Reunited

CHAPTER 13: Reunited

The elevator brought Jimmy to a dark, stuffy room in an unknown place. After looking around for a bit, Jimmy found a hidden door in the wall.

"Where in the fuck..."

Upon opening the door and stepping out, he found himself inside of a massive bank vault. Nothing of value was actually stored in it; its sole purpose was to mask the elevator.

"The bank?" Jimmy said, glancing around, "Fuck, they must have entrances to this lab all across town."

Just then, Jimmy felt the ground quake beneath him, indicating that the SOAL facility had finally collapsed.

"Good," Jimmy thought, "That means that Alpha-fuck is gone for good..."

The vault was filled with corpses wearing lab coats, indicating that some scientists fleeing the SOAL facility were killed by the Slime before they could get outside. One corpse was wedged in between the vault door, preventing the timed lock from activating. This allowed Jimmy to open it with ease.

"Poor bastards," Jimmy thought, examining the corpses.

The bank's walls were covered in slime and the floor was littered with the corpses of civilians, bank guards and more scientists. Otherwise, the whole place was eerily quiet.

"Hello?" Jimmy spoke into his radio, "Manny? Louie? Anyone?"

Dead silence. Jimmy soon realized that he was not far from Rodham, where the Zolotoy had hid Lucia and Lenny. After some thought, decided he would head there next.

"Alright," he uttered, "Let's get going."

Outside, the early morning sun was beginning to appear on the horizon. Crashed cars and piles of bodies dotted the area, but there were no signs of life. Still, Jimmy kept his guard up. The crackling of his radio momentarily diverted his focus.

"Guys?" he said into it, "Please tell me your alright!"

"Infestation," said a voice, "...St. Mark's street...Requesting...Overrun..."

"Roger that," spoke another.

Though the signal was unclear, Jimmy's radio was picking up chatter between Roark's officers who were engaged in a battle against the Slime.

"No!" snapped Jimmy, "It's not...How the fuck is this possible? I killed the Alpha! The Slime was supposed to die, damnit!"

Jimmy continued his route to Rodham, taking the back-alleys as a shortcut.

"Hang on," he cried, "I'm coming!"

However, as he passed through one alley behind some apartments, a bullet whizzed by his face and struck the ground near his feet. When he looked up, he saw a cop standing on a nearby fire escape with a handgun drawn.

"Stay right where you are," he commanded, "Weapons down, hands up. Now!"

Before the officer could climb down, a Leaper emerged from the window behind him and pounced on him. As the officer screamed for his life, Jimmy fled the alley. He could hear gunshots coming from the buildings all around him.

"They ain't fairin' too well," Jimmy observed, "So much for 'superior firepower'."

Just as he reached the street, an officer flew from a nearby window and landed on a parked car, crushing the roof and shattering the windows. Upon close inspection, the officer was coated in Slime. In the alley behind Jimmy, several Leapers and Infested emerged.

"Fuck," he said, "Not those things again!"

Jimmy fired a few shots from his BAR, then ran from the alley as fast as he could. The streets nearby were a battleground between the Slime and the officers, who were getting decimated.

"Gotta hurry," Jimmy thought to himself, "Gotta find Lucia, Lenny...Hell, anyone!"

Jimmy remembered what the Alpha-Mind had said; that its consciousness would live on through its 'newest children' – That is, the Leapers. It appeared to Jimmy that several of those Leapers had managed to escape the facility and were already searching for the next Alpha.

"Jimmy?" said a familiar voice on the radio, "You there?"

"Louie," said Jimmy, "Aw man, am I glad to hear you!"

"Where the fuck have you been? You know what? Nevermind. We got bigger fish to fry. We were on our way to Rodham to rendez-vous with the Russians."

"Yeah, so am I. Where are you?"

"Manny and I are trapped in an alley on West 8th avenue. Behind the big apartment blocks there. We're up to our asses in slime here!"

"I'll be there, just sit tight!"

Jimmy continued his trek through the chaos-afflicted city. At one point, while crossing the street, a police cruiser came barreling toward him, forcing him to dive out of the way. When Jimmy looked inside the car, he saw that the officers inside were being overtaken by slime.

"This is bad," he thought.

He was only a block away from where Manny and Louie were, but this neighbourhood was by far the worst, with several police officers engaged in a battle against all manner of Infested – Fellow cops, gangsters and even national guardsmen – Many of whom were armed. For the most part, both sides ignored Jimmy, but he was still at risk of being struck by stray bullets.

"Okay," said Jimmy, "Let's take this one bit at a time."

Seeking cover behind a crashed car, Jimmy laid low and charged his way through the chaos before stopping behind the stoop of a nearby rowhouse.

"Whew," he said.

However, several Infested had spotted Jimmy and were closing in on him. Thinking quickly, Jimmy blasted open the basement window next to him and leapt inside the house. The Infested followed Jimmy inside, but Jimmy ran up the stairs to the main floor and shut the door behind him.

"That was close," he said to himself.

The main floor was not much better, as there were Leapers in the kitchen who immediately took notice of Jimmy's intrusion. Jimmy blasted them away with his rifle, then headed out the rear exit. From there, Jimmy bolted across the courtyard to relative safety. The extra weight of the bandoliers on his torso, plus the massive rifle in his hands were an enormous burden that left him exhausted and sluggish, but Jimmy persevered towards his friends.

"Almost there," he panted, "Not far now."

After navigating another series of alleyways, Jimmy came across Manny and Louie in an empty lot fighting off a horde of Leapers. He wasted no time blasting some of them away with his rifle.

"About fuckin' time," laughed Manny, "Come on! Let's do this!"

The three men worked together to defend the lot from wave after wave of incoming enemies. Eventually, things seemed to calm down a bit.

"Man," said Louie, "Are we glad to see you, kid."

"What the fuck happened to you?" Manny asked, "You fuckin' disappeared on us back at that National Guard base."

"Yeah," said Jimmy, "Well, it's a long story. I thought I had found a way to defeat the Slime, but..."

As Jimmy spoke, the trio failed to notice a Leaper crawling along one of the surrounding buildings. As it approached the trio, it hissed loudly, then leapt in the air right above Louie's head.

"Jesus!" cried Jimmy, "Watch out!"

Manny pushed Louie out of the way, causing the creature to land on him instead. Manny fought with the Leaper to little avail.

"Do somethin'," Louie cried.

Jimmy took aim, but couldn't fire at the Leaper safely without hitting Manny. Eventually, the creature raised its head and hissed at Louie and Jimmy, at which point, Jimmy blasted it to bits. Unfortunately, by this point, the damage had already been done.

"Manny!" Jimmy and Louie cried.

Jimmy approached Manny, who had both hands on his neck and was coughing and gurgling loudly. His mouth was full of slime, which left him unable to speak. Jimmy placed his rifle down and began performing chest compressions.

"Come on," said Jimmy, "Stay with me!"

There was nothing more Jimmy could do; within seconds, Manny's eyes closed and his body grew limp. Jimmy clenched his fists in anger.

"Goddamnit," snapped Louie, "Of all the...Fuckin' hell, why'd it have to be him?"

Louie paced around the lot in anger, while Jimmy slowly rose to his feet, keeping his head down in sadness.

"You know what comes next, don't ya, kid?" Louie said, "He's gonna turn if we don't do nothin'."

"I know."

"Yeah? Good. It's on you, kid. Take the shot. Put a bullet in his goddamn brain and get it over with."

Jimmy drew one of the handguns from his belt and pointed it straight at Manny's head. However, despite knowing full well that Manny was going to transform, he could not bring himself to pull the trigger.

"What gives?" Louie demanded, "Hurry up, Legs! You know what's gonna happen."

With his eyes firmly closed, Jimmy began to squeeze the trigger, only to hesitate again. As he reopened his eyes and looked down, he saw that Manny's were now open as well.

"Fuck..." said Jimmy.

Manny kicked Jimmy, sending him flying back several feet. He then leapt in the air and clutched onto the side of a building, letting out an inhuman roar. With spider-like reflexes, he scaled the side of the building, dodging shots from Louie's handgun, before leaping off the side and disappearing from view altogether.

"Damnit, kid!" Louie yelled, turning his gun on Jimmy, "I told you to kill him! Because of you, he's one of them now! Why didn't you fuckin' listen?"

"Because I'm tired, Louie," said Jimmy.

"Tired?"

"Yeah, tired. Tired of killing our guys, of watching my friends die."

"I...I..."

"You have a gun; you could've stepped in anytime and pulled that trigger, but you didn't either, so what's your excuse?"

Louie sighed and lowered his gun slowly.

"Just because I haven't known Manny for as long," began Jimmy, rising to his feet, "Doesn't mean I don't respect him. You and him are the only friends I have left."

"Kid, I had no idea..."

Still clutching his aching chest, Jimmy limped his way over to Louie.

"As far back as I can remember," he began, "I always wanted to be...A hero. It's why I joined the Army. Figured I'd get out there and save people or whatever. But when that didn't work out, I joined the Family instead. And there, for the first time in my life, I realized that being a hero ain't about shooting bad guys or saving the world. It's about having people look up to you, rely on you, and most important of all, respect you."

Louie wiped a tear from his eye.

"Aw geez," he said, "Listen kid, I don't deal too well with all this sappy shit but...You certainly earned my respect today."

"Thanks," said Jimmy, "The time I spent with the Family - With you and Manny - Is the best I've ever had. And I just had to watch it all crumble in the course of a single night."

"We can rebuild," Louie insisted, "As long as the Don is still alive, we..."

"But it won't bring Manny back, won't it?"

"No. No it won't."

Just then, they heard a voice coming through the radio. It was Piotr, Anton's lieutenant.

"Come in," he said, "We have a situation here."

"What is it?" Louie asked.

"I don't know how," Piotr began, "But the police found where we were keeping your friends. They killed some of our men, Anton included."

"WHAT?" Jimmy demanded, "What did they do with..."

"They took them," Piotr explained, "The girl and the crazy man. The police apprehended them. I suspect they are bringing them to the police headquarters; corner of fifth and Williams."

"No!" snapped Louie, "Aw, fuckin' hell! Don't you see what this is?"

"Yeah," said Jimmy, "A trap. Roark's tryin' to lead us right to him. Bastard."

"We lost a lot of men," said Piotr, "As much as we would love to take vengeance on the police, we cannot mount an assault without a solid plan first."

"I don't care if it's a trap," said Jimmy, "We let Manny die, we ain't letting Lucia die either!"

"Listen," Louie said into the radio, "I think I have a plan. I'll get back to you in a jiff."

"You really have a plan?" Jimmy asked.

"As a matter of fact..."

Louie led Jimmy out of the alley and back onto the street where a U.S. Army weapons carrier – Compete with mounted machine gun and blast shield – Was parked.

"Jesus," said Jimmy, "How did..."

"Swiped it from the army base," said Louie, "You were takin' so long and we were gettin' overrun, so we had to make a getaway. 'Course, the machine gun ain't loaded, but..."

"I'm guessin' it takes 50-cal, right?" Jimmy said, clutching the bandolier around his chest.

"That's right," Louie chuckled, "Roark and his boys won't know what hit 'em, heheh."

"Let's do this," said Jimmy.