Chapter 17

She looked up at him, smiling. His words comforted her almost completely, simple as they were, and she somehow knew that they wouldn’t be separated so easily. Now that she was a little less worried in the medic, she found that it was easier to focus on their current mission: procuring the goods they needed to get started in their new lives.

“We should probably meet up with the others pretty soon here. It’ll be dusk in no time, and we should head out soon after that. I don’t know about the REDs, but the BLU team tends to go to bed fairly early to get good rest to beat their opponents. The others are probably waiting for us,” she said, pecking him on the lips.

Detaching from the hug she grabbed hold of his hand. Smiling, she started forward, going to where the others were preparing. The medic fell behind at first, but within seconds was by her side. They walked for only a few minutes before they came across the pyro and engineer, both nearly ready to go. Upon seeing them they smiled and waved ‘hello’.

“Done with burying the intels, I take it?” the pyro asked as they approached. While they were gone the intels would be completely vulnerable: She only hoped he’d hidden them well.

“Zat I did. Vhen vill we be ready to leave?”

“Well, we should be ready momentarily. Will you be coming with us?” the engineer answered. He knew perfectly well that the doctor needed to rest a bit more, but the chances of that happening were slim to none.

“Vill you people let zat go? I know zat I need more rest, but zere is no way I’m risking lozing zee spy again,” he told them fiercely. The tone of his voice made it clear that he wasn’t kidding and was growing frustrated when it came to that matter of business. Not wanting to accidentally push him over the edge, the lot of them decided to leave it at that.

Momentarily they finished getting ready to leave. To signify that they were indeed as ready as they ever would be, the pyro put on her gas mask for the first time since they’d met up after the heist. She told them happily, “Hudda ha, ha hadda hadda hmm!”

“I have no idea what you just said,” the spy chuckled, “But I think it’s high time that we headed out. Those supplies aren’t going to gather themselves!”

The four of them smiled, waiting just a little longer for the sun to go down fully. It didn’t take very long; soon enough, their campfire was more or less the only thing providing them with light, as this night was darkened further by the absence of a moon and stars.

“Let’s go, GREEN team!” the engineer cheered, wanting to get going. He was about to take a step forward to start them off on their thieving adventure, but never got the chance to do so.

Just as he lifted his foot and leaned forward to take the first step, the engineer froze in place. For only a few milliseconds he stood there, seemingly frozen in time itself, a shocked expression on his face, before falling forward.

In an instant he went from being excited in almost every way and ready to go to being completely still, lying face down in the dirt. The three looked at him in amazement, unsure of what had just happened. They were at a loss of words until someone spied a clue.

“Oh… oh my god, no!” the spy cried out, looking around franticly. She’d seen something red and slightly chunky splattered on the rocks behind him. After a bit more observation she knew what it was, and that told her that they were in serious trouble.

“Vhat iz it?” the medic asked, still unsure of exactly what was going on. The spy quickly pointed out the substance on the rocks. He very quickly identified it as the engineer’s brains, and he too knew what was going on.

“GET DOWN!” the spy screamed, grabbing the medic by the collar of his shirt and diving to the ground. They landed hard, but neither cared. The pyro followed their example and crouched behind a nearby rock.

Ripping off her gasmask the pyro asked worriedly, “What the hell is going on? Why on earth did he just drop dead?”

“Sniper,” the spy answered, as she examined the engineer’s lifeless body, “By the looks of it the bullet came from over there: the RED base. Looks like they’ve finally caught onto us… getting back there for supplies is going to have to be put on hold.”

She would miss the engineer. He’d done so much to help her personally, as well as help the new team work out their plans. If they got out of this alive, there was no way she’d forget everything he’d done for them.

“OK… the shot was probably fired from the RED base, so we should take cover from that angle,” the pyro suggested, shifting her position so she was adequately shielded from the RED fortress. The spy and medic did the same, huddling next to the pyro behind the waist-high rock.

For a moment or two they stayed there, barely moving. Scared for their lives, they wondered what was going on in the fortress. They’d been gone for a few days. How had they been found so quickly?

“We need to stick together more than ever right now,” the spy murmured, holding the medic tightly. For just a few more moments they stayed there like that before the pyro joined them in their cuddling.

After a little while the spy felt the pyro lean against her, thinking nothing of it. This was a frightening situation: It was only logical that she’d also want to be comforted somewhat. However, the spy soon became aware of something peculiar.

“Pyro… are you OK?” she whispered, fearful of what the answer would be. Just as she’d thought, she received no answer. Straining her ears, she shook her head. It was of no use. They pryo wasn’t breathing.

There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that it was the work of a sniper. Her brains were on the rock and the bullet hole in the middle of her forehead was clean. Pushing the pyro’s body away she pondered how this could’ve happened.

“Iz she…?” the medic asked, leaning forward slightly to catch a glimpse of the corpse.

“Yeah…” she muttered, pinching the skin between her eyebrows and concentrating. She thought she knew what had happened, but there had to be a different answer. “The shot came from over there, the BLU base… but the two of them working together like this? On such a large scale it’s just plain unheard of.”

“You mean to say zat we’re being attacked from both sides?” he gaped, though he already knew the answer to that. Judging by the circumstances, it was pretty obvious.

She didn’t bother answering. Instead, she focused her time and brainpower on trying to think of a way to keep her and the medic safe. There weren’t any rocks nearby that would shield them from both angles, so she had to think of something different. With a little hop the light bulb in her head flickered on and she screeched, “KILL THE LIGHTS!”

Without questioning the medic lunged forward, scooping dirt up in his hands and throwing it onto the fire to smother it. After quite a few crazed handfuls the light disappeared, leaving only smouldering embers in its wake, which soon died down as well.

“What the hell are we supposed to do now? We’re being attacked from both sides… they may call a ceasefire now that the light’s out since they can’t see us, but we also can’t see much of anything,” the spy fretted.

“If ve vait until morning to do anything, ve vill be dead for sure,” he pointed out, occasionally blowing on his hands. In his mad dash to smother the fire he’d burnt them fairly badly. It was painful, but he could live with it.

“We have to do something before the sun rises. Staying here will only doom us…” she speculated, her eyes dashing about in thought. “We have to fun. Anywhere, it doesn’t matter. We just have to get out of here.”

Although she couldn’t quite see it clearly in the darkness, he nodded. He knew just as well as she that they had to up and leave if they wanted any chance at survival.

“Eet iz dark… ve should hold hands to stay together. I’m not lozing you after coming zis far,” he said, taking her hand in his. It stung to grip her as hard as he was, but he didn’t care. He’d live with the pain; it was a small price to pay for escaping with her.

“Don’t worry. Not even having absolutely everyone against us would tear me away from you. I may be a sneaky and deceitful spy, but those are words you can trust. Only you, mind you. Now let’s get going.”

“Thank you.”

They knew that nothing else could be done there, and so decided to head off. One last time they hugged each other before stepping away from their fallen GREEN comrades. They would have liked to say goodbye to the engineer and pyro properly, but doing so would only keep them in the danger zone. They had to think of their survival right now.

For a little while they stumbled along in the desolate darkness. Today was a particularly dark night, as the stars were still sneakily hiding behind the clouds. Each of them tripped their fair share of times, but every time got back up to continue on.

Falling on their faces didn’t concern them. It seemed like RED and BLU were still holding their fire, so they wanted to make good time, however slow they were moving.

Suddenly and out of nowhere the spy came to a halt. Holding the medic back with her arm she listened hard. She thought she’d heard something on the night breeze, and she needed to know for certain.

Sure enough, she heard a soft whistle. She listened a little longer to see if she could identify the object, and was surprised when she realized it was rapidly approaching. It took her a moment to think of what it was, at which point a look of despair crept across her face.

“They can’t have seen us moving out here in the darkness…” she muttered. Looking to the doctor she instructed, “Please, stay exactly where you are. We can’t move until after it hits. They must be randomly firing to locate us.”

The medic looked slightly confused. “Vhat do you mean? Vhat iz going on?”

Without the spy uttering a work he very soon got his answer. Soon after she gripped him in a death hug the air started to smell of burning chemicals and the whistling noise grew even louder, until the object finally arrived.

As the rocket collided with the ground nearby a whole host of things happened. In that instant the ground was torn apart by the shockwave. Frightened of what would happen to them the spy and medic hugged each other for dear life as they were thrown through the air.

In the explosion the air filled with a blinding bluish-white light. Neither of them knew what was going on aside from the fact that they were being pelted by debris of various sizes.

One minute they were away that they were hurtling through the air, and the next the wind was knocked out of them as they landed on the rugged ground. The sky was still bright from the explosion, and when the spy lifted her head a few moments after the impact she could still barely see due to the blinding light.

The intensity of the light felt like it was burning a hole in her retinas, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open regardless. The force of the explosion had torn her away from the medic, and she couldn’t allow herself to not look for him.

She soon found him as the light started to die down. The night air was returning to normal, save the fact that it was still thick with dust and debris, but it wasn’t yet so dark that she couldn’t see.

The medic lay sprawled out on the ground, his head tilted to face her. Upon finding him she immediately noticed that his legs were bent in ways that legs shouldn’t be bent; she didn’t need to have medical training to know that they were severely broken. Getting past the obvious problems, she began to search for subtle clues.

Making her way to his head she saw that his eyes were closed almost peacefully. His mouth was open just the slightest bit, giving off the impression that he’d just kicked the bucket.

Growing worried that she’d lost him she placed a finger on his neck, feeling for a pulse. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she found it; his pulse was there, but barely so. She knew his heart was still beating, as weak as it was, but she wanted the extra assurance. Putting her ear to his mouth she looked to his chest, wanting to make sure he was still breathing.

Luckily he still was, and that alone was enough to make her feel better. She still had to get him out of there and figure out was wrong, however, since she found it odd that he was in such a state. They’d been thrown more or less the same distance, so if there wasn’t something wrong he shouldn’t be like this.

Within moments she figured out what it was. Pulling him closer she cradled his head in her hands, a look of nervousness creeping onto her face. His hair was matted down with what felt like blood. So he’d smashed his head upon landing. Knowing she had to find the wound to help the bleeding stop, she felt around his scalp. Soon enough she found the cause.

Embedded in his head was a fair-sized rock. She didn’t know much about his world of being a doctor, but she did know one thing: with injuries such as this, removing the object in question improperly could release a great deal of blood flow. And in his current state, she couldn’t afford to let that happen.

Although she desperately wanted to figure out a way to help him, her thinking time was prematurely cut short. Before she could even get in-depth in thinking about the matter, something else came to her attention.

The sky was still light from the explosion, though just barely. Even so, it was just light enough for her to catch a glimpse of her demise upon looking up in frustration. Silhouetted in the fading light were eight rockets – four from each of the two soldiers – heading right for her.

There was no way she or the medic could survive this onslaught of attacks. Clutching him tightly she said her goodbyes, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you… hopefully we can meet up again in the afterlife, if there is such a thing. I love you, medic…”

::End of Chapter 17::

So there you have it. The end of What Lies Beneath, my first multi-chapter TF2 fanfiction. I've had a lot of fun with this, and I have to say, it was written very quickly compared to how I usually write. Still, I'm really happy with how it turned out overall. I know I have some major editing to do to make it better and all that, but that'll be done at a later time. For now it shall stay as is.

I decided to end it like this for two reasons. One is because it leaves room for a sequel, should I ever get inspiration to do so. I kind of don't want to let this die so easily. Two is because it leaves off at a really suspenseful place, something I know I love when I'm reading books. So yeah... I know it's a cliffhanger ending, but I wanted it to be that way. I'm really hoping I make a sequel for this... there's so much that could happen to cause them to live, so I wanted to keep the possabilities open. Heck, if I do continue with this, I know exactly how it's going to start off. I just don't have the rest of the plot yet...

Now, about that 'extra chapter' I was thinking of putting in here. I've decided that it's probably not needed, as in chapter 16 it was pretty obvious what they did. Have sex. I might still write that as an experiment (I'm asexual and haven't actually felt lust, so I wanted to see if I could write a sex scene decently without knowing what it's like) and if I do, I will be sure to post it here. Under one condition: instead of being located here, there will be a link to my deviantart account, where you can view the thing, but only if you're over 18. If anyone strongly objects to that you can tell me, but I think that as a full-on sex scene, that would be fair. I dunno; it's up to you.

I just want to say thank you to all my readers. Like I said, it's been so much fun writing this... taking a fairly 2D game and making it 3D with a viable plot and expanding on everyone's personalities and everything has been just awesome.