The End Of The Beginning Part 8

Jet and Holly headed up the next flight of stairs, only to find that there was no light source at all. They turned their lights on and cautiously walked on. Keeping their scopes held up to their eyes, they quickly scouted out the room. 

It was quiet and not bloody, which was a plus. But they both felt like something wasn't right. And they were right...it was left. To their left, a door burst open to reveal a deathly thin man who had obviously been cybernetically altered. Jet tried to leap out of the way as he charged and swung, but it was too late. The creature's strange, knife-like hands pierced into his shoulder. 

Holly turned just in time to see the blade go into Jet's shoulder. She raised her gun at the same time Jet dropped his. However, before she could take a shot, the whirring of a chainsaw started up behind her and she froze.

She quickly spun around and shot, but the bullet bounced uselessly off the chainsaw. It was then that she noticed the chainsaw was attached to the man's arm, totally taking up his entire lower arm. That single moment of hesitation was all the man needed to start swinging at her. The last thing she wanted was to get hit with was a chainsaw, so she jumped back and tried to steady her aim as the man came at her. 

Jet yanked out his pistol from his holster as the man was trying to pull its mace-like hand from his shoulder. Between grunts of pain, he found the focus needed to bring the gun up to the thing's chest and shoot multiple times. The body dropped, but with it, the blades just dug deeper into his shoulder. He let out a loud grunt as he lifted the knife out of his shoulder and tried to staunch the blood flow. He turned to find Holly, only to find her taking aim at the man with the chainsaw, who was getting dangerously close.

Holly fired twice; the first shot ripped through the thing's chest, the second ripped through its' head. Its' body fell backwards as the momentum kept it moving, then fell with a thud. The whirring stopped a few seconds later. Holly looked over at Jet, she was going to make some kind of witty 'OWNED!' like remark, but then saw Jet was hurting and hurried on over.

Jet sat down against a wall and let her move the clothing out of the way to view the wound. "Oh man, that's pretty bad. Hold still and I'll clean this sucker and get it wrapped up." Holly said as she took out the first aid kit from her back pack and began to clean his wound.

Jet was focusing on his wound and the pain, keeping his eyes closed as Holly cleaned it. Holly knew she should probably keep his mind off whatever pain he may be feeling, so she started to talk. "Jet, where are you from?" After grunting, and breathing a little he replied, "I am from Sleepy Hollow as well, just like you."

"Really? Never seen you before." She stated, getting a new rag for the blood. "Yeah, well, my parents were army nuts. We lived on base just outside of the town. My parents were called in when Dr. Lee unloaded on the place. Lost my mother from it. So, like you, I am here for more than just because of orders." He told her. It appeared the talking was working, his mind wasn't on the pain nearly as much. "What about you? We all know your story, but how did you come about to becoming what you are now?"

Holly stopped to think for a bit. She did all she could to not remember that night. Sure, going after Lee didn't help, but she didn't link the memories to Lee's name. She just feels overwhelming hate towards him. "Frank, or, well, you know him by another name, commander even, but he took me in. Well, sort of. I lived at a home but he would let me over to play with his kids. You know Joe right? He is like my best friend. We did everything together. Frank practically raised me. He is like my second father." She said softly as her mind replayed many nice memories of her youth years spent with Frank and Joe.

"Is that how you climbed so high in the ranks so quickly?" He asked, as if he has been itching to ask her that question. "What do you mean by that?" She asked confused, "I worked hard to get where I am today."

"I am older than you, I lost a parent too from Dr. Lee. I work my butt off far more than you could. I have been on countless high end missions. Top secret missions even. And I am still tons of ranks below you. And here you are younger. Spent time with the commander and his family, then get shot up in ranks and given one of the easiest jobs ever. Only difference here is that you are a family friend." He said, wincing as Holly got a bit rough with the wound cleaning.

"Watch it, I'm cleaning your wound, don't make me mad." She told him, rather playfully, which he didn't expect considering what he just said. She eventually shrugged in response. "I don't know, I'm sure from your point of view it may look like that, and it may be the truth, but it seemed normal to me. He told me to do certain things. Talk to certain people about things, and I just followed orders. I guess I had a helping hand in my game of chess. And I'm sorry if that upsets you, but despite where our careers took us, here we are. Together doing the same thing. Seeing the same things and getting our hands dirty." As she said this she began to apply the bandages.

Jet laughed a bit. That was the last thing he expected. Who knew she was such a well spoken person? He sure didn't. Holly looked to the side quickly, as if she heard something, then shook her head as she went back to Jet's wounds.