The Stormwriter (Pt.4)

The Stormwriter (Pt.1) - Part 1
The Stormwriter (Pt.2) - Part 2
The Stormwriter (Pt.3) - Part 3

The Stormwriter (Part 4)
Written by Arpinicl

Warning: Some readers may find the following part graphic due to its violent nature. Readers discretion is advised.

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The group made their way through the deserted streets, climbing over crashed cars and occasionally seeing travelers rushing back to their hideout. Light poles had fallen across the road and destroyed military vehicles and barricades were some of the common sights. The further they got into the city however, the more recent the destruction had been and multiple times they had to take cover behind a building to avoid being spotted by a Kurtz military transport convoy.

After hours of walking, Duvall stopped and collapsed to the ground, “I can’t go anymore. I can’t go, I’m sorry.”

Mandrake walked over and bent down to pick up Duvall and threw him on his shoulders, “We can’t abandon you Duvall, after all, you’re our friend.”

As they were doing this, a Kurtz military vehicle passed by and stopped right in front of them.

“We’ve been spotted! We need to get out of here now!” Pharaoh yelled and ran to take cover behind an overturned car.

Mandrake carried Duvall and threw him behind a collapsed barricade, “Stay there Duvall! We will get you at the end of this battle!”

The tank began to fire upon the others, sending debris flying everywhere. Jailbird and then began to fight back but had a hard time piercing its armor. As the battle went on, more military personnel and vehicles joined. As Duvall lay there, drones flew and would crash into nearby covers and dirt and rocks were constantly falling onto his face. Soon, a large armored truck pulled up to the scene and numerous soldiers piled out of the truck followed by a woman in a red suit and dark brown hair. She held a red gun and had a golden pair of rocket launchers on her back.

“Let’s flush them out and take them down at last!” The lady barked at the soldiers.

“Yes Cinder!” The soldiers called back and began to shower Mandrake, Pharaoh and Jailbird with bullets.

Cinder stepped up and began to fire off green rockets that showered acid onto Mandrake and them. Then she threw a bomb right in Duvall’s direction, which landed right in his lap and exploded, spraying him with acid. Duvall screamed in agony as his skin slowly melted away and began to reveal his bones. Duvall faintly heard Mandrake and Jailbird arguing but most of the sound was drowned out by the gunfire. A rocket hit a nearby building and set a large piece of stone falling onto Duvall. He blacked out for a few minutes before waking back up to the sight of Mandrake and Jailbird arguing.

“We need to get him!” Mandrake yelled at Jailbird.

“It’s too late! If we don’t leave now, we’ll all be dead!” Jailbird shot back at the soldiers. “Let’s leave now!”

Mandrake turned around and got one last look of Duvall before running off with Jailbird and Pharaoh. They soon disappeared behind the rubble in the alleyways and were out of sight in a matter of seconds. As they left, the bullet storms stopped and Duvall could hear again.

“Search for any survivors! If you find any able to fight back, kill them! And remember, anyone who can’t fight back we need for Project: Stormwriter.” Cinder walked back into the truck.

The soldiers picked up the rubble and tossed it away. Duvall reached its bloodied hand out from beneath the stone and groaned while he tried to lift off the stone.

“I found one!” One of the soldier’s called out to the others once he spotted Duvall’s hand.

Along with the help of the other Kurtz soldiers, they lifted the stone off of Duvall and stood in horror at the state he was in. One turned around to vomit while the others stood there speechless.

“What’s with not reporting this?” Cinder walked over and when she saw Duvall’s body, she too had to turn around. “Clean this up. If he is alive, take him otherwise dispose of his corpse.”

The soldiers looked back at their task and it took them a few minutes just to mentally prepare themselves for their job. Almost every ounce of skin on his body had suffered 4th degree burns and his face was almost unrecognizable as a human. His bones were showing in multiple parts of his body and he had suffered many breaks in his ribs and arms. Blood was pouring out of all his wounds. One of the soldiers leaned forward to listen for a heartbeat. It was faintly there, and Duvall was barely breathing with only ragged gasps for air coming out. They carried out a stretcher and carried his body across the battlefield into the armored truck where they began to stop the bleeding and placed an oxygen mask over his head. Numerous IVs were injected into him and Duvall was constantly going in and out of consciousness.

When Duvall woke back up his body was floating in a glass tube of water with many tubes leading into his body and he was not able to move at all. His eyes scanned this new environment and he saw another person in a glass tube a few meters away from him. An empty black tube was in the middle and multiple pipes lead from both of their tubes into the single black tube. Doctors and scientists stood all around in that room and Duvall recognized the women from the battlefield standing next to a man dressed in a black doctor’s outfit, giving Duvall the impression that he was the head of this operation.

“It looks like our patient is awake. I know you may be disoriented and cannot move your body but I know you can hear me. I am Doctor Navalle, and the woman who picked you up was the amazing Cinder.” Doctor Navalle walked around the room with his hands behind his back. “What you are about to undergo is the first test of our experiment to merge two humans with one being the brains and the other having the brawn. In this case, you are the brains. You both will be merged into one human in an armored suit that supports your life. This suit will be your life-support and if you leave this suit or it is broken then both of you will die, so make sure to keep this suit intact.”

One of the assistants began to talk to Doctor Navalle and nodded before him and the other assistants began to press various buttons on the electronics.

“It appears I have run out of time. I will explain the rest of the details to you once the neuro-transfer and the-” Doctor Navalle spoke but Duvall’s body slipped back into unconsciousness before he could hear the rest of what the doctor said.

Hope you enjoyed reading Part 4 of The Stormwriter. Let me know what you think in the replies!

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