AU Storyline "Richtofen's Grand Scheme"

[thasqueakyb]

In that moment, existence was everything and it was nothing at the same time. During these times, these adventures in different lands and times things had always been realistic but this was surreal, like a dream. For once, time slowed down. The air felt thicker, and it could've been the low gravity, but things seemed to waft around with ease. Zombies crumpled into ash as soon as they got close, and their ash floated around them like a peaceful snowfall. Through all this dream like reality, it was clear that it's focus point was on Richtofen. He was standing completely erect, like the proud Nazi he was trained to be, but his shoulders were oddly relaxed and if you were in front of him, you'd see the smile of a man in awe. His blue eyes were sparkling like the stars in the dark vacuum of space that surrounded him, wet with tears of joy, yet he was not crying. His hands were at his sides, shaking slightly like an old man's.

Dempsey did not track time, but he knew it must've been months he knew these men. Hard to keep time, time involved the past and he couldn't remember the past, and time involved future and he didn't look forward to waking up knee deep in zombie shit. Perhaps due to a lack of care or a lack of effort Tank did not keep time but estimated that he had been alongside these men for well over two months, at the least. He had seen Richtofen happy, which all of the men knew, maybe even Richtofen himself, was a horrifying event. He had seen the same man sad, which was usually funny and annoying because he'd bitch like a little girl, and angry, which could be funny and frightening at the same time. He always felt uneasy around him to begin with, which probably fed his distaste towards him. But not once, not in whatever amount of time he knew Richtofen, had he seen the man so content. Not when he tortured the crawlers or toyed with them by jumping over them (which Tank had to admit was freaking fun to do) or even when the horde was tailing his comrades. But now, Tank was sure that if Richtofen had to die now he'd be perfectly fine with the idea. Maybe it was the death of somebody he knew well that scared him, or, and Tank did not like that this thought could've even crept to the surface of his mind, maybe he was scared that deep inside he trusted and cared for this man more than he'd ever admit and did not like the thought of him dying.

Like in Shangri La, Tank now noticed, everything seemed to be blue. Blue was one of Tank's favorite colors, red and white being the others, but this struck another chord with him. This meant something was going to happen, and as a pattern began to form in the American soldier's mind, he realized things that happened to them were never good. And as if some mysterious force had heard his thoughts, his suspicion was confirmed. He heard a slight gasp, and then something like a giggle or a sob, and Richtofen began floating up into the air like the ashes of corpses that still floated around. Like an eternal, peaceful snowfall, Richtofen floated up past them until he was eye level with that girl above the pyramid shaped thing, what was it? Whatever it was, all Tank knew was it kept that little girl inside and something they did released her. Maybe she was the one controlling all the zombies, Richtofen had mumbled something about it earlier when he was arguing with the computer. Something about a Dr. Maxis, oh, Samantha was her name. She was his daughter or something. Like it was said before, Tank was never good at remembering things, especially small inexplicably unimportant details like a German love triangle of some sort. Either way, Richtofen was eye level with her and her expressionless pale face. She looked to be ten years old or so, and Tank couldn't help but smile at the thought of a little girl doing all this bullshit. Couldn't be that simple, could it? A little kid having a tantrum? Richtofen's body bent until it looked like something was sucking his soul right out of his chest and suddenly, Dempsey realized nothing was that simple. Without warning he heard himself call out Richtofen's name. Not surprisingly, the Nazi didn't acknowledge him.

"Takeo, what do we do?" Tank called out to the Japanese soldier standing twenty or so feet away from him. Nikolai was besides him and Tank felt a sharp pain in his chest, accompanied by the fear of being alone.

"There is nothing to do. This, was meant to be." Takeo always talked cryptically, like some goddamn scroll reading monk.

"But, he's, he's dying. He needs our help." Tank hadn't even thought of the idea that whatever was happening to Richtofen was actually killing him. The thought of him dying had come up, but now it seemed much too real to be just a thought anymore.

"I don't have good feeling about this. Maybe we should just leave, Takeo and Richtofen can follow up later yes? Dempsey? Come on, we can share some vodka." Nikolai's enticement fell on deaf ears. Richtofen was struggling now, and all eyes were on him. Nikolai stepped backwards, clutching his gun with trembling hands. What happened next would remain in the minds of these three men for the rest of their lives. Between the girl and Richtofen, a could five or so feet, something began forming. Energy, energy or something like electricity started crackling between them into a ball, that grew bigger and bigger. Richtofen struggled violently as the size grew, but the girl remained still and expressionless, besides her floating. The ball started changing colors, white to black, blue to purple, gray to orange, and then it swelled up blue again and enveloped Richtofen and the girl and the room went white and they were blinded, Tank couldn't see a thing and once again, he called out Richtofen's name. The room fell silent.

"I live!"

That was Richtofen's voice. Different, laced with more evil and was definitely more echo-y than usual, and suddenly Tank understood what had just happened. Richtofen swapped places. As colors began to return to the room and Tank could make out vague shapes through the fading blindness, he understood everything. Every single place they had gone to, everything they had done was leading up to this. Richtofen was planning this far before he met them. He planned to leave them. "Maybe," he said aloud. "Maybe he planned to kill us too."

[MyLittleHellhound]

That's a pretty cool read you have there.

Nice job. :)