//------------------------------// // Chapter 60 - "Teamwork" // Story: My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// "This isn't good," Church murmured flatly. "Really? I thought a bunch of guys raising from the dead was the exact definition of a good thing," Tucker added sarcastically. "What are we going to do?" Simmons asked with a deep, nervous gulp, eying the rising soldiers with fear. "What else?" Carolina asked simply as she walked over to the nearest soldier. When the soldier noticed Carolina was nearing her, he quickly brought his gun up to eye level, only to find his eyes shooting out of the back of his head a split second later. "Jesus fuck!" Tucker yelped as the soldiers body slumped over and the other men began to regain their senses. "What'd you do that for?" "Same reason they'd do it to us. Because we have to," Carolina growled, pistol still smoking as she glanced back at the Reds and Blues. "You forget, these guys are after us anyways. Whatever that guy did to them isn't what's making them trying to kill us. Now, are you boys going to help me, or are you going to sit back and let yourselves be slaughtered?" "Well when you put it like that," Sarge chuckled, pumping his shotgun as he walked next to Carolina. "At least one of you isn't afraid to get your hands dirty," Carolina sighed, slightly thankful that they weren't all spineless cowards. Looking back, she saw that one of the soldiers took out a knife and began to run towards her. In a flash, she grabbed the knife, spun his arm around and forced him to stab himself through the small of his back. She then kicked him towards a pair of other soldiers who began to raise their weapons, causing them to fall over. A soldier near the other end of the room brought his gun up and aimed it at Carolina's head. "Fire in the hole!" Simmons screeched as he launched a rocket at said soldier, knocking him into the wall, knocking him out cold. "Remember, conserve your ammo. There's supposed to be another forty coming after us once these guys are through," Washington said as he fired a few bursts at the other soldiers who now began jumping into cover. A soldier came out from behind a box and began to jump towards Wash, only for his gun to be cut in half by Tucker's blade. The soldier then looked at his gun, and then to the sword, then to his gun again. The soldier dropped the remains of his guns and put up his hands, only to be met in the face with Carolina's left foot. "Why aren't you doing anything?" Carolina hissed as Doc crouched behind the box farthest from the enemies. "I'm a pacifist!" he explained simply, hands folded over his head. "If you were with the Freelancers, we'd call you a meat shield," she said warningly, then glanced as the remaining soldiers ran away screaming for help. "Alright, since they're running to get their friends, let's get to the roof. Hopefully we'll be able tp pick a few off from a distance before we deal with the blunt of the assault." "I don't like the idea of being a sitting duck," Sarge said. "Especially a duck that has a gun with an effective range of being within distance to seeing the whites of my enemies eyes." "Better than a dead one," she chipped in, then grabbed some ammo off of the corpses. "Let's go." "You heard her," Washington sighed, walking to the door with the guys in tow. They quickly made their way to the roof and looked towards the other base and saw a dozen soldiers jogging towards their position. "Look alive, guys," Carolina called out as she grabbed a battle rifle from the roof. "Sarge, you take the right side. Tucker, you stay near the left ramp. Both of you will wait there until anyone sneaks up on us, then kill them. Wash, you're shooting at them with me." "What about us?" Donut asked with Caboose and Doc standing on either side of them. "Stay out of our way. Move around. Be a target and direct fire away from us." "Okay!" Caboose called out as he began to run around the rooftop. "Well, I guess I could use some exercise," Donut said with a curt nod, then joined Caboose. "About this plan..." Doc began. "Be their target, or be mine. Your choice. But I'm closer and I'm a better shot," she snapped. "I like this plan," Doc added hurriedly, then began to run around like Caboose and Donut. "Glad to hear it," Carolina said, then shot a few rounds of the rifle at the oncoming men, killing two within a matter of seconds. "Come on, Wash. We've got some fish to fry." "Right!" Washington nodded, promptly firing his own gun at the rushing squad. "If only I had my own body, I could probably pick a few off with a sniper rifle," Church said, watching as the majority of the pair's shots missed. "Right, the only thing you could hit with that thing was the broad side of an extremely fucking long barn," Tucker chuckled. "And even then, you'd have to close your eyes and pray to have gotten that shot." "Simmons, pair of warthogs coming up on us, 10 o'clock," Washington snapped as a MG warthog and rocket hog began firing at them, shots whizzing past by just a few feet. "You mean the pumas?" Sarge asked sarcastically from the side as he blasted his shotgun into the chest of a soldier who had slipped his way towards the base. "Shut up!" he growled. "Simmons. Fire." "On it!" Simmons yelled, shooting a rocket at one of them. It flew into the other warthog and flipped it over. As the men inside began piling out, the first warthog exploded, causing a chain reaction with the rockets in the warthog, setting off several other explosions. "I had my doubts that we'd make it, but the odds are actually looking pretty damn good, even with us," Carolina added with surprising sincerity as she noted that they weren't getting up from the blast. "That's sweet of you to say," Doc chipped as he continued to run in circles. "Don't get used to it," she added quickly, returning to her old self. "Out of ammo," she added, dropping her gun to the ground. She then saw a trio of guys sneaking along the mountain. She quickly drew her pistol and shot it at the one closest to them in the head. The pair then began running towards the base, only for Sarge to jump out and shoot one in the leg. As the third one lifted his gun, Simmons launched another rocket right into his chest. "Damn it, Simmons! That was my kill!" Sarge yelled. "Sorry, sir!" Simmons piped. Within the next few minutes, the group quickly finished off a bunch of straglers, wary that there were more in the base to come. "Where the hell is Grif?" Carolina asked, looking towards the ship only to see that the back was open and he wasn't in the cockpit. "Probably hiding in the nearby cave," Church said, looking off to the cavern on the side of the mountain. "Probably better off, too. If they saw him in the pelican, he'd be dead." "One can only dream," Sarge mused. A sniper bullet suddenly zoomed right in front of Carolina's face. With a gasp, she fell to the ground. "He's too far away!" Washington growled, jumping into cover. "Got it!" Donut yelled, grabbing a plasma and bringing his arm back. Carolina watched as the pink soldier threw the grenade across the canyon. Far away, she could see that the sniper was waving his arms around, blue light stuck on his face, only for it to explode two seconds later. Carolina stared at the little smoke she saw as Wash made his way over to her. "I think that's all of them," Washington said as he quickly made his way over to Carolina, holding his hand down to help her up. "How..." she muttered, not looking to Wash. "Apparently these guys aren't as stupid as they seem," he chuckled, then hit her knee with the back of his hand, getting Carolina's attention. "Now get up." "He has a better arm than Florida..." she said quietly, grabbing onto his hand. "To be fair, he never really had a good arm," Wash said as he pulled Carolina up. "Now come on, let's regroup with Grif and get out of here. I don't want us to be here when the UNSC come looking for these guys."