TLoS: World at War Ch. 27

The four humans were slung over the shoulders of four pirates and carried into a different area.  Keeping their eyes closed, they could feel the pirates walk down some stairs and stop at a door.  The door opened and they were dropped inside a large room filled with bodies.  Once they were sure the pirates were gone, they slowly stood back up.

"Ohh, my back..." groaned Dempsey while clutching his lower back.  He walked to the pile where the pirates have thrown the guns down and picked his BAR up.  The other three retrieved their weapons as well.  They gathered in the middle and crouched down.

"What is this, a meat locker?" asked Dempsey.  He looked around at each of the bodies and rested his eyes on the corpses of the Bruiser Brothers.  Their armor lost its gold shine and now looked a rusted brown.  There was still blood, dents from the bullets and one of suits was still expanded from Dempsey's grenade.  He noticed a giant scorpion, charred and crusty, next to the Bruiser Brothers and walked over to it.  He poked the pincer with his gun and the pincer crumbled.  

"Dempsey, quit fooling around and get over here." said Nikolai.  Dempsey grunted in response and walked back to them.

"If I had to guess, this is where they keep the defeated opponents." Takeo said, looking around.

"No...really?  What gave you that idea?" mocked Dempsey, but Takeo ignored him.

"We should use this opportunity to escape..." Takeo was interrupted by the sound of pirates right out the door.  They all lied down and feigned death when two pirates walked in.  

"Skabb wants them all out?" asked one pirate.  The other pirate nodded.

"Aye,  the whole lot of them are to be tossed overboard."

"Even them?" asked the first pirate, pointing at the four humans who were lying absolutely still.

"Yeah.  A shame about them though.  They would have fetched us a fine bounty."

"Arr, with those two dragons, they will fetch an even better loot."  Both pirates began to laugh.

"Let's get us some grog before we get to work." said the second pirate and both turned to leave.  A sudden noise made them stop and turn back into the room.  They noticed that the humans were no longer there.  Both unsheathed their sabers and slowly walked forward, eyes darting left and right.  One of the pirates stopped to inspect a corpse while they other one kept walking forward.  The pirate that moved forward, crouched down and inspected another corpse.  A sudden grunt came from behind him and the pirate was surprised to see Nikolai overpower the other pirate and hold him with his knife at the throat.  The overpowered pirate struggled against the hold of Russian, but Nikolai slit the pirate's throat before he could escape.  The pirate fell to the ground, grabbing his throat while blood began to pour out.

The last pirate didn't have time to react as Dempsey came up behind him and kicked his leg.  The force brought the pirate down and Dempsey, knife in one hand, grabbed the pirate by the top of his head with his other hand and pulled it back.  Dempsey brought the knife up to the neck and cut it.  The pirate gurgled as blood poured out and Dempsey took the knife to stab him through the top of his head.  The pirate went limp as the knife entered his skull and fell to the ground.  With a cracking sound, Dempsey pulled the knife out and cleaned it on the dead pirate's clothes.  Richtofen and Takeo were hiding behind of the Bruiser Brother's giant bodies and walked up to the the other two.

"We've lost enough time already.  Let's go!" said Nikolai.  The four humans ran out of the room and back up the stairs into a large hallway.  Richtofen found it odd that there were no guards patrolling.

"Vhere are they?"

"They are probably at the arena.  From the looks of it, none of them wanted to miss the fights." guessed Takeo.

"Good.  That makes it easier for us." said Dempsey.  The four of them continued down the hallway.  They were confused as the entire area looked the same as any other hallway in the ship.  One door would lead to ships quarters while another door would lead to a mess hall.  However, one door they opened was the food storage.  Quickly, they began to pack the different fruits, vegetables and meats into sacks laying there.  

"Mmm.  This isn't bad." Dempsey took a bite of a large purple berry and sucked on it.  He put his bag on and took another bite.

"Come on.  Let us go.  Spyro and Zoidius are depending on us." said Takeo urgently.  All four of them walked out and back into the hallway.  They went through another door that lead to another hallway.  Instead of doors, this hallway had cell doors lined up along both sides.

"We made it!  Let's get them out!" Dempsey said excitedly. They marched quickly down the hallway and glanced at each of the cells.  To their confusion, they were all empty.  They stopped down the middle and turned to face each other.

"Are ve in the vrong prison area?" asked Richtofen.

"That, or they were taken away.  Let's keep looking." answered Nikolai.  The four turned around and started to walk back.

"Hello?"  The four stopped and whirled around, guns up.  The voice had come from one of the cells.  They slowly walked down the hallway and looked into each cell.

"Is anyone there?" asked the voice again.  The voice came from the last cell on the left.  The four walked up to it and pointed their guns inside.  There was a little black dragon, about the size of Spyro, with red wings and markings on the dragon's head and shoulders.

"Who-who are you?  Are you prisoners?"  asked the dragon.  From the sounds of it, Dempsey thought that the dragon was a female.

"We are prisoners, but we are escaping." answered Nikolai.  The little dragoness sighed in relief.  

"Please, can you get me out?"  The four humans nodded and Takeo crouched next to the door, using his knife in the lock.  

"Can't you just shoot it?" asked Richtofen impatiently.

Takeo shook his head.  "There is chance we might alert the ship if I do so."  Takeo went back to fumbling the knife in the lock.  The black dragoness stared at them curiously.

"What are you?" she asked.  

"We are humans." answered Dempsey.

"Hu...mans.  I've never heard of it." said the dragoness.

"You wouldn't be the first." said Takeo while still playing with the lock.

"What are your names?"

"I am Takeo Masaki."

"I am Nikolai Belinski."

"My name is Dr. Edward Richtofen."

"I'm Tank Dempsey."  The four humans gave her a smile, which she returned.

"Well in that case, my name is Cynder."