Stories of our World


This is the spot to submit your fanfiction, articles about the game or any other items of interest.  You submit it, I'll post it.  (within reason). On some I've included a quick intro from myself.  What can I say..I'm a Tales from the Crypt fan.


Battles are horrific things.  But when you’re faced with death, there are things you may wish for.  Just be careful, for some wishes are more horrific then any bullet.  As poor Mr. Williams finds out in this story…


War Bargains

By Chris DeKalb

My name is Henry Williams.  I am a private in the Delta Squadron doing duty in Guatemala, trying to control the revolt that broke out here.
They don’t tell the people back home in the US about these little guerilla wars.  Sending small units to fight and die against small units of the USSR or whomever.  We just fought one of the largest battles ever, hundreds of men on both sides duking it out.   We lost.

But I think we scared them.  For every one of ours that went down they lost two to three normals.  No army can handle that type of losses in a contained front.  The Americans and the Guatemalan Political Liberty Front are retreating safely behind us.

My rifle is heavy in my hands, sweat and sap making stains on it even as they have all over my uniform.  I notice it all.  I can see things.  It seems like a hundred years ago, a bottle of chemicals blew up in my face.  Death seemed to be hovering over me.  But instead I woke up in the hospital with abilities few others had.  I can see for greater distances and better details then anyone else.

Up ahead I can see the Guatemalan Freedom Army marching towards us.  My squad and I are backed up on the far side of a ravine.  The only way across for over a mile is a natural rock bridge that we’ve set up behind.  The GFA forces are working their way closer to it, the men sweating and swearing.  An awful lot of firepower.  I can count the rifles and grenade launchers still sitting on their backs, even though they won’t be in range of our rifles for another few minutes.

Glancing behind me, I can see the remnants of the US forces retreating to a village where they’ll be able to shore up the defenses into something resembling a line.  They’re running, dragging equipment and wounded with them best they can.
Around me hiding in the brush and trees are my friends and squad mates.  There are only eight of us left now, counting myself.  The camouflage is good, but I can still make out every detail.   Sara, who can breathe fire, is ahead of me, nearest the bridge.  Tommy and Mathews “Grimfire” are situated right behind her, setting up a cross-fire.  Tommy is a great shot, and Mathews doesn’t need a rifle, as energy shoots from his hands.
Gorilla Ben is behind me, a huge man who carries the heavy machine gun.  Sarge is trying to stay hidden in the tree, his rifle at the ready.  He’s Indian, and is the toughest hand to hand fighter you’ve ever seen.
The last two members are flanked off to the sides.  Ricardo, a Chicano with only one eye and lightning in his fists.  Then there’s  Giusteppo, or Steps as we call him, an Italian who can move things with his mind.  Weird guy, always grasping a small silver medallion as he moves things.

I look back and can see the GFA troops slowly coming in.  We have to hold them here long enough for the front line to be re-established.  If they get through they’d slaughter everyone.

The first trooper on the bridge has his head explode.  That’s all the warning they get before Tommy starts picking them off.   Normal procedure is to hit the last guy, and work your way up.  You can kill or wound a lot more people that way.  But we need them to stop, to take the time to run for cover.  Time is what we need, as much as we can possibly get.

After Tommy starts firing most of us do as well.  Gorilla just hunches down under cover, his machine gun is a surprise if they get too close.
Dirt explodes around me, as the first bullets start coming at us instead of from us.  Every muzzle flash is captured in my sight, even the movement of the vegetation as it sways from the lead in the air.  It looks like a strong breeze gust going through them.  Of course, there is no wind today.

Grimfire raises up for a second, his fists pointing out.  A huge yellowish red blast shoots out across the ravine.  I see the fire tear through two Guatemalan men.  And I also see the small flashes break out as their ammo cooks off, tearing holes in the corpses.
A second later bloody explosions also rip through Grim’s back, as the return fire catches him before he can get back down.

His body lands hard, twisting from wounds.  Eyes that once directed the fury of the sun now stare vacantly at a tree trunk.  Pulling my eyes away from him I see edge of the forest again.

The bullets are still flying through all over.  The bullets whiz past me, and I still hear them despite the racket of my rifle.
One enemy shows up after another in my sights, and I pull the trigger.  A few duck down, and I punch a bullet through their hiding places.  You can’t hide from my eyes.  Nothing can.

Tommy screams as his leg gets hit.  His hand goes down to his leg instead of on his rifle.  More GFA soldiers start crowding up towards the bridge.
“God Damn it all,”  Gorilla yells, shoving his gun up towards the edge.  Just as the enemy troops start to cross the bridge he pulls the trigger.

One hundred rounds fly into four men.  Even I can’t see through the bloody haze that is created at the end of that second.

Trying not to vomit, I fire away at the other side.  The rifle bucks solidly against my firing arm.
The sudden click from the rifle is terribly loud.

I bend over to retrieve my other clip.  The sounds of bullets coming through towards us is much louder then the sounds of our gunfire.  I look around.

Sarge is in a bloody heap by the base of his tree.  Hit in the head from the looks of it.  Ricardo is down, his stomach bleeding and his face unmoving.  Only Sara and Gorilla are still shooting.  Steps is fucking praying or something over his medallion, his gun just sitting beside him.  He doesn’t even have a wound!
Tommy’s still clutching his leg.  The quick glimpse tells me he’s bleeding pretty badly, but I think he’ll live.

I fire off another burst at the GFA troops.  They're sweating and swaying as they move closer to the bridge, throwing everything they have at us.
Cursing and shooting is all I can think to do.

Beside me I see Gorilla go down, every single shot of theirs is aimed at him.  The body sways under the impacts and finally breaks apart.  I see all of it as the last bullet goes through his heart.

We’re dead.  I’m a zombie, just pulling my trigger and firing over at the other edge.  But then Steps stands up.  In the middle of a firefight, he’s out in the open.  I try to angle my fire over towards the GFA nearest to him.   Suppress them for a second so that that idiot can get his ass back down under cover.
Instead Steps holds out his medallion and something flies out of it.  Three tiny flashes.  I focus on them and it turns out they’re glowing winged men.  Barely visible, anyone else probably would have just seen flashes.  But they were clearly there, little men, with bat like wings.

The flashes fly up to the first Guatemalan, and then goes right through him, leaving a hole the size of my fist.  The flashes do that, finding every soldier and cutting him down.  I stand there fascinated as they win the battle for us in three minutes.

At the end they just vanish.  I put my rifle down on the ground and lean back, everything is so quiet it’s almost like I’ve gone deaf.  Then Tommy’s cries cut through again.

Sara gets to him first.  She looks totally confused as she rips a strip off her uniform.
“What happened?” She yells as she wraps it around Tommy’s leg.  He’s moaning, but the screaming has stopped.  “One minute we’re facing a firing squad, the next minute nobody is alive over there!”
“I don’t know.”   Glancing over I can see Steps sitting there.  Sara and Tommy are starting to smile and look over each other, glad to be alive.  But Steps is sitting there.  His lips are in a frown, and he’s just looking at the ground.
“Somethings’s wrong with Steps.”
Sara glances up at me.
“I’ll help Tommy here, go see if he needs first aid.”  Sara was now the ranking officer of our little group.

I walk over to Steps, who’s still staring at nothing.
“What did you do?”  I say,  “It saved all of us.”
He looked over at me, and the sadness in his eyes is terrible.
“I summoned some help,” his voice carries but it’s barely above a whisper.  Steps stood in front of me, unmoving, after that.
I slip my hand under his arm, he’s soaked with sweat and grime, and pull him towards the camp.  Before we get there Steps yanks his arm free.
“I’ll be fine.” He muttered as he slipped his medallion back into it’s belt pouch.
“Okay, suite yourself.”  I say, walking quickly over to the others. “Let’s get out of here!”
 

We bandaged Tommy’s wound and Sara let him lean against her as we wound our way back to the village.  I could see it ahead of us.  The army hurriedly building the defenses and laying mines.  The scouts are up ahead.  They weren’t expecting anyone to make it back, and now that the guns had stopped they are expecting trouble.  We’d have to be careful.

Taking point, I could see the paths and tripfalls ahead.  The village was still very quiet, all then animals probably running far from the last battle.
Sara and Tommy walked quietly behind me, and Steps watching our backs from behind.  The entire group at the bridge was wiped out, but the GFA probably had re-enforcements coming.    That was always the problem in fighting in the other guy’s country.  His friends are there too while yours are back in San Diego.

Up ahead a small mound of dirt covered a mine.  Probably would have fooled someone in a hurry, but I was being careful.
“Step over this branch wide guys, it’s a mine.  One of ours I think.”
I stepped over the branch and scooted carefully around the explosive.  Sara helped Tommy over and they stepped around it.
“Okay now, Steps it’s right in front of” I started, but then Tommy fell backwards.  He had just been walking and all of a sudden I could see him stumbling back like he had walked into a wall.  Sara tried to grab him, but his hand slipped through hers.
I had time to scream before his body hit the mine.  Our training took over and everyone dove for cover as the mine went off.  I closed my eyes and shoved my head in the dirt as a wet rain started falling around me.  I didn’t want to see what the land looked like.  I sat there for awhile, until Sara sobbingly shook me.  She looked at me sadly when I got up.
I looked over the remains of our marksman.  Steps was puking off to the side.
He saw me walking over and stood up quickly.  His hand slipped inside the side pouch for a second, but came out empty.  He looked horribly pale and upset, but I couldn’t blame him.  I probably didn’t look all that great either.

As we walked the trees cleared a little bit, and I could see the ground dropping down sharply before hitting the road.    Several loose stones and sticks littered the ground.
The three of us started walking down side by side.  Nobody was saying much of anything.  I stared ahead as the leaves squished underneath my feet.
The wind brought in a chill, and looking up I could see clouds rolling in.  They blocked out the sun, and gave more shadows to avoid.

Looking down I noticed a bit of movement to the side.   A branch had broken off from the tree beside me, it looked like a spear as it flew straight at me.
I hit the ground hard, rolling to get away from it.   With a crunch the branch hit the ground just near me.  I saw the bark of it as it rolled down the ground, the splintered ends looking like arrowheads.  It had been inches away from my face

That was way too close.  At least with a bullet you don’t get much warning.  It’s just “bam” you’re dead.  Seeing that coming towards my face had my heart going full out.  I could see my rifle had also gone flying as I dove.  I still felt my side-arm and pack in their proper places.
“Henry!” Sara yelled as she ran down towards me, trying not to trip on the way down.  “Are you okay?”

As she ran I saw her trip and fall, a vine slipping across her foot.
“No!” I yelled, as she started rolling down the descent.  She was going down fast, but nothing too dangerous was down there.  I started down after her.
Then I looked ahead of her and saw the stick floating there.  It wasn’t being held up by anything, just sitting in mid-air.  In the shadows like that anyone else probably would not have seen it.  But I did, and I saw even more; The splintered end was pointed right at the hurtling chest of Sara.

I ran, but knew it was not good.  A few seconds later the branch went through the chest of Sara “Firebreather” Richardson.    I stood there,  seeing her body lying there with the bloody end of the stick up in the air.  It had stopped floating when she hit it.  She probably didn’t even know what had killed her.

“Why Steps?”  I said, “You save us and then kill us?”  It was suddenly all clear.  The branch flying around, Tommy’s strange fall.
The jerk didn’t even try to deny it.
“You don’t understand.  I saved everyone.  They would have blown through us, and then down to wipe out the village and everyone there.” Steps shouted.  Strain was in his voice but I didn’t care.  He kept yelling.  “So I got those that could help.”
“But they don’t come for free Henry!  You have to pay them.”

I heard him stepping closer to me.
“And this time they wanted us.  One life for each of them”  He said.

I turned and could see him holding his rifle towards me.
“You summoned three of those things,  didn’t you?  You fucking sold Me out!  You sold Sara out!  You sold Tommy out!”  I looked him straight in the eye.   “But looks like things are going to be pretty good for you!”
I was all rage now.  I didn’t care if he pulled the trigger or not.  Steps looked at me sadly, but firmly.
“I thought Tommy was already dead.  Three of them, for three of us.  It all looked so perfect.  What a way to go huh?”

I stopped.  He had planned on dieing.  I hadn’t thought of that.

“But then I found out Tommy was still alive.  One of us can survive!  And dammit, “Step yelled. “I’m the one who can help everyone the most.  I deserve to live.”

“Of course you do.” I said as I gritted my teeth.   “So you decided to kill all of us to save your neck.  And killed us in sneakiest dirtiest ways you could.  Only one sacrifice to make now huh?  Maybe I’ll just kill you and solve the problem that way.”
Step laughed.
“Oh you will?  You’re a watcher Henry.  You see things real well..big power ya got there.  You can’t shoot lightning.  You can’t summon demons.  And you have no gun.”
The little man looked at me over his rifle.

“You’re dead.”

I could see things very well.  Like the instant his finger tightened on the trigger.  As he did, I dropped to my knee.  My hand was already pulling out the pistol when Step realized he had missed.
Swearing he aimed the rifle at me again, but I could see where he was aiming.  The army had taught me to do tricks like that. His finger tightened and I moved to the side.
I hadn’t moved fast enough.  My arm stung suddenly and grew warm.  But I was alive, and my pistol was now up and pointed at Steps.
“Cut a deal with this, asshole” I said as I shot him between the eyes.

Walking back I put my first aid cloth against the wound.  Turned out just to be a graze, but it still hurt.  I could see the village just ahead, and could get real treatment there.  Before I got there, I had a sudden urge and looked back over my shoulder.

Way back on the hill, past where anyone could possibly see without a telescope I could see Step’s body.  And a little glimmer was on his chest.
I focused and could see a little winged man.  It’s mouth was coved in blood and the bullet hole in the body was larger then what it should have been.
Disgusted, I wanted to look away but I couldn’t.
Suddenly I realized the little figure was looking at me.  From hundreds of feet away this little one foot tall creature looked at me.  And bowed once before disappearing in a flash.

As I walked back I wished that I had not seen that.  That I had looked away.  And I knew without a doubt that I would be making that wish for the rest of my life.

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