Destination Equis

Bratta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tak.
Clak-Clak-Clak-Clak. Bra-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat

-Pompf- -Crack- BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT BRRRT BRT BRT BT BRRRRRRT
-Crack---Crack---Crack---Crack-

Gunfire... Meh...

At least, that was my thought process before a shrill and irritating screaming rang through my head curtesy of my ears. And my Swag collapsing into a balled mess around me.

As soon as my frantic fumbling found the zipper i ripped myself from the fabric cocoon and looked around.

As crew were currently climbing out of their swags and Andrew opted to cut himself out of his tent with his switchblade.

I looked around, noticing the orchestra of gunfire around us in its full detail, Tank cannons, machine guns, chain guns, rifles. All singing their chaotic melody through the night. But oddly enough i noticed no tracers. And that was weird. Maybe my VISRR wasn't working properly. But i pushed that thought to the back of my mind as i threw myself face first into my stations hatch, falling into the crew compartment in an upside down mess.

The hatches of my fellow crew members were slamming shut around me. And i noticed the feet of my radioman crawling to his station on the vehicle floor.

After righting myself i climbed back up through my hatch until i was eye level with the roof of the turret, and began turning around looking at the surroundings of the vehicle. Nothing but dull off-white moonlight. My VISRR still refused to display any tracers, This was beginning to frustrate me. And the oddity of how the gunfire was sounding off from all around us never left my mind entirely. Especially since were were alone, Atop a narrow mountain right on the edge of a cliff.

The labored whine of the Inertial Flywheel from the engine bay of the Puma signified that Jackie had already began starting the engine.

"Jackie take us back down the hill! Full speed! don't roll us!" I yelled into my throat mic.

"Siryessir!" I heard ring in my ears, the vehicle violently shook, the V12 coming to life with a throaty cackle before breaking into its rhythmic bass of a purr.

With a jerk and the clunk of the gearbox, we hurtled backwards until we nearly slammed into the rock face behind us, Jackie locked the wheel to the right, causing us to stand up on the left side suspension. Yes the Puma, a ten tonne armoured car, can stand up on one sides suspension from a sharp turn in reverse, its 325 horsepower engine lends it remarkable agility at 27.8 Horsepower per tonne. That being the ability to power along at 100km/h in drive and 60km/h in reverse.

The screech of rubber on stone alerted all the critters around us of our hasty departure, causing birds to fly erratically from their perches and small ground critters to dart across the road in front and behind us.

The engine whines it's ghostly moan as it strained to speed us along the gravel path down the mountain. However, even here my mind couldn't shake the oddity of how the sound of gunfire was following behind us. Almost as if it was an entity chasing us. "Jackie, Step on it." I ordered cautiously into the throat mic.

We hurtled down the path, gravel eventually gave way to bitumen, its near black lending comfort, as it meant the ability for my currently lead-footed driver to push the pedal down further. And that he did. The moment the wheels hit the road, we collected speed at an alarming rate, accented by the seconds long screech of the tires.

My eyes scanned the space around the vehicle as we screamed down the road, constantly on the lookout for the threat of an enemy, trying to take us out of the chance to earn big.

At this point the Puma had picked up enough speed to become difficult to steer, i, as well as the rest of the crew noticed we had begun swerving from one side of the road to the other in a ragged zigzag, the eight wheel steering overcompensating the drivers inputs.

"Woah, Lancer, pull his reigns in! we're gonna end up in a tree or something!" Tommy voiced from his compartment behind and to my right.

"Jackie! Cool it off! no faster than 45!" we still didn't slow down. "JACKIE! SLOWDOWN DAMN IT!" With that, everyone, and everything that wasn't tied down, flew forwards as the Pumas forward suspension depressed as low as it could go, screeching tires were very audible as well as the acrid smell of burning rubber. The G-forces held us forward for what seemed like ten seconds as the vehicle came to a sudden halt.

"Jackie! i said 45kp/h not full stop!" I yelled into my throat mic. "I-... Sorry...Commander..." The shaken bloke stammered. "Sir-yessir. 45Kp/h" He repeated with a defeated sigh. Before i could respond, the clutch dropped and we began rapidly accelerating, G-forces this time pushing us into our seats.

Thirteen minutes down the road i noticed a forest off to our right, and, for some reason, i felt drawn to its darkness, as if it was calling to me. The racket of gunfire still pursuing and around us but in the direction of this forest. All was quiet. My conscience voiced its concerns, but with very little thought i pushed it to the back of my mind before ordering Jackie to adjust course for the dirt road leading through it.

Our 'Puffy' tan and green bush covered blur tore down the road like a frightened cat, going fast enough to kick up a sizable dust cloud behind us.

I felt a near unnatural comfort inside of this forest. And my concerns of how fast we were going through this seemingly instantaneous fog bank that appeared around us melted away, however the feeling of comfort quickly burst into a raging hellfire as fear clawed at my soul. My peripheral vision had picked up movement to my left, snapping my gaze to the left, i caught the glimpse of a red streak, possibly scaled by the way the light shone off of it. Darting from tree to tree at my eye level. This was near impossible for a living creature since i was sitting about three and a half meters above the ground.

But i was sure what ever this was... It was a living creature, it moved from cover to cover organically, matching our speed near perfectly, always moving just fast enough to blur itself out, making viewing any detail impossible.

My sixth sense kicked in, feeling a burning sensation on the back of my neck, i swung around, realizing the familiar sense of being watched. And my world slowed down...

Matching our speed, i stared at a set of glowing teal eyes, the pointy things glaring back at me with near endless glowing malicious intent. I dropped back down into my hatch till i was eye level with the roof of the turret. I Look out into the forest again only to lockup upon seeing that during my short span of divided attention. One pair of eyes. Had grown into near upwards of a dozen pairs. A barrage of Teal slits carving fear into every fiber of my being before slowly bleeding out from teal to a luminous crimson.

Without hesitation, in a flash i reached up, grabbed my hatch, and dropped into my positions seat, slamming the hatch shut in a fluid motion and twisting the locking lever shut, before jumping up into a half standing-crouch around my seat in the cramped space to peer out of the rotating periscope.

Feral rumbling growls as well as snarling could be heard from all around, the ten tonne armoured car shook violently as each pair of eyes grew a body of mist and began plowing into the side of the Puma. The disturbing thing was all these sounds were being heard from inside the Vehicle as if they were sitting behind us snarling in our ears. Their feral noises echoing and rattling around in our heads like a ping pong ball stuck in a leaf blower.

My fear gave way to despair. A hollow feeling balled up in my chest as my periscope became surrounded by glowing red eyes that orbited the vehicle, Defying both the laws of physics and common sense. I heard Jackie cry out in fear, even though he failed to activate his throat mic. His scream of terror echoed throughout the crew compartment over the engines ghoulish whine.

"LANCER! WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY! THEIR STARING INTO MY SOUL! MAKE THEM STOP! MAKE THEM STOP, PLEAAAASEEE!" My poor drivers wails for help hadn't fallen on deaf ears.

I was shook back partially out of my fears when i heard the loud near constant drone of our MG42 Machine gun. Its 1200 round per minute fire rate sounding more like someone ripping canvas woven from sound than a machine gun firing.

Looking through the periscope i watched as dozens of teal green tracers belched from the from of the turret, the floating disembodied eyes suddenly departed from the vehicle as we broke the fog bank.

Our Escape from the fog was sudden, but we didn't dare stop, we could still hear the malicious throaty chuckle echoing inside our vehicle.

It didn't take me long to realize that i was violently shaking in fear and shock. I forced one shaking hand to grasp and hold the other down in my lap as the Puma
launched then hurtled through the air, jumping a five meter wide stream without any difficulty. Before slamming back down on all eight wheels.

Everyone and everything was suddenly thrown to the left side of the vehicle when we swerved violently to the right. After mustering enough mental fortitude, i looked out of my periscope again still shaking from the last time i used it. I noticed Jackie had swerved violently to get us on a well used dirt road. And we were now hurtling down it at an alarming speed. I checked my positions dashboard and noticed that the speedometer was reading 120kp/h, screaming downhill lent us even more speed, but i didn't dare tell my petrified driver to slow down.

"FUCKING FINALLY! THIS SHITHOLE FROM HELL FOREST IS ENDING! DONE! FINITO! FINALIE!" I heard Jackie yell in a shaking triumph mixed with relief and accented with petrified fear. As the treeline dissipated from my periscopes view Jackie yelled out "GOODBYE! CIAO! OLIVEWA! AUFWEIDERSAIN! FUCKOFF!"
And i must say... I Agreed with him whole heartily!

We Sped past an orchard of some kind before heading off road and into an open field. "Lets see those bastards get the drop on us this time!" I yelled into the vehicles intercom. After a further five minute drive we finally came to a halt. But not on our own free will... We'd run out of fuel, and no one in the crew had a sufficiently large enough pair of balls, or the wheelbarrow to carry said balls. To get out and refuel us with the Jerry cans.

So there we stayed. There we slept. Inside our only protection.

But for the second night in a row. We wouldn't get much sleep. Our dreams constantly being probed by echoing whispers...

"w̛͖̗͖̺̜h̡͚͙̭̫͈ͅo͜ ̲̯͎̀a̮̮̬̦r̨̝̫̦e͕͎̱̺̰̦͖ ̶͖̙̹̲y̱̮̟ou̵̲͎̲?̠?"

"W̪͎̺̕h̸a̡̪͈̙͔̥̗̤t̳̜͚͙͖̞ ͍͙̗̳͓͎̠͠a̪r̵̯͔̰̰̼̖̯e҉͉ ̢̼̰͓̰͕̯y̧̻͈͙o̤̱̥ͅu͍?"

"W͈̱͓̹̼͓̬͟h͚͈̘̤͚̻͆ͥ̿e͋̉ͩ͘r̩̗̺͕ͣ́e̝̬͙̐̈́ ̜͚͕͋̿͐ͫ̈́͆ͅd̛̩͚ͮ̒̃i̵̻͖ͥ̑d̟͉͙̖̘̔̓̆̈́̐̀̅ ̹ͯy̯̘̰͑o̟̳͓̹ͤͣͪ̋ű͕̞̹̳̪̩̋̉͆̔̈́ ̶͕͔̺̱͖c̟̬͉̦͉̯̾͐̄̌͌ͭo̎ͫͦ͌̀m͕̻͇̔͒̈ͮ͂̕e̩͒̌ͤ̍ ͓̮͉͍̞̔͐̃ͦ͂ͣ͊̕f̰̩͎̦̼̎ͥ͂ͥ̄ͮŕ͍̣͎̟̫̘ͅo̗̦̻͓̖̝̣ͮͪ̂̚m͖̰̜͇̖͚̣ͨ͑?"

"Wh̲̮at̺̝͙̜̺ ͙͔̲̹̱i̩͉̦̪̼̲͖s͍̲̭̗ ̦͔̳yo̩̞̠u̦ͅr ̞͔̜͓ͅp̗̪̖̩u͔r͍p̘͈o̺͇̹̰̼s͚͓̠̯̻e ̺͙̠̺̗ͅi̻̼̘n͈̣̭̤͓̳͈ ̭̬͈o̮̬̖u͈̙̝̝̜̗r̘ ͇͖̖̺l̙͓̞͚a̠̗̺̻͍n̟ds̩͔̫͚̹̞?"

"What. Is. Your. INTENT?!"

"Ĝ̲͗ͫͭ̒͌̇̈́͘͢Ě͕̠̫͊͌͒̌̄ͅT́͒҉̛̱͙̘̪͕̻̪͇.̠̮̰͍̘̂ͬ̽ͬ̓̊̍ Ọ̵̦͎̀̀́͟U͏̘̱̩Ṯ̶̛̳̫̻͖̬̱̹͝ͅͅ!҉̴͖͓͕͚̝̖̳̘̬̥̥͉͇͡ !"

"LEAVE! NOW!"

"S̞̰I͔̭̘͚̺͎͍L̲̣̗E̝NC͙̭̞̜͓̬̬E̪̠!"

"Tell us! WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE HERE!"

"quiet everyone... let the poor thing explain..."

"we're watching you..."

"hes coming..."

"they can hear ussss..."

"W̧̡̜̙͖̻̼̬̗̝̦̥͢A̬̯͈̪͕̤͎͓̬̟͔͉͈̼͞͡͡K̕͠҉̷̗̠̟̝͉͎̜̫͙̻̼̭̤͎͜E͡҉̡̳͇͎̲̱̭͔̖̜̝͔̝͓ͅ ̰̱͙̫̱̰̭̘̘̬͜ͅ Ų͓̠̘̻̲̞̜̞̗̝̼͙̠͉͕̠̀͢͞͝Ṕ̨̣͙̗̩̲̭̠̺́͟!!"