Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Comfortably Numb (Semi Open, Ask First)

It was a cold and restless night, one of many more yet to come for him. Tonight was his night to be on watch duty. His job was to watch over the ruins and rubble of the former city of Chicago, specifically, the mostly undamaged Navy Pier. His silenced rifle lay beside him, near a pile of ammunition for a 1919 Browning machine gun of .50 caliber, still in the box. He often used said ammunition for his rifle, a massive gun used by the marines and navy for shooting down planes and tanks.

The man stood atop the tower to the left of the main structure, and went by the name of Jacob Robbins. To many, he was known as Major, or General, Robbins, but to his friends only, he was known as Jake. He was a tall and strong man, with a huge build, wide shoulders, a broad chest, and large muscles. He towered over most people, and intimidated even more. It was no surprise that he survived the apocalypse, for he was resourceful and intelligent, and especially observant. Nothing escaped his watchful gaze. Nothing.

Through his binoculars, he watched over the ruins of the age old city, looking for anything out of place. Robbins saw the barbed wire fence that stretched across the entire width of Navy Pier, and encircle it. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement. Not any big movement, for he wouldn't need peripheral vision to see that, but a movement so slight, no one else could see it. Quickly but quietly, he dropped his binoculars, grabbed his rifle, and looked through the sights.

Slowly, he traced the fence, looking for movement. He saw it again, although, in a more remote area of the fence. Suddenly, a man jumped up, and before Jacob could fire, the man cut through the fence, and entered the territory. Following him, Jacob aimed, and fired. The recoil of the gun shook him, and threw the gun barrel up. The round entered the attackers chest and hit the concrete slab behind him, wounding him badly. The man stood on one arm, the other clutching his bloody chest. Still, he would live. It was not enough for Jacob, though, and he reloaded, pulling the bolt back and priming another round.

Just as he aimed, an enemy sniper fired, ripping a hole in the silencer. Swearing, Jacob hit the opposite wall, and removed the now useless silencer. Quickly, he ran to the other side of the tower, dodging another bullet as the enemy fired. That was all he needed, though, for he could see the muzzle flash and he could now see where the sniper was. Slowly, he aimed, and when he had him in his sights, he fired. The noise pierced the silence, and the recoil bruised Jacob's arm. In half a second, the bullet hit the scope, and exited the enemy sniper's head and into the wall behind him. He was dead.

It didn't take long for the air raid sirens to turn on, the klaxons alerting everyone there. Robbin's radio started to crackle as someone tried to contact him. He ignored it for just a bit, and pushed another round into the chamber, aimed, and fired, the massive recoil bruising his shoulder and pushing him back slightly. The first man he shot, who had been, up until now, wounded, was hit hard in the head, the large caliber round blasting clear through his head and imbedding itself deep in the rock behind him. The body slumped to the ground, and the head jerked back from the force.

“Robbins, report in. Round fired. Report!” The radio crackled. “was it you?”
Jacob slung his gun over his shoulder, grabbed the radio and said:
“Affirmative. Two men spotted and killed. Estimated contacts: ten more. Enemy sniper killed. Over,”

Men suddenly burst from the gate, running at full pace towards the fortress like building. Three broke off that Jacob didn't notice. Machine gun fire erupted from the bunker, killing three and wounding four. Jacob fired and killed one of the wounded. Not pausing, he reloaded and fired again, smashing a skull and with the same round further wounding a second. Again he took aim, but before he could fire, three soldiers who had escaped the wall of bullets had climbed up the tower and were about to engage him.

Hearing the men, Jacob turned around and fired, point blank into one of the enemy's gut, the round exiting his back and narrowly missing another soldiers head. Clutching his wounded stomach, the fatally wounded soldier fell, screaming in agony, into a bloody heap on the floor, and fell off the tower, hitting the ground below. His friend, upon seeing this, threw a knife at Robbins, who caught the knife and threw it back, hitting the head of his assailant. Jacob had, however, not noticed the third man and turned around.

Seizing this opportune moment, Jacob's attacker struck him on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, hurting him and shoving him forward, almost to the point of falling. He turned around to engage his attack just as the man was about to hit him. Quickly, he raised his gun to block the attack, and his gun was thrown from his hand, where it landed on the other side of the room and discharged. The bullet ricocheted around before finally embedding itself in the attacker's leg, shattering bone. Jacob cringed as the attacker grasped his leg and stood on one leg.

Quickly, Jacob drew his pistol and fired three rounds into the mans chest, fatally wounding him. Slowly the man fell, clutching his chest and gasping for air. Jacob turned away, and fired one round into his attackers head. Breathing heavily, Robbins reverted to his instincts, and looted the corpses, finding ammunition, guns, other weapons, and food. He opened the jacket pocket, and sighed, his breathing becoming heavy. Inside was the I.D. of the man he had killed; he was only 17.

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Jacob sat in a chair in an isolated room in which no one but him could see or hear what was going on. Breathing heavily, he dropped his weapons, and buried his head in his hands, and cried. Tears streaked down his face and collected in his lap, forming small puddles. He sobbed as he remembered what he did, and he cried for hours, and when he stopped, he went to the cafeteria to eat. He had no appetite, he found, and returned to his room.

That night was not a good one; he barely got any sleep. What little sleep he did get was plagued with nightmares of that day. What bothered him the most though, was not the death, but the way the person looked at him and the way those eyes looked. That night was the last time of his life that he cried, but he was still plagued by nightmares, always waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, just to go to bed to sometimes, the same thing.

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The next day, he was awakened by an intercom calling out names for a mission, and his was on the list. Slowly, Jacob got up, dressed, and in a trance-like state, walked out of his room and into the cafeteria. He sat down with his food, and began to eat, but still did not seem to have an appetite. Coffee seemed only to have little effect, but he decided that more was better and drank cup after cup. He still was tired from the night before, and occasionally nodded off to sleep. But, tired as he was, he still had to go to that meeting.

"After all, they will be waiting for me; they wouldn't be able to start without me, and certainly won't be able to do the mission without my leadership and vast expertise of weaponry and ammunition," He mused.

Just as he was starting to drift off to sleep, Jacob felt a sharp and sudden pain on his back, like somebody slapped him. A shadow appeared on the table, and another tray hit the table with a loud clang.

Jazmine aimed her sniper into the mess hall of the facility, waiting for the perfect moment. She had a state of the art silencer on her sniper that removed all noise from the shot. Jazmine was situated in a tree not far from the facility at it's weakest security point, witch happened to be the mess hall area. "Time for some fun." Jazmine smiled as she slowly took the safety off and aimed at her sitting victim. She squeezed the trigger, sending a .50 cal bullet through the sitting mans head. Jazmine giggled as he slumped over the table, blood pooling around him.

"SNIPER!" Jacob shouted, and hit the floor as the man slumped over, a hole the size of a grapefruit out the back of his head. There was blood everywhere, and glass littered the floor. Everyone scattered, trying to deprive the Russian of another target, but it might be too late. Jacob knew that if he had his gun, he could easily blast a bigger hole in the enemy, but alas, he had no rifle. Just a .45 caliber Browning Hi-Power, and a .50 suppressed revolver.

He got out the revolver, fitting a small scope on the rails, and a laser sight on the bottom. Carefully, he took aim from behind a piece of metal, looking down the scope. He tried searching for the target. Hopefully, he would find it.

Jazmine adjusted her gun and aimed it at a tree she had rigged. She had took the bark off in a certain spot where she could aim from this spot, and fitted metal plating on it. She had then covered the sheet of metal with bark, making sure to leave space for her next bullet to hit and ricochet into the window again. Jazmine glanced at her watch, flattening herself against the tree and took aim, careful to hit a spot with no bark. She pulled the trigger and shot another bullet at the metal and it ricocheted and went into the window again. Jazmine giggled at the surprise she had rigged inside the bullet too, microscopic poison darts. The darts will be released when the bullet lays still for 3 seconds, If it embds itself into a victim, the bullet will explode showering everyone in the room with poison darts, If it hits the ground it will do the same thing. If they haven't found cover. her conscious nagged her for giving them an option to live and toying with them.

Two people fell as the shells tore through them, and blew up like a 20mm anti material rifle to the chest. Jacob moved as the shells were fired, but none hit him. Almost everyone got to cover in time. Unfortunately, at least five, if not more, were hit with the darts, and fell to the ground, dead. Jacob wasted no time, though. He had a dart loaded in his pistol, and he was going to interrogate the sniper.

He aimed, seeing the sniper's arm, but just barely. Good enough to hit, and if it was able to be hit, he could hit it. He fired, the bullet with the tranquilizers in it exiting the barrel, and the trigger pushing the chamber to the side, switching to another round.

Jazmine laughed as she heard the chaos unfold beneath her. She had killed 32 people total today, a new record. Jazmine was about to celebrate the new record when something hit her arm and sent agony through her body. Glancing down, she located a tranquilizer dark in her lower arm, obviously shot from a .45 Cal.

"Shit." Jazmine said dropping her gun to the mossy forest ground below, breaking it. Tranquilizer darts effected her far worse then normal people, they caused her to black out for several hours and lose complete control of her body. As she numbly thought of this, her body rocked on the branch and started it's decent to the forest floor below, almost 60 feet down. Jazmine blacked out about halfway down, glad she had the privileged to not experience the pain or smashing on the forest floor.

((Don't let her die. xD))

"I got her!" Jacob shouted, and popped open the revolver, inserting another .50 round into the empty chamber. It was smart of him to pick mostly .50 cal or .457 rounds, because that's the only two he needed. He pocketed the revolver, and ran out the door, running out in front of Navy Pier, the Sears Tower in his sight. That girl was somewhere over there, and she was falling.

He found her, not too far from the fortress, on the ground, out cold, and a little hurt looking. He ordered a few men to pick her up and go to the medical center, while Jacob would grab the utilities. All of them. Her guns, her ammo, and anything else he found.

He noticed a few interesting things about her weaponry. First was the size. It was a conventional sniper rifle, large in size, with the standard looking .50 caliber feel. Unlike his, which had it's own recoil system up at the barrel, which gave very little push on his shoulder. In that way, it would allow him to use a 20mm. If he wanted to, which he didn't.

Second was her shells. They were a very interesting type. One was filled with poison darts, which gave him the idea to call it a Hellfire round. He kept a clip just in case. After that, he left, following his men back to the base.

((I won't. ))

((Look, I'm sorry, I can't do much for a little bit. I'm going through a little bit of a suicidal time, and there's not much I can do. But, this helps. I'll try to respond, but sometimes, I just won't be able to deal with it. If you notice me off for a bit, I'm probably doing something either really fun, depressed, or whatnot. Okay?

But yeah. You can survive that. People have survived worse. Some people have fallen out of a jet at 30,000 feet and lived.))

Jacob ordered some pain pills for her, and got the medics on her immediately. They stripped her down to her underwear, and got to work. They gave her casts, fixed her bones, and gave her medicine to make sure she wouldn't die. Jacob, meanwhile, was waiting for her to come to.

(( Np. ))

Jazmine woke several hours later in a hospital bed with restraints on her arms, legs and neck. "Wha-?" She said surprised at her current predicament. All she was wearing was her underwear and casts on her arm and leg. Jazmine stared at the ceiling and tried to remember what happened before she blanked. 32 Kills, perfect kills. her voice rang through her head like a gunshot. Jazmine smiled and started laughing, unable to stop herself.

((Just so you know, this title is actually a song from The Wall, which I am listening to right now. I have it on my profile. When you hear the album, you'd understand. But, enough of my depressing thoughts. Lets RP! ))

"Are we awake?" Jacob asked, looking over from the other side of the room. He was a little confused at her laughter. He couldn't, for the life of him, understand why she was laughing. Especially after all those kills. But maybe she was that type of sicko.

((I'm acquainted with Pink Floyd. ))

Jazmine stopped laughing and looked over at the boy on the other side of the room. "Who the hell are you?" she asked straining against her restraints a little, testing them. Jazmine smiled again and laughed. "Did you enjoy the show last night?" Jazmine asked judging the time by the position of the sun outside the window. "32 Perfect kills yesterday." She said laughing harder then ever.

((Sweet! ))

"The guy who just saved you from the Reds," Jacob said, staring at her. She reminded him of an old song. And it wasn't in a good way. She wouldn't stop laughing for a bit. But he had to admire her. She knew how to handle things. "Quite an interesting show, yes. Just next time, could ya shoot the Reds instead of us? Oh they weren't all perfect. You cheated with the ricochet and poison. I've made over 700 kills here, and around 102 were cheats,"

"Cheating is the best part." Jazmine said wiggling a bit. She was now aware that her red rose tattoo was visible. "And you assumed I wasn't a Red?" She said mocking his tone and smiling. She had killed over a thousand kills alone, more then five hundred with her team and she was defeated by one guy.

"You? Russian? Please. I know one when I see it, and trust me, you aren't that good," Jacob said, and he poured himself a glass of brandy, the ice clinking in the glass. It was very rare to get something that nice, ever since the bombs dropped. Sure, they could try out of country, but that was just as hard. "Cheating makes me sick, because it shows weakness. And you can never show weakness around these guys, or you won't last a second. Trust me. Vladimir will make you pay,"

"So it was weakness that killed eight of your men?" She said smiling. She had designed those Hell Raisers herself with much pain and practice. She had even developed a cure for it if needed, all locked away in her head. "You don't scare me." Jazmine said her tone turning harsher. She could endure much more then average people from her hard childhood.Thanks for nothing mom. she thought bitterly. Her mom had done nothing while her dad pushed her harder and harder every day. He wanted her to become the perfect soldier for him, to make him proud. One day he took it too far, he tried to test her mental stability by raping her. He never even got close, Jazmine had broken his neck before he could smile at her to say he was ready. He mom had watched her and stabbed her eye with a knife, leaving the scar across her eye. Jazmine had killed her too, she had left the city that night, never returning.

"Eight? That little? Tell me, do you shoot at cans?" Jacob said, pulling up a chair next to her, and sitting down on it. He had a miserable life, and everything about it was horrible. No one would be able to understand it, or even think about it. He had been shut out by almost everyone he knew, insulted, picked on, blamed. Then, later, he tried to kill himself with a knife. It didn't work, but it scarred him. He had a wife, but she died when the bombs dropped. On their wedding day.

And now he was trying to break this girl in any way possible, to make her talk. "Oh, I will. Trust me. There are some things in this world that will make you scared, and this will be one,"

Jazmine struggled a bit more before concluding the straps were solid and new. It's like they knew I was coming. Jazmine though as she giggled a bit, before she heard the last part. "What are you planning to do to me? Cut me? Whip me? I've been through much worse." Jazmine said turning her head away from Jacob.

"I don't need to do any of those things. There are some things out there that would make any of us sh*t our pants, and I am one of them. I see no reason to hurt you, unless you want to give me one," Jacob said, and he stared her down. He had a glass in one hand, and a cigarette in the other, and he was going to make sure that she told him everything she knew about the Russians.

Jazmine looked in his eyes. "Do your worst." she growled, ready for anything he could possibly do to her. Or so she thought. She had failed many missions trying to kill reds and traitors and been punished severely, sometimes not being able to move afterwards and having to have the medics deposit her on her cot.

"I will... If you don't give me the information I need," Jacob said, setting his glass down and putting the cigarette in his mouth. He'd seen random shots in the night before, but nothing serious. Sometimes he'd find a random body when he'd go to check it out, but other than that, not much. He decided, though, that he'd only take a shot he knew he could hit. And there was plenty of those. However, he had to get down to business. "Tell me, what do you know about the Reds?"