Death's Due

"Once the home fronts of the major world powers were brought back into order, focus turned to the war blazing through Europe and Africa. Machines were heavily deployed in the war torn regions of these continents spreading death across entire countries. It took a month to deploy soldiers in the countries that were battling the machine soldiers that marched through their lands unchallenged.

"The war was hard fought over Eastern Europe and North Africa with great human casualties. The machines were strong, but their numbers were fewer and not even their metal skeletons were enough to keep them alive. When the war was clearly turning against the machines they adopted suicide runs on military posts to take out as much as they could before the end. This spelled the end for the machines as their numbers sank until there was none left to fight.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

The team had arrived in a large hall room that appeared to be a connection point from one section of the facility to the next. The walls scaled up two floors linked through by bridges while the ground was a long narrow passage with an empty chasm on either side. It was a strange design, but the facility had been constructed as modules that were later connected. This was a gap in those modules making for a dangerous area to fight in, but it was one of the few choke points.

Natsuko leaned over an electronic paper map of the facility with updates from Yuu's computer terminal. The entire team was gathered around getting an idea of what they were going to be expecting. They all knew already that this was going to be impossible and that not all of them would make it out alive. All they were doing was buying the time that they needed. Yuu needed all the time that he could to do his work. Satoru wasn’t sure what that work was, but this was all for him. "So they're coming through here?"

"The last scans that were made showed them approaching this corridor. They'll be here soon." Natsuko had given everyone their orders already and they began to fan out in the bridge hall. They had barricades set up to shoot around, but those would easily be stormed from above. Two men were tasked with taking out the two alternate bridges above limiting the path to only the main one. They would have destroyed it as well, but it was built to withstand more than simple causeways. There were just not enough explosives on hand to take it out. This was their battlefield.

Satoru hid behind one of the barricades with Kazuhiko holding his weapon against his chest. The explosions of the bridges rang out from both sides vibrating the entire bridge that they were on. Beneath their feet the metal groaned at the wave from the blast. The falling bridges scraped loudly as they fell down shaking everyone in their core. Kazuhiko leaned over to Satoru seeing the tension that was building up. "You ready for this?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Satoru said, bringing the weapon even tighter against his chest. He hadn’t thought about it until about what he had gotten himself in. There were only a few minutes left before the soldiers from the Japanese military came shooting through this bridge. 'Killing someone…I can't back down now.' The thought of actually killing someone scared him, but he couldn’t allow himself to get caught up on the moral complexities of the situation. Unfortunately, he had plenty of time to delve too deep.

A dull sound from the adjacent room signaled everyone. It was an explosion from the soldiers blasting down the last door between them and the hall. The heavy steel door was bent from the explosion caving out. An ominous sign for all, they knew that they would have to be fighting again. Natsuko shouted from behind the last barricade to the rest of her team. "Here they come, get ready!" A final explosion ripped through the metal barrier twisting it open. "Open fire!"

"Give them hell, Satoru!" Kazuhiko turned to face the soon to appear enemy. He had his rifle aimed up waiting for the moment that the smoke would clear so that he could get a clear shot. The others on the team were already firing on the smoke before it settled.

Satoru held his rifle in his hands trying to push himself to move. "Yeah, Kazuhiko…" The sounds of the weapons' fire from both sides were deafening. He didn’t know what was going on anymore with bullets going everywhere around him. The dull ping against the barricades made him jump and grab for his head. Satoru saw Kazuhiko peaking around the corner of the barricade to unload a few bullets before taking cover again. This wasn’t what he expected to find.

Soldiers continued to pour through the hole as the team unleashed everything that they had on them. The dead began to pile up at the opening with a large pool of blood starting to pour out over the bridge. The two men posted to take out the bridge were firing from above using the height to their advantage. It gave them a clear view of the fight. However, all of the shooting didn’t stop even more soldiers from coming through the hole. They were suddenly gaining ground on the bridge taking up cover by the barricades after taking out those that were previously using them.

Two of Natsuko's team were dead. Satoru could see their empty eyes staring at him as they were slaughtering trying to retreat to safer ground. Their bodies fell on either side of the barricade. The sight of their blood and people he knew dead sent a cold paralysis through his body.

The soldiers signaled to each other telling them to take out the two of Natsuko's team that had the high ground. They exchanged fire briefly with them taking cover behind the doorway. However, the soldiers weren’t going to let them live. Two soldiers flipped a switch on their multi-purpose assault rifles activating their grenade launcher and fired them into the two doorways. The explosions drowned out the screams of the two men as they died instantly.

Now that the snipers were taken out the soldiers pushed their advance filling in more soldiers on the bridge. The last barricade before Kazuhiko and Satoru was overrun and the soldiers were charging towards them. Kazuhiko fired out at random to try to halt their advance for a moment.

Natsuko looked at the scene knowing how this was going to turn out. She didn’t have to be a military strategist to know their fate. "Damn, there's too many of them!" This was going to end soon and she needed to get her people out, those that were still alive.

"We can't hold them back for long!" Kazuhiko shouted to Natsuko over the weapons fire. He sprayed another few rounds over the top of the barricade pinning down the men for a moment longer. He knew that he had gotten a few shots in on them; it was the only thing that made them hesitate. Kazuhiko charged forward to the abandoned barricade trying to press them back some. It was all he could do now.

"Kazuhiko, pull back now!" Natsuko yelled not wanting to lose him to the coming wave that would wash over them. She could see the soldiers regrouping to take Kazuhiko out. She shot over her barricade trying to give Kazuhiko some cover to make a retreat.

Kazuhiko fired around the barricade again, putting a couple rounds into the legs of the soldiers where the armor was a little weaker. It was enough to make them stumble, breaking the formation up. "I've got it. Get them out of here!" He waved her back knowing that there were others that still needed to get out on the team.

"Kazuhiko, what are you doing?!" Satoru shouted around the metal, realizing that Kazuhiko was gone. When the moment of realization hit him it was enough for him to shatter the hold that fear had on him and push him to action. He had to stop Kazuhiko from doing a stupid hero imitation.

Over the weapons fire from the soldiers Kazuhiko saw Satoru poking around. He fired back to keep them from getting Satoru. "Get out of here, Satoru!" Kazuhiko threw his arm out trying to motion Satoru away. He knew that Satoru didn’t stand a chance here and Natsuko was evacuating everyone that was still alive.

Satoru shouted back to him, nearly falling out of his cover trying to convince him to give up the thought that he had. However, Kazuhiko had made a mistake letting himself become exposed from the barrier and one of the soldiers took advantage, firing several rounds at the barricade. One bullet ripped through his arm making him drop his rifle and then another ate into his thigh. Kazuhiko fell back against the metal holding his bleeding limbs. Satoru shouted at him as though his voice would get him to move. "Kazuhiko!"

"Satoru…" Kazuhiko said faintly as the soldiers stormed the barricade unleashing a hail of bullets into him taking revenge for the many that he had killed. His blood poured out of him across the floor creeping towards Satoru.

The blood touched Satoru's fingers, flashing memories through his mind. He was dead. He was dead. 'Dead…dead…DEAD!' Satoru's blood boiled instantly as his eyes went empty and his face wrinkled in rage. He grabbed his rifle and stood up from his protection pulling the trigger unloading everything that he had at the men that were slowly turning around from finishing their job. "AHH! Kazuhiko!" Each round that fired from the rifle responded in recoil pounding against Satoru's shoulder. The crushing force went ignored in the adrenalin rush. The soldiers dropped to the ground dead as the bullets blew through every part of them putting holes in their heads, limbs and chest spraying blood everywhere and back on Satoru as well.

Natsuko saw the brave show that Satoru was putting on, but knew it could only last for so long before he was also taken out by the soldiers that remained. "Satoru! Get back, we're closing the doors!" Everyone else had been pulled out and she gave him cover fire as she ran towards him. Satoru was lost from the world in the rage that he felt. She had to drag him back now if she was going to save him. When she reached him the soldiers were already regrouping themselves. Natsuko pulled on Satoru's vest, causing him to unconsciously walk backwards. The rounds in his rifle were almost empty. She was able to get him behind the door in time with the door sliding down heavily. Natsuko tossed Satoru against the wall to get him back to his senses.

The sudden impact of his back to the hard metal wall broke Satoru out of his trance state. Now that he had his mind back everything that happened came flooding back to him. "Kazuhiko…" Satoru fell down the wall collapsing to the ground seeing the image of Kazuhiko death repeating through his eyes. 'Why…why him…why did he have to die! WHY?!'

"Satoru?" Natsuko shook Satoru roughly trying to snap him out of the new place that he had become trapped in. It had only become worse now that he had the time to reflect on everything that happened and the death. "Satoru! Get a hold of yourself!"

"Kazuhiko…WHY?!" Satoru shouted suddenly when he was finally brought around by Natsuko.

It set her back a step, but she quickly recovered kneeling down to where Satoru was sitting. She stared into his eyes hoping that she would reach him, preventing from going back into the hole. "He's dead, there is nothing you can do for him."

Satoru's eyes had widened, shocked to hear such empty words from Natsuko. "How can you be so cold, Natsuko?" He didn’t know how she could be so casual about Kazuhiko's death. She knew him as well as Satoru did, but she wasn’t even shedding a tear for him.

"I've had to watch too many die already…" she said, looking away knowing that her team had already lost five members. It was cut in half and she had to keep the rest alive. She searched around the room seeing the state of the others. They needed to regroup, but the soldiers would not give them that chance.

Chiyoko came running over to them having seen the last scans of the other room. They were already planting demolition explosives on the door to bring it down. "Natsuko, they're coming." She could see that Satoru needed help, but they were running out of time. Then at that moment she was giving the signal from the others monitoring the situation on the other side of the room. "Natsuko look out!" Chiyoko pushed Natsuko and Satoru out of the way as the explosion pounded against the door, weakening it.

Satoru was forced to watch as Natsuko held him back as shrapnel from the door caught Chiyoko in the back. He struggled against Natsuko wanting to get her out of there before she was dead. "Chiyoko, no!"

"Satoru, get back now!" Satoru managed to get free from her running for Chiyoko. She rushed to grab him by the waist holding him down barely. "You'll be caught in the explosion!"

"Chiyoko!" The next explosion came and Chiyoko was engulfed in the blast and the door coming down. Satoru fell horrified in Natsuko’s arms, having to see her die as well. He didn’t want to see any more of them die in front of him. This shouldn’t have been happening to them.

Natsuko pulled Satoru back, putting him against the wall as she gathered everyone to get into the next room. The soldiers were going to be breaking through soon in their relentless pursuit. 'I can't let him die too. Too many already have…' She closed the door behind them in the next room with everyone out safely. She turned to the only one left that she knew she could trust to get Satoru out alive. "Tadashi! Take Satoru out the back way now! We'll keep them back as long as we can!"

Tadashi nodded to her and picked up Satoru from the floor and lifted him to his feet. He put his arm over his shoulder helping him walk out. Tadashi turned back towards Natsuko, seeing them preparing for the next assault. "Don't go dying on me, Natsuko!"

"You know me," she said looking back at him with a smile that knew what she was going to have to expect.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of."

"Don't start getting weak on me now." Natsuko replaced the empty clip in her rifle seeing Tadashi disappear into the halls. She turned back getting the remaining parts of her team together for one final standoff with the military.

"Natsuko!" Satoru came back to the world a few rooms later realizing what had happened. He pulled out of Tadashi hold and tried to run back in the direction that he believed them to be. However, Tadashi was quick to stop him and grabbed him by the arm. He was stronger than Natsuko, making it difficult to get free. "Tadashi, let go of me. We have to go back for her!"

Tadashi knew that they couldn’t go back even though he was with Satoru in wanting to as well. He pulled Satoru through the next room slowly against his will. "No, you have to get out of here. You've done all you can." Tadashi searched his mind for something that would distract Satoru and get him to focus back on what needed to be done. He was out of ideas and began with whatever came to him first. "I-I may have looked like I hated you, but…but I was jealous of you." It seemed to be working. Satoru's attention while confused was brought towards him making it easier to guide him. "You could so easily believe in them in spite of everything. I couldn't do that. That is why you must live. Make this a world for everyone to live in." Tadashi opened the elevator that was in front of them and tossed Satoru inside.

Satoru rushed up to Tadashi once he recovered from being flung at the back wall of the elevator. "Tadashi! What are you saying?!" He struggled against Tadashi's arm that was forcing him to stay in the elevator. Satoru didn’t want to hear a farewell speech from Tadashi. This didn’t have to be the end.

"There he is, get him before he escapes!" a voice said from down the hall. The soldiers opened fire on Tadashi trying to stop him. They rushed in to reach Satoru before he was gone.

"Damn here too," Tadashi said, firing back at them. However, they were charging at him without regard for him trying to kill them. "You aren't getting him. You'll have to go over my dead body!" A bullet from the soldiers hit him in his side and then his leg bringing him down to his knees. Tadashi slammed the panel of the elevator, closing it and sending it away as the soldiers put several more rounds into him out of frustration.

Satoru shouted through the door pounding for it to open up and let Tadashi in. But he was gone with the last images of Tadashi dying burned into his eyes. "Tadashi! No!"

Tadashi watched the soldiers walk away leaving him to slowly bleed out. He leaned his head back against the wall looking up to the ceiling. "Satoru…I hate you…" he said with a smirk on his face as his arm fell to the ground.