I could only curse my luck and stupidity silently as the rest of my "comrades" got into the car, all of them panting and groaning as they made a mess of my newly acquired car...Dammit! Do you know exactly how hard it is to clean the upholstery? Especially with blood and shit all over it? Hah, now isn't the time, well, correction. There is no time. There never seemed to be any time at all. Not for me that is.
As they shut the doors, I could only grip the wheel nervously as they continued to suffer in pain, the woman of the group desperately talking to them the whole time to try and keep them out of shock. An annoying endeavor that involves talking about anything but the wound itself, and anything relating to it. Sprouting nothing but bullshit and nonsense as the person that you're talking to slowly bleeds out on the field of battle.
"COMRADE, TAKE US TO THE HEADQUARTERS, NOW!" The woman said once more, this time in an authoritative tone, a loud and threatening voice with a slight growl that showed that she wasn't playing around, well not like I was either. After all, I don't even know where the hell hotel Moscow is, and even if I did? It's not like I would want to go there.
"COMRADE!-" The estranged short haired woman began once more before I cut her off.
"I'm still new to this city, comrade, just transferred here 3 days ago. You're going to need to help me." I say calmly, my eyes still on the road, not knowing exactly what this situation was. Was it a trap? Bait to lure me in? Or was it pure coincidence?
"WHAT-...ARGH! FINE!" She yells in exasperation as I can make out a furrowed brow on her pale face through the moonlit darkness.
"Alexander! You're in charge of keeping everybody awake! Don't you ever shut your mouth, even for a second! And you! Comrade, back up and take right!" The woman shouted grumpily, first looking at "Alexander" than me as she furiously slammed the top of the dashboard, damn near full on growling like a dog or something.
…
…
…
FINE!
With an inward groan, I looked behind me to check whether or not there were any incoming cars. With one hand around the driver's seat and my other hand on the wheel, I pursed my lips with fury as I grit my teeth, obviously upset at this sudden development. I mean, what was I gonna do? Not drive the damn car? The woman would have shot me for god's sake. Not to mention, wounded, the rest of the party may be, but not out of the fight entirely. Meaning, that I would have to possibly shoot not only her, but the rest of them as well. When they're in condition to still fire a weapon. Yeah, I'm not taking those odds, not when I'm so close to liberty dammit!
Backing up, The woman finally began to take a small breather as Alexander in the back blabbered on and on about the most random, minuscule things in an effort to keep the rest of the group awake.
"...Sigh…. Apologies for the unpleasant introduction comrade. It's just that...urgent matters popped up." The woman said with a small sigh, her voice slightly faltering and trembling as her adrenaline started to recede away and die down.
"Yeah, like getting shot?" I ask sarcastically and grumpily, making no effort to mask my disdain as I keep my eyes on the road.
"Yes, exactly, how did you know?" The woman replied with sarcasm in kind. Her tone tells me not to challenge her any further in conversation. Something that I will do. God knows I need another fight on my hands.
"..." Saying nothing, I successfully back up my car and take a right, the headlights revealing the messy south Asian city on a dark rainy night. I note that oddly, there doesn't seem to be a civilian in sight. It appeared to be a ghost town. Driving through the small puddles and making splashes, I continued to follow my "comrades" instructions as she pointed at which corners to take, and which roads to cross.
"And..oh shit! I can't think of anything else! Tatiana! What should I say?" Alexander asks nervously, I could see his hands trembling through the rear view mirror as he spoke.
"That's COMRADE Tatiana to you! And It doesn't matter what it has to be about! Just keep on talking!" Tatiana here next to me spat out, her eyes never leaving the front windshield as she continued on guiding me throughout the streets of Roanapur at night.
"...Gah! You there, Comrade! Give me something to say!" Alexander damn near breaks down, his voice stuttering as I can see him point at me fervently from the rear view mirror. Pissing me off even more as I scowled in accordance to this new, sudden event.
"HAH? Comrade, are you incapable of even the most textbook basic stuff? Just sing or something if you don't know what to say!" I say with a growl as I unwillingly took another turn, following Tatiana's instruction to the T.
"G-good idea Comrade! S-somehow, in the s-summer, a-at dawn, I l-looked in t-the n-neighboring garden! " Alexander began to sing nervously, pissing me off even more as I can't help but furrow my brows in annoyance. Great, first I have to drive to hotel Moscow and now this? What next huh?
"Really comrade? Smuglyanka? Out of all the songs you could have chosen...alright, whatever." I started, only to cut myself off as I realized the futility of speaking to Alexander in the back seat of my car. It would be a waste of breath and time.
"Ah!... Comrade Tatiana, what were the rest of the lyrics again?" Alexander stopped singing as he sheepishly asked the woman named Tatiana next to me to provide him with the lyrics to such an old and annoying song.
"Don't ask me! It's been years! And why would you pick such an old song anyway?" She asked, with visible confusion on her face, finally looking to the back of the car where the rest of the wounded men all clumped together, barely keeping awake.
"Comrade!" Alexander then proceeded to look at me, his desperate eyes gleaming with tears as I looked at him with the rear view mirror.
"....Listen up son, how the hell do you forget...GRRR! FINE!,.... There was a darkie, a Moldavian girl gathering grapes up there. I was growing red, I was growing pale. All of a sudden I wanted to tell her: Let's meet together all the summer dawns over the river!" I defeatedly and awkwardly started to sing as I realized that arguing would get me nowhere. I'm fucking furious. If I don't cooperate then my cover is blown. I lose any chance of actually tricking these guys if I do nothing!
"The maple, all curly and green, it's leaves carved! I'm standing in love and embarrassed in front of you. The green maple, and curly, And all curly and carved!" I continued to sing, nudging at him with my head, to pick up on the chorus. All the while with a frown on my face as I continued to drive MIND you.
"...The-the maple, all curly and green, it's leaves carved!" Finally, after a slight pause, Alexander and his totally punch able face caught on and remembered the lyrics. Singing nervously now, he was making me want to punch him even more.
Sigh.
What the hell even was this? I was driving a car provided to me by an American agent who mistook me as one of them. In said car was a group of people that probably had some relationship with Sofiya Pavlovna, who seems to want me dead, alongside her men as well. For some reason god only knows, they were shot up and battered as all hell. And now, I was singing Smuglyanka with that total newbie Alexander who can't even do something as simple as talk. It didn't have to make sense, that was the whole point! All you needed to do was spew a bunch of nonsense from your mouth and that would be enough! As long as the wounded guy was straining his brain to make sense of the bullshit that's coming from your mouth, that was enough!
But for some reason, Alexander here couldn't even do that. He had to look around and ask for help, like seriously, what was his deal? There is no way in hell that this guy could have possibly served in the red army, he would be dead the second his boots touched the sands of Afghanistan!
This was just absurd and ridiculous, no, scratch that, mad! This was fucking insane. Am I living in some sort of simulation? Is that what this is? How the hell is all of THIS happening right now? There is no logical fucking explanation here!
"...uh, Comrade? What were the rest of the lyrics?.."
....Fucking shit!
"...Sigh… The road is awaiting you, The road to the partisans in the deep forest…."
I don't know what the fuck to even think of this anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"SHIT!" Tatiana cursed out loud as she saw the group of heavily armed men in front of us. Still a distance away, they spotted us as well, and with shouts, fired their weapons at us. Fortunately however, they were still a fair distance away, so their shots really weren't hitting us in the way that they desired.
"Comrade, back and up take a right turn, I think there's another way around these bastards-" Tatiana managed to say with a click of her tongue before I cut her off, my patience totally gone as I sped up the car, the bullets now whizzing by us, some of them ricocheting off of the car.
"No Comrade. You said it yourself, headquarters is down this road. I'm not taking any more detours. I would suggest you roll down the window and fire your pistol at OUR enemies. I would, but it seems that it's a bit hard to drive one handed." I say coldly, my brows furrowing at the sight before me, as well as the current situation.
"What- argh! Fine! Alexander, prepare to fire your weapon at the enemy!" Tatiana said, punching the window and breaking the glass as she shoved her pistol through the now broken window, already taking some shots as bullets whizzed by her head.
"W-what? I can't sing and fire at the same time-" Alexander began to protest, only to get swiftly cut off as Tatiana full on snarled at him like a wolf or something.
"NOW!"
"...Y-yes ma'am.." Was his meek reply as he rolled down the windows, his pistol trembling ever so slightly in his hand as he continued to sing whatever the hell he was singing. With a quick glance at the rear view mirror, I could see that the kid was terrified, but now was truly a do or die situation, so I didn't really have much sympathy to spare at the current moment.
Keeping my head down, I slammed my feet on the pedal hard, the speed of the car accelerating as a result of my action. Watching the speedometer quickly go up from my speed of 45 to a 125. My body still aching from the pain, I could only grit my teeth for the umpteenth time, a miracle how none of them have cracked yet I know. But alas, A miracle that I didn't need. If anything, I need a miracle for this situation, right here, right now.
I need a miracle to prevent my goddamn car from exploding, I need a miracle to not get shot either directly by a bullet, or indirectly by ricochet. I need a miracle to get the hell out of HERE...Sigh, nothing will change if I get mad. Calm down, just calm down. Sooner or later, I'll get another opportunity to leave. There's always an opportunity. I just have to wait for it.
As the car flew to the enemies in front of me, I could see the flash of fear and confusion in their eyes. It was as if they were asking me whether or not this was going to happen. Well, sorry to break it to you fuckers, but this WILL happen. So either you A, stay and get run over full speed by car kun over here, or you B, jump out of the fucking way and avoid being road kill. Your choice assholes.
One second, two seconds, three seconds. Before I knew it, sweat had already started to form on my forehead, dripping down steadily and making me feel even more uncomfortable situation wise. This was a power move. I was challenging them. And if they wanted to win, they better be good fucking shots. Like those...what was the term again? There was a term, slang for sniper that was floating around in my brief service in the red army...Bala what? Balaclava? Eh whatever. Point is, they would all have to be snipers if they wanted to stop me.
Soon, I was before them, my car already smoking up from all the led that was hitting it. Soon, the bullets came through the windshield, breaking the glass and flying around my head. But luckily not hitting me as I had conveniently held my head low. Dramatically reducing the chances of me getting hit.
For some reason, time seemed to slow down. I could oddly hear everything happening around me, regardless of the chaos. It seemed that I could perfectly hear Tatiana's curses, the whimpering of Alexander as he desperately tried to both fire his weapon and sing to the rest of the wounded men in the car. The gun fire? The sounds of the triggers being pulled, the racking of the guns? It seemed as if I could hear it all.
I was before them now, the hood of my car seemingly inches away from the stomach of a poor sap who was in front of me. I could see their expressions quite clearly, the panic on their faces, the spit and slobbering that came from their mouths as they yelled words and shouted in fear. It was almost as if I could see their eyes flashing with memories of their entire life. Something impossible mind you, I mean, after all I wasn't them, I WASN'T the person in front. But I could relate, I guess if you go through something no less than a hundred times, you can recognize when it's happening to someone else huh?
Just at the last second, I swerved, handling the driving wheel hard as I took a sharp left turn, drifting at a high speed as I could see Tatiana buckle in her seat belt and hitting the inside of the car from the corner of my eye. As a result, the back of my car hit a couple of enemies that were firing at us, knocking them down with no doubt severe injuries. Eh, I've been hit by a vehicle before, they'll survive.
Soon, within seconds, I leave the rest of the small clump of enemies in the dust as I increase the speed. Not wanting to leave them the opportunity to fire even more rounds into my already smoking and battered vehicle. For the moment everyone was silent, the air tense with exhilaration as they still took a moment to process whatever the hell had just happened.
Soon, I hear a blanch. Knowing that someone was going to most likely vomit soon, I grumbled as I rolled down the window. My scowl, never once leaving my face as I continued down the road going full speed.
"Comrade, If you must barf, then I highly suggest you barf through the window. The scent of blood is already sharp as is. I would really rather not the stench of vomit and whatever the hell you ate earlier this day mix with the blood." I say casually, still focused on the road.
"I'm sorry comrade but if you do not have a barf bag then- URF-" Alexander started to speak up, only to be interrupted by his own barf. Much to the dismay of literally everyone in the car, me included.
"Argh! Gross Alexander, you got it over my new boots-and-Erg-" One of the wounded men managed to say in protest, before he himself barfed, on his other comrade no less. Infuriating me even more as I drove. Great. I was in a mobile cesspit of filth! Just great!
"Really? On my field blouse? I just had this thing laundered yesterday! What the hell man-Urk-" And just like a stack of dominoes, the last wounded man barfed, all over the car no less. Ugh! The smell was getting worse by the second!
Through the corner of my eye, I see Tatiana with a very pale face, With sweat dripping from her brow, her expression that was one of forced calm? I could instantly tell that she was going to fall as well. Oh my god, Jesus fucking Christ! Please, No! Tatiana, I swear to god, if you make this any worse than it already is-
"..Comrade?" Her voice broke my internal rambling. On no you don't, don't you fucking say it!-
"...I'm sorry-BLAG!-"
…
…
She barfed. At least she had the courtesy to try and barf out the window, but nevertheless, she barfed. And she missed the damn window, her barf now stewing on the window SILL and the side of the passenger door...Inside. Well Truman? Looks like you were right. The domino theory does prevail, but instead of communism in southeast Asia, it was barfing. If one man barf's then the rest will no doubt follow suit eh? Like a stack of Dominoes!
...What a fucking thrill huh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Approaching the front gate of presumably the headquarters of hotel Moscow, I drifted sharply. Curving my car sideways, so that the right side of the car would take all of the impact. What? You want me to drive head first into a gate? I'm not fucking crazy you know? And relax, There was nobody at the front gates. They were probably out still searching for me or something, So I still had time now that I think about it, an alibi and an excuse. But I couldn't stay too long. And that was the goal here. I had to fast track it.
Crashing into the gate with an excessively violent crash along with an equally violent turbulent situation inside the car, inciting yet another wave of blanches and gags. Stepping on the brakes Sharply, I soon led the car to a stop. The smell of smoking tires now in the mixture of vomit and blood.
Getting out of the car as fast as I could, I spoke to them with a tired voice as I opened the side passenger door, blanching myself at the...disgusting and revolting sight and smell that soon assaulted my face when I opened the bullet riddled door.
"Alright comrades, out of the fucking car-" CLICK.
The familiar sound of weapons soon stopped me. Looking to the front entrance of the headquarters, The very woman that I did NOT want to see under any circumstance stood before me.Her pistol now aimed right at my very head. As she and a small group of Asian looking men in black suits aimed their weapons at me.
One of the men, most likely around Six feet at my estimate, was clean shaven and wore sunglasses even though it was quite dark. His face reminded me of a baby's face for some reason. But that was neither here nor there. With his posture and tone, it was clear that he was a big shot. He even had a white scarf, draped over each shoulder much like a mobster in one of the godfather movies.
Taking a step towards me, he couldn't help but smirk at the bizarre sight in front of him. The broken gate, the banged up car? The blood and vomit covered members of this group called "Hotel Moscow" That had something to do with Sofiya Pavlovna now stumbling out dazed and wounded? Of course something so ridiculous and outrageous would warrant a smirk. But for some unknown reason, this just wasn't funny to me. Sue me I know.
The air was silent and tense as Sofiya looked at me. A confused gleam in her eyes as she kept her pistol pointed at me. Taking yet another step, Sunglasses over here stopped, and with both hands in his pockets, spoke.
"Why hello there!"