Chapter 89 - Tacoma

Putting the plane down safely on the tarmac, I pulled up to a hanger and shut off the engines. Disembarking the plane, everyone let out a yawn as they stretched out. Coming out to greet us was Captain Ford, a man that Major Payne was friends with. I hadn't ever met him, but I did remember Payne mentioning that he had become a pain in the ass recently. When I asked why, he said it was better to hear from the people there.

"So you are the Savior of the World.", Ford snickered looking at me with an unimpressed look, "All I see is a snot nosed kid."

"This guy is a bad guy!", Ilulu growled taking offense to what he said.

"Agreed, I don't like him either.", Cammy said, "You must be very popular with the women."

Scowling at Cammy, I came close to decking him. If he had something insulting I would have punched his head off.

"I frankly could care less.", Ford stated suppressing his anger, "All of you had it easy, this place was a hell hole till a week ago. Unlike you we didn't have a Golden Boy here to fight our battles for us. We have all had to fight desperately to survive, and had to struggle to put a bit of food on the table."

"Captain, you told Major Payne you wouldn't cause any problems.", his secretary scolded him running over.

"Whatever, see to what they need.", Ford ordered walking away from us.

When he was out of earshot, she apologized to us for his behavior. Saying that he didn't use to be like this, she said he only changed a few months ago. Wearing a sad expression, I assumed that something had happened to him personally.

"He lose someone?", I asked.

"He...he led some troops into the city to find survivors, and the gatekeeper didn't do his job properly. The gate was left unsecured...", she told us, "The enemy got in, and before we could do anything the civilian settlement area was overrun. We radioed the team to hurry back to assist, but they didn't get back in time. By the time they arrived the damage was done, and...his family was among the victims. It would have better if they died, but he had to see them slowly turning into an Undead. He...he had to put down his wife, twelve year old daughter, and two year old son."

Telling us that he made the choice to do it himself, he refused to let anyone else do it. He handled their cremation, and burial alone without any help.

"Oh...", Cammy said feeling bad for her comment earlier.

"He hasn't touched any drinks, smoked any cigarettes, or even smiled since that day. The Gatekeeper was beheaded by him, and he has watched the gate personally to ensure that never happens again.", she informed us, "He heard about you from the Major, and I think he wishes someone like you was here when that happened. If we had someone like you here many more people would have been able to survive."

"I can't fault him for feeling that way. If I was in his shoes, I'd be bitter as well. Having to kill the ones you love...", I said patting Ilulu on the head, "It's a tough pill to swallow."

"Please follow me, we are at the tail end of lunch but the food is still hot.", she told us.

Following her towards the mess hall, I hung back to speak with Guile. Asking him if he had met the Captain before, he shook his head but said he assumed he was a good guy. The Base Commander was someone Guile knew personally, but seeing as how the Captain was leading it meant he likely died.

"So what do you know about this base?", I asked, "Any secrets we can look into?"

"They have nuclear warheads here.", Guile told me with a smirk, "Most people know the ones in the Dakota's and Wyoming, but few know about the ones here."

"How did you know?", I questioned locating them on my mini map.

"Haha, trade secret.", he laughed.

Rolling my eyes, I told him to be careful. I wasn't completely sold on everyone here being a loyal patriot. Umbrella had their claws in everything, even the bases in Alaska, so there had to be a few moles in this base. Asking Red and White Queens if they had any intel, they replied that most of the intelligence they had was destroyed by me. Backups of the data did exist at other Umbrella Bases, but all of them were without power at this time.

'Well that sucks ass...', I thought, 'I can find people using my map, but finding evidence is another thing. Since HQ was destroyed I will leave them alone for now though I will keep a close eye on them for suspicious activity during our stay here.'

Following the secretary to the Mess Hall, we got some food and took a seat at several tables. Aside for a few people that had experience eating actual military food, everyone else stared at their trays. Todays meal was sloppy joes, corn bread, broccoli, and pound cake...all of which had seen better days.

"What is this!?", Ilulu gulped, "It doesn't smell good!!"

"Agreed...it smells like dirty socks...", Yoko stated.

"I...I am usually not picky about my food, but...", Zangief said with a horrified look, "This is something even my stomach won't eat."

Putting a little bit of the sloppy joe sauce on her tongue Maya almost keeled over. Looking at Guile, I gave him a smirk.

"I think we agree that this came out of a can that has been in storage...a very long time.", Guile stated poking the corn bread and watching it fall apart.

"Victor...do you think...", Bozes requested with a smile.

Sighing I nodded my head, and purchased several cases of Large Bowl Ramen for our group. Passing out the bowls out, everyone returned their food to the chef and added hot water. After a few minutes we added the seasoning packs, stirred up the ramen, and began eating.

"It's not Saori's cooking, but it is better than that.", Saeko laughed pointing to the food we returned.

"They are doing the best they can with what they have", I said looking at their food supply here.

The Base Commander appeared to have never gone looting in the city for supplies, he only coordinated rescue operations. It meant that instead of having what they needed for growing their own food, and getting fresh items before they expired...they were left with military rations the base had on hand.

After having a meal, we walked outside took a look around the base. Surveying the area nearest the gate heading for the city, we found a lot of graves from those that had died throughout this conflict. There were several hundred gravestones here that contained the ashes of those that had died as leaving a body could have caused issues.

"So what's the plan?", Alice asked me, "We staying the night here, or moving on?"

"The plan was to stay here tonight, but we arrived much earlier than initially expected. Since it doesn't look like they have greenhouses here, I was thinking of going into the city for supplies. Tacoma is the closest city so we should head their first.", I stated.

"You think he will let us out?", Rei questioned.

"Since when I have waited for permission? I will just open a portal on the other side of the fence.", I chuckled, "No need to open the gate."

Opening a portal to the other side of the fence, I pulled a transport vehicle out of storage and placed it in front of us. By this point everyone had stopped asking where I was getting stuff from, and just assumed I had taken it from somewhere. Loading up, I drove us into town where everything was eerily quiet. This city had one had a population of over two hundred thousand, and now it had less than five thousand remaining.

Seeing the boarded up buildings, defensive positions, and roadblocks everywhere it was very evident that a large battle had taken place here. Undoubtedly Seattle had been overrun, and the dead would have come here next as it was the next largest city. The people here had put up one hell of a fight judging by the number of bullet holes and craters littering the city.

"This is a completely different scene from what we saw in Japan.", Yuko said.

"It's the US, they say almost everyone owns a gun.", Yoko stated.

"True, but they were very coordinated in their defense.", Pucca pointed out, "They setup choke points, traps, and obstacles to keep them back."

"All of you have to remember that we have a lot of Doomsday Preppers in our country.", I laughed, "They have been waiting for something like this to happen, and when it did they went all out."

Recalling several television shows about Doomsday Preppers, everyone seemed to agree with me. All of those people were probably hold up in bunkers across the country just bidding their time. If they were anything like the preppers in my original world, some of them were ready to hold up for decades.

'We are in Fallout Country now, I wonder if I will stumble across a vault or something.', I thought with a smirk.

Pulling up to a farming supply store, I parked out front for convenience. Gathering outside the store, I told them the plan. Half our team would go inside while the other half would stay outside to watch the perimeter. Us traveling through town had attracted the attention of both the living and the dead so I wanted to be ready. Since I was the one with the 'Magical Storage' I would be with the group going inside.

"We got your back, no worries!", Terry laughed.

"I don't think he is concerned with his safety.", Oriha teased, "I think he is more worried about all of you."

"Nah, we can handle the regular undead.", Mai told her.

Going inside, we started gathering up farming equipment and supplies for the base. Monitoring the situation outside on the map, it appeared we would make contact with a group of people in the next five minutes. Seeing a familiar name plate on the map I smiled because someone was about to reunite with a family member. Pulling everything in the store into my storage, we were in and out within a few minutes.

Coming out of the store, the initial group of people showed up to weren't so friendly. Instead of talking to us they immediately went on the offensive with us. Watching them form Fireballs, and aim at us I realized these people were hot shots out for blood.

"Rory!", I said as Rory dashed passed me, "I will cover you!"

"If you boys want to play, let's play!", Rory laughed spinning her halberd like a lawn mower blade.

Launching a barrage at her, I snapped my fingers and dissipated the attack. Looking at Rory in horror now, they barely managed to scream before she decapitated them all before the rest of the group showed up. Coming around the corner in a hurry, the rest of the group saw their comrades lying headless on the ground.

"Son of a bitch...", an older man sighed, "I told them their reckless behavior would get them killed. This was bound to happen eventually..."

"I hope you aren't going to say we should have spared them.", Juri stated, "They launched fireballs at us first."

"So they even blew our cover too...", he groaned, "Where are you people from?"

"Our home base is none of your concern.", I replied, "The fact you can use magic is an issue to me...it means you picked up someone from another world that taught you."

"I don't need to-", he tried to refute.

"Don't bother lying, I already read your mind.", I told her, "Lelei, they found your sister."

"Arpeggio?", she asked me watching the group for sudden movements.

"You know her?", he remarked, "Well your description matches what she described so-"

"LELEI!!", her sister shouted flying past the group, "You are alive!!"

Squeezing her younger sister tightly, Lelei looked happy and in pain at the same time. Tapping on her sister's shoulder, it looked like she was tapping out of a wrestling match. Arpeggio was so into the moment she didn't even notice what her sister was doing.

"I think you are killing her...", Bozes stated.

"Could you let her go?", Tuka remarked.

Snapping her out of the moment, she saw that her sister was unable to breath. Letting her go, Lelei gasped for air as she leaned on Yao to keep standing up.

"You okay?", I asked Lelei.

"Yes...I just need...a moment.", she replied.

Giving her a moment to catch her breath, she gave her sister a small smile.

"It's good to see you are still alive.", Lelei told her.

"I thought for sure Master Cato and you had perished.", Arpeggio cried, "I held out hope that you might be alive, but I didn't think I would get to see you in this world."

Thanking her for her concern, Lelei asked why exactly she was teaching people to use magic. Explaining that she had to do it to survive, she said that if she hadn't done so they may have all died. Before the Demons and Mutant Undead retreated, their safehouse had almost been overrun.

"I understand.", Lelei said, "Why haven't you gone to the military base yet? The enemy has left the city, right?"

"The majority has yes, but there is still a very large horde wandering the streets.", the older man said, "We'd exhausted ourselves before getting there. Not all the mutants left the city."

Telling them we could escort them back, they were more than happy to accept. They were tired of running around from shelter to shelter just to get some sleep. Not only that, they had several elderly people and pregnant women that were unable to continue moving around so often.

"If you could, we'd appreciate help getting them to safety. If there isn't enough room at the base, taking the elderly, women, and children is enough.", the leader said.

"They have plenty of room.", Guile stated.

"That's good to hear, please follow us and-", the leader started to say as the horde drew near, "Shit!!"

"Don't worry about it, Ryu think you can get the civilians? We got this.", I stated.

"Not a problem!", Guile laughed jumping in the driver seat, "It's been a while since I drove a transport. What are you people waiting for, get in!"

Leaving my family and I to guard their rear, I gave them a smile. Since they hadn't had the opportunity to fight Undead in a while, I told them to have at it and that I would support them. Thanking me the women dashed off to fight while I provided healing and prevented them from being overwhelmed. Watching Shigure, Saeko, Maya, Yuko, and Yoko slash through the enemy lines, the five of them started to pull away from the others. Calling out to them, I wanted them to be aware of their surroundings and not get too lost in the fight.

Popping heads off of Undead, Rika, Mikoto, and Pucca seemed to be enjoying themselves. Keeping them stocked with ammo, the three of them hardly had to aim to hit something. There were so many that they could have shot with their eyes closed and hit two or three in one shot.

"They certainly are formidable.", Piña said watching the others destroy the Undead, "We aren't quite up to par with them."

"I don't expect you three to be.", I chuckled, "While they are holding the line, why don't you check the neighboring building for any survivors? Be careful and watch your backs."

"On it!", they replied.

I felt bad for them because they had much less experience than everyone else. Giving them tasks that they could handle and gradually giving them more tasks till they caught up. It shouldn't be more than a few months till that happens.

"Rei!! Nina!! Watch your flanks!!", I barked incinerating the Undead coming from their side.

Taking some space from the enemy the two of the took a second to survey their surroundings. Closing the space between them and Saeko's group, the two groups melded together and worked together to work more efficiently.

"Victor, there were people in here!", Piña said helping carry several children out, "There is some elderly people too."

Clinging to the three women, the children saw the horde being held back by the women. Screaming and looking away from the scene, the children thought they were being led out to be killed.

"Ladies, I am going to end this quick.", I said, "Jump out of the street in five seconds."

Five seconds later the women jumped out of the way. With a snap of my finger the Undead turned into smoke and vanished. Looking back at where the horde once was, the women looked back at me in shock.

"Hey!! I was blowing some stress!!", Sayo shouted, "I hated being on that damn plane, and you do this to me..."

"Can you show me how to do that!!", Ilulu laughed, "I want to turn them into bubbles though!!"

"No, we should turn them into sweets!!", Zero Two remarked.

"YEAH!!", Ilulu and Lucy agreed.

'Ugh...great they want to be Majin Buu now...', I thought, "You can't turn them into candy, they were once people."

"Oh right...", they sighed, "Can we still get some candy?"

"Haha, yes we can get some candy.", I chuckled, "Alright kids, it's all over now."

Looking back they saw nothing, but an empty street.

"Mister, where did all those monsters go?", one of the young boys asked.

"They gone, and they aren't coming back.", I told him, "Do you know where your parents are?"

"No...we haven't seen them. Our teacher brought us here when the monsters attacked. She left a few weeks ago to find food, but she didn't come back. Do you know where she is?", he questioned.

"No I don't, but we can certainly look for her for a bit.", I said stretching my hand out to him, "Let's go to somewhere safe."

Walking over to me he took my hand, and gave me a smile. Leading the group towards the others, I wanted to get back soon as our plane landing had attracted Undead to the base.