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fedora-gurl · 6 years ago

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Run you clever boy Ch.3

Yeah, so i stayed up half the night to finish this. hope you guys like it.

Chapter 3: Never met a girl like YOU before.

When Eric finally came to, he could hear faint murmurs around his blurred vision until he could make out a blinding light shining directly in his face. Aside from a dull throb in his head, nothing seems out of the ordinary. As Eric began to wonder where he was exactly, the quit murmur behind him began to raise in the background as he recalled the prior events.

As the two reached the building far behind the compound, Ms. Pauling then gestured to the large sliding door in front of them. "This building is the base's medical ward. Here our Medics treat off field injuries and those who were wounded on the battlefield too badly for field treatment to do so." She explained this to the young man as they walked in through the entrance to the rather spacious warehouse that served as, from what he was told, a small hospital on the inside. As they made their way down the makeshift rooms for the long-term patients passing each room, one or two were filled with who he couldn’t tell from the disgruntled moans, until they came to a clearing in the back with medical gurneys pushed into a semi-circle around what Eric came to believe was a cross between an examination room and an open air surgery theatre. As they stood there Ms. Pauling then turned to address Eric once more, “When a new member joins the ranks they will need a physical and have their medical work looked over by one of our Medics. Now we have two Medics on our base, but our normal evaluator is away on…” A pause as she picked her words. “Medical leave. Now our current Medic is a bit," another pause,” Eccentric, but he does his job well enough. Wait here while I get him." She then turned to the left towards the amphitheater leaving Eric in the middle of the room. She wasn’t even gone for more than a few minutes when the heavy blow came upon his head and had him fading into unconsciousness.

When the final memory ended, Eric began to berate himself for being caught off guard so easily. As he kept that up a figure began to step forth from the shadows just outside his peripheral vision and make its way over to one of the tables of medical equipment that surrounded the room. Eric could barely make out the man’s insistent mumblings over the pounding in his own skull which was starting to get on his nerves. In order to try and get the strangers attention, he called out.

“Uh, hey mister, you wouldn’t happen to tell me who you are, or more importantly,” He gave a small struggle at his bindings that kept him in place “what the HELL is going on!” Eric screeched the last part out as the stranger pulled out a strange serrated surgical tool and began to marvel at it like a finely crafted piece of work. One look at it made the color drain from Eric’s face as he struggled to free himself and get away from the deranged man. But no matter how much he struggled, the binds on his wrists and torso wouldn’t budge. The man reached into his trousers to pull out a small black box with switches on the side. A handheld recorder of some sort? He raised the recorder to his mouth and hit one of the buttons’ to begin recording.

“July 18th, I have intercepted a young man, perschaps a BLU spy in zhe medical wing searching for zomething of unknown origin, possibly looking for more sabotage points in zhe next raid. VWhile he vwas distracted I took the liberty of incapacitating him for more in depzh intelligence gazhering,” he picked up another surgical instrument to examine, “und maybe some poschible experiments!” He finished the recoding in his German accent with a smirk and placed the device down on the table next to the tray of medical tools and turned to Eric with a wicked smirk across his face.

Blindly, he picked up a scalpel of the side and sauntered up to the table Eric was strapped to. Panic began to set in as Eric struggled against the restraints trying to free himself. The mad doctor simply chuckled and resumed his preparations. With nothing else to do Eric beseeched the mad man in hopes of escaping with his life still in tack.

“Look man, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not a spy or with the blue company. I just got here, my names Riggby, I was supposed to come for examination.” He prattled trying to get the other man to listen “I SHOULDN’T EVEN BE HERE!!!” was his final cry.

Just as he went in to make the incision, a bedpan mysteriously appeared out of the corner of Eric’s vision and walloped the mad man square on the noggin! The impact caused the good doctor to drop his tools and back away from the table to nurse his aching head. Taking the time to thank whatever god was watching over him then, Eric turned his head to the direction of the flying object originate from.

“You know you’re not zepposed to experiment on the new recruits, Victor!” suddenly a young woman came bounding up to the gurney that Eric was strapped to and began to undo the restraints. While she was busy doing so, Eric took the liberty of getting a better look at his savior. The woman was at least a few inches shorter than him. Her red hair was pulled back into a tie on the top of her head, with a few wisps of her bangs framing her face. Her hazel eyes with thinly arched brows set in a slight scowl at her task, the slight curve of her nose leading down to parted thin lips over a fair skin complexion. Overall, not a bad looker.

As she managed to get the first restraints done she turned towards Eric with a slight smile. “I hope Victor wasn’t too hard on you. He can be a bit … Difficult when he hazn’t had any new projets tu deal with.” She spoke with a slight French accent as she undid the last restraint on Eric’s legs. With a jolt he sprung to his feet. It felt good to be free. “And you…” she turned towards the not-so-good Doctor as he was finally able to stop the ringing in his head. “What do you have tu say for yourself Vic?!” As she scowled at the man in question, her accent disappeared when her stone cold aura appeared.

“Who has what to say for themselves?”

As if on cue, Ms. Pauling walks in from the other side of the operating theater right as Victor was about to retort. While she rounded around the tables Victor then drew to his full height to address the now present Administrative staff member. “I highly doubt zat upholding a core objective of our employment vwarrants any explanation.” Ms. Pauling looked towards the Medic as if he had sprouted a second head. Giving an exasperated sigh she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“I understand that you are simply doing your job, but we are still in a cease-fire until tomorrow! So there is no reason to pull this kind of stunt. Especially on a new recruit!!” Ms. Pauling nearly screamed her head off as she chastised the Medic for his overzealous work ethic. At the mention of the word ��recruit” the Medic took a double take on Eric, then Ms. Pauling, then back again to Eric. Victor swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to Eric and said in a nervous tone “V-Vwell vhy didn’t you just schay so?”

“I did! You were just too busy getting ready to yank my innards out to hear!” Eric exclaimed with exuberance at the man for his feigned innocent misunderstanding. He and the young woman stared down the man with a spite until Ms. Pauling interrupted their scowls.

“Now now, I know we’re all a little on edge but we have a schedule to keep to.” Ms. Pauling stressed the last of her plea to the entire room, but her gaze lingered on the now scowling Medic. She then turned to face him and drawing to her full height as she spoke in a clearly aggravated tone. ”So, Mr. Victor, if you would be so kind as to give Mr. Rigsby here his mandatory evaluation then we can move on, and hopefully out of your affairs.” She gave him her most ridged stare as she finished her order.

A cold shiver went up Eric’s back as he watched Ms. Pauling order around this Victor. And apparently him as well, since she beckoned to Eric onto a different gurney for the examination. When Eric had plopped himself down Victor then began to poke and prod the boy as he asked bizarre questions. Like if he had ever been in underground mining, had he ever eaten fruit from an isolated tropical island with an obscure name, or if had recently gotten over an addiction of some absurd drugs. The Doctor was through in his examination, Eric would admit that about the man, checking his breathing, pulse and heart rate, even his vison and hearing. After testing his reflexes he then turned back to his table of tools. Eric saw that the young woman that saved him before was still in the room waiting with Ms. Pauling off to the side. He wanted this damn examination to be over so he could properly thank her for before, and maybe ask for her name.

“I have one last question, Mr. Rigsby.” Victor asked him while his back was still turned to him, “You wouldn’t happen to have a fear of needles, would you?”

“Ah, no? Why do yooaaaaAAAUUGHAAA” Eric tried to reply to the man’s question only for him to roughly grab his arm and jab the needle into it. With a quick precision he hadn’t seen in any other doctor he’d seen before Victor drew a good amount of blood from him, removed the needle from his vein, and then bandage the puncture before it could even let one droplet form in one fluid movement from him. Victor walked to the other side of the theater where a small lab was set up for what could be preliminary analysis work. He picked up an empty phial and deposit the blood, label it, and set it to the side with others like it. Eric just rubbed the sore area where it was grabbed, in too much of a stupor to give a retort to the man who practically assaulted him with a syringe. A hand on his shoulder had him turning to Ms. Pauling as she guided him off the examination table.

“Now that that’s all done with, let’s get you situated with the team.”

-----------------------*didn’t want to end the chapter yet, so here’s a break*---------------------------

“And this area out here is the inner courtyard. Most of the team spends their time out here during the summer. We have sprint races and soccer games on Wednesdays and Saturdays when there isn’t a raid or campaign going on.” The young woman replied in a chipper tone while dragging him through said yard and up the stairwell on the far right side on their continued tour of the base. Eric could only go along with be dragged like a ragdoll and watch most of the scenery pass by. But he still didn’t know her name even when Ms. Pauling had to go their separate ways for some urgent business. He wanted to ask her this question but could never find the right moment to slip in to her conversation and ask it.

“Um…” Eric tried to ask about her name for the 5th time before she spun around and looked at him straight in the eye like she just remembered something of such great importance that it was near criminal that she forgot it in the first place. “Oh! How could I’ve forget. My name is Shiloh, Shiloh Belrose. But everyone here just calls me Shi” she answered his unspoken question like it was an everyday occurrence between them. Despite the unusual conversations so far, Eric was glad to finally have a name to call her rather than “HER”. “Shiloh, huh.” He said her name with a light and breathy tone to get accustomed to it. Shiloh gave a small chuckle at his pleasant reply, “Yeah, That’s mah name.” The two stood in an amicable silence just staring at one another

“Well I see you’re off to a good start then mates!” a baritone voice spoke behind them, breaking them out of their trance. The two turned to see Alistair walking up the same hallway they were heading down. Shiloh cracked a grin and bounded up to the Aussie. “Hey there Mundy, was wondering where you slunk of tu” She spoke in an endearing tone like she knew he would show up just then. “Well I was just getting some of the lads’ stuff squared away in ‘is room. I was headin to the lounge when I caught sight of Ms. Pauling without our little rookie with her. She told me that she left him with you after the little fiasco with Ol’ Vic.” He told the two younger members as he lead them down the hallway they were traversing.

Eric stiffened at the last sentence. “So, she told you about what happed then?” He asked, hoping that his screw-up in the medical wing didn’t leave too much of stigma for his new teammates to chide him for. Alistair gave a chuckle before he answered him, “Not exactly. She only had to mention Vic and anyone can get a good gues’ on whut ‘append.”

With that, Eric was a bit skeptical at what this Victor does that would make him so volatile. Then he figured that he must do some sort of crazy stunt like he pulled back at Medical on a daily basis, and was just grateful that Shiloh was able to save him from having anything too damaging done to him.

They rounded a corner and went down a flight of stairs out into the inner courtyard where several other members where gathered around what Eric could only describe as a modified gas pump dispensing bottles of beer and pill bottles. There were at least 7 of them gathered around it whist they were in the middle of some grandiose discussion of god knows what. At least all of them where older then Eric, except for a young boy with messy black hair in a sweat band that was leaning against the pump while his mouth and hands were moving a mile a minute.

Two others, a large man in at least his 30’s and a svelte woman in the same Aussie hunter outfit like Alistair were leaning up against the pump next to the Danny Sutcho wannabe. The man, most likely of Indian origin, had a constant grin on his face as the young man went on with his story while making side remarks to the other members off to his right. The woman however, simply stood stock still, shaking her head when the young man went off to boast about his own prowess. The four other members siting half circle around the gas pump as well. He could recognize the fiery red mane that was Silas whom he meet a few hours back, he gave a short wave prompting the others sitting next to him to glance at what had grasped their teammate’s attention.

The other three that sat next to him, a rugged man of African descent in what he could guess was a plaid skirt gave a curt nod and turned back to the young man’s story. The other was some obscure person in full body suit and a breathing mask who gave a small finger wiggle. Whether it was a man or woman was anyone’s guess. The final member of the trio was a stern man with dark skin whose face was half obscured by the old army helmet that was at least two sizes too big. The loutish man in the skirt was obviously drunk, since he kept slurring his speech when he tried to give his two cents to the conversation. He could make out some mentions of exploding water tanks and how the “Danny-boy” tried to pole jump over a roof for his pole to snap in half and crash on top of the gruff looking solider man. This of course caused the “Danny-boy” to become ridged and start mouthing off to the drunken man, saying that he wished he was as half as talented as him to practically dance across the battlefield like he does.

“Oh! Ye wanna see whut dancinn’ is laddie? Well why didn’t ye bloody say so?” The drunken black man said with a thick Scottish accent as he rushed to stand on his feet a bit unsteadily. He then began to stumble about in what appeared to be a drunken folk dance. While Danny-boy was gawking in a stupor, the large Indian man gave a roar of laughter at the sight and began to join the drunk man in his dance. In their quickening pace of the dance, the Scott had accidentally slapped the upside of the larger man’s head. Reeling back from the blow, the Indian man then threw a left hook to the drunken Scotsman. After the last punch was thrown the others started to get in the fight, bottles were smashed and bodies were thrown about.

“And here, Eric, we have some of the regular fighters during our campaign battles.” Shiloh gestured to the brawling mercenaries before them with a small smile. Eric could make a safe guess that shit like this happened often. He didn’t know what unsettled him more, the intensity of the fight that was waging on or the fact that the mysterious masked teammate and the Aussie woman seemed so calm watching from the sidelines with the former giddily giving a round of applause every now and then.

Off to the far left side, two other members were squaring themselves away from the rest of the group with some sort of foreign checkers board between them. They had their own small talk with few words exchanged between the two. One was a stout woman with a half-shaved hairdo and what looked like part of a tattoo of a dragon’s head on the nape of her neck and wrapped around once before disappearing below her shirt on the left shoulder blade facing Eric. She wore a red long sleeve knotted shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows showing of other tattoos on her left arm. She had an army vest to her right that had what looked like make shift hand grenades strapped to them. When Eric had a closer look he noticed that her arms were also littered with small scars and black residue on her pale finger tips that smudged the white tile pieces of the board when she played them. Judging from the shape of her eyes and the oriental fluidity of her language gave Eric a sense that she was of Asian origin. The other was a man in his thirties who was probably of the same decent as the woman across from him. While the same pale skin tone as her, his eyes were a bit more rounded behind the thick spectacles he wore that just magnified them to buggy eyed style. His salt and pepper streaked hair was receding in the front giving him a nice dome while what was left in the back was pulled into a stubby knot at the base of his skull.

“And those two over there are our resident oriental teammates, Cho and Chang.” Shiloh gestured to the silent teammates who didn’t even flinch at the mention of themselves to Eric. The most they gave was a quick nod to let Shiloh know they heard her. They were so engrossed in their game they paid little attention to her when Shi leaned closer on the woman “Cho’s” shoulder.

“They’ve been here a bit longer than I have, but they usually keep to themselves a lot. While they can’t speak well in English, they can still understand us when we are talking to them. Isn’t that right Cho!” Shiloh explained to him before addressing Cho with her assumption. Cho gave her a smug look before it turned to one of surprise when Chang surrounded one of her pieces. As she preceded to cuss him out in her (what Eric guessed to be) native tongue Shi gestured to follow her over to a corner to quietly chat with him.

“Word is that Cho used to be a hit woman for the yakuza, and Chang was some strategic consultant for the Triads or whatnot. But if you ask either of ‘em, neither would admit it out right.” Shi whispered to Eric even though the other two teammates where arguing so much with each other he doubted they could even hear anything other than their own voices.

While the two continued in their rants with increasing volume, Alistair gestured to Eric and Shi to move on and leave them be. They began making their way over to the buildings on the other side of the courtyard, with Alistair and Shi trading quips back and forth while Eric was content to just listen to their banter.

Everything was going fine until they heard a shout from behind them. The three members turned around to find a man in a RED soldiers uniform running towards the group with a rocket launcher propped up on his shoulder and aimed right at them. His black buzz cut hair obscured briefly by a bandage around his head and part of his periwinkle eyes. He had other bandages along his left arm and around his torso beneath the overcoat. He clearly was in no condition to be up and about let alone totting around freaking rocket launcher, but here we are.

“TRESSPASSER IDENTIFY YOURSELF AT ONCE OR I WILL BE FORCED TO MUTILATE YOUR WORTHLESS CARCUSS!!!” The man yelled at the top of his lungs as he approached the group with his rocket launcher still cocked and loaded. Erick backed up slowly as he approached while Shi tried to stop the madman’s assault.

“Easy there Philsby, it’s just the new recruit Mrs. Pauling brought in. Remember when we told you they brining in the new guy in a few days?” Shi coxed at the deranged solider to get him to lower his weapon. Alistair simply moved slightly to arrange himself between Eric and the newcomer apparently known as “Philsby”, shielding him if it should come to blows.

“Now sugar, that’s no way to talk to our newest member.” The smooth velvet voice of a woman drew all their attention to her. She was a short and stout woman, but easy on the eyes. She had warm honey colored eyes and chocolate brown hair pulled back by a yellow bandana. When Philsby turned to her like he was going to reprimanded her, he simply stopped and stared like he was seeing her for the first time. Seeing this, the newcomer smiled and walked over to Philsby. With a simple touch to his shoulder, the other one not currently sporting the launcher, he seemed to be at ease and lowered the weapon. With a serene smile to the solider she walked over to where Alistair and Eric stood, the former relaxing now that he didn’t have a rocket launcher trained on him anymore.

“Don’t you worry about him sweet pea.” The woman warmly said to him, like a mother comforting a child after they had a terrible scare. “He may seem a little crazy but he won’t do anything to hurt you that badly.” Etic Stared at her in awe of the influence she had over the situation, which she prompted to introduce herself. “Name’s Suzan by the way. Suzan McCormick.” She smiled that same serene smile and asked “And who might you be sweet pea?”

“Uh…” was the only thing to come from Eric’s moth till Alistair spoke up for him. “Kids name is Eric. Eric Rickley or Wallaby or somthin.”

“Rigsby. It’s uh... it’s Rigsby actually.” Eric muttered to Suzan as she moved over to kneel beside Philsby. With Suzan distracting the solider Alistair took the moment to led Eric away from the two and in the direction (he hoped) was the barracks or whatever qualified as living quarters around here. A few quick turns and down a long corridor to the last door on the right had the small group stop. Alistair turned to look at Eric and gestured him to the room. It was a small room, 4x6 foot at least. Calling it cramped would be a compliment. The floor was uneven in some areas as if the boards warped with age. In the corner was a rickety bunk with a small footlocker at the end of it.

“And finally, this is your bunk mate. It’s a bit cramped but it should do nicely for now till ‘nother room could open up closer to the main base.” Alistar spoke in an even tone that had a hint of tiredness to it. Now that he thinks about it, Alistair was probably just as exhausted as Eric felt. But something Alistair mention put him of besides the days events. “Wait, why am I so far from the base?” Eric asked already regretting sounding like a clingy fool.

“It’s nonting personal, we just gotta clean out Tucker’s old space then you can have the room.” Shi remarked as if reading his thoughts again. “Who’s Tucker?” Eric asked but feeling he knew the answer already. “The bloke your replacing.” Alistair answered in a nonchalant tone as if to cut off any more inquires and proceeded to leave the two to talk some more. “Yeah, so we’ll get that wrapped up tomorrow after the match and we’ll have a proper get together when everyone’s here.” Shi explained, “Well, almost everyone ‘ll be there.” She muttered to herself as she turned to leave herself.

Shi moved to the door then stopped and turn to Eric. “You know, we are glad to have you here. Even if no one else will say, I will.” She said it with so much conviction that Eric could only stare at the strong, ecstatic, amazing woman whom he’s only known for maybe a few hours. Then just as fast as she came into his life she vanished as she left closing the door behind her.

With both of his guides now gone, Eric turned to take a closer look at his temporary accommodations. Stains littered the floor that lined up with the uneven board. The walls were barren with a few cracks in the drywall when it wasn’t covered up by boards. While the cot at the corner looked somewhat decent the overall room appeal was shabby at best. Well, beggars can’t be choosers, Eric’s mother would repeat that phrase to him through most of his childhood. And time and again it proved to be true to him.

A soft footfall directed his sight to the door again just as he saw a shadow dart past the threshold. Moving to open it, Eric peered out into the now empty hallway. He thought he heard something down the hall when he looked but missed the chance to see the culprit. With a sense of unease, Eric returned to the room and prepared for bed. As soon as his head hit the flat pillow, Eric was in a deep sleep and his mind drifted to her once more.

#tf2 scout #fanfiction #TF2 #rycb #my work #this took way too long

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