the weapons and firearms, but stopped once he saw the group return with more. Negative collected all of the weapons from everybody and carried the hundred pounds of firearms the twenty feet to Max.

“What are you planning?” Barry dared to ask Captain, but he knew.

“My father was a farmer, like yours, but he dealt more with crops. Farming in the Netherlands is difficult as you might have guessed, with very limited space for you to actually do much farming. But with the few acres of land my dad owned, he made quite the living off of it. He used to teach me things about farming all of the time when I got home from school, but there was one lesson he taught me that I still remember my friend.” Captain stared Barry in the eyes. “If you pull a weed from the vines or appendages, the appendages will break off and always regrow and come back with a vengeance. But if you grab it from the roots and pull as hard as you can until the entire plant had been uprooted from the soil, you have effectively destroyed the plant at its source.” Captain tabbed the Four Stars camp with his pencil, a sly grin slid onto his face.

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