This seemingly random writing was born from an RP quite some time ago between me and a friend of mine. I'm not too masterful at writing for Captain or Pilot- which is why they have such small roles in this story. All characters are (C) to Vitaly S. Alexius.

Captain Crisis

It had been hours since Captain and Pilot had disappeared, leaving Snippy and Engie in the little house they called 'home'. Until, of course they had to move on and find more resources. "I'm going to look for them, they've been gone for too long" Sniper abruptly spoke shattering the silence like fragile glass. Rising to his feet, he looped his riffle around his shoulder, "how many times do I have to tell you- they'll be fine" the Engineer said, also raising to his feet, in hope of getting a better stance on the conversation and have better luck to persuade Charles to stay, "It's Captain for goodness sake, it's not like many things can hurt him" "well…" Sniper replied, trying to find a reasonable Captainian excuse, "what if he's abandoned us? Just gone off with Pilot and left us here?" it was the best he could come up with, the only explanation he could think of in that moment. "So…" The Engineer said, looking out towards the wastes, the little light fading fast, "you're telling me, that you're going to go out into the wastelands- at night, to search for Captain because you think he's left us here". The sniper nodded sternly, leaving nothing but seriousness in his actions "but- you're coming with me." He handed an extra riffle to the Engineer, "What?" Alex spluttered, floundering to grip the gun correctly "oh-no, I'm not going out there during the dark, you don't know what's out there…" He hugged himself and his newly acquired weapon lightly as he thought of what kind of dangers may lurk out there, waiting to have an Engineer sandwich or Sniper Soufflé. "Well…" Snippy tried to reason, "you can either come with me- someone, who's been out in the wastelands and know how to survive- or you can stay here and wait for some beasty to be attracted to the light and gobble you up- your choice" He lightly shrugged, making his way out of the partially destroyed house, "alright, alright!" Engie said, rushing to catch up to the Sniper.

As they followed Captain's and Pilot's footsteps formed in the ever-present frost, snow started to fall, becoming thicker with each passing second. Both of them were starting to regret their choice. Alex started to wonder in his thoughts, the odd of survival- or the chances that they might find something worth recovering, or what creatures lurk out here that wanted to have a last taste of a relatively extinct species. He ignored the thickening snow-fall as he trudged along, only awaking from his deep thoughts moments later to realise he was on his own. In the wastes. At night. "He left me!" Engie half murmured angrily, too afraid to talk any louder.

Sniper on the other hand had been following the tracks left by Captain and Pilot. They slowly disappeared as the snow covered them in thick heavy flakes, which coated Sniper's lenses as he looked up. It seemed it would be another white-out soon. And he considered his options; Find Captain and Pilot or Find Engie who had neither luck nor skill to defend himself in these harsh wastelands. He started making his way back- he was going to find that coward, quickening the pace as he heard what seemed to be a loud roar not too far off in the distance.

Stumbling further, Engie spotted a hill not too far away, good- he could use that to gather his bearings and find out where he could go from here. He needed to find a safe place- at least for tonight, as soon as dawn broke- he was gone, fleeing to another well stocked bunker for his own protection. He suddenly ducked down, hearing the roar echo around him, bringing his knees close to his chin as he hid behind a large piece of rubble.

The Roar echoed and rebounded off of twisted metal structures, giving the creature's location a wild and dangerous stab in the dark. The Sniper followed his own foot markings in the snow quickly, his torch quickly freezing and refusing to work in the ever dropping temperature. Snippy now had to rely on his own poor night vision to try and make sense of his direction, and so he wouldn't accidently run off a cliff or even worse- into what made that awful roar. He rounded a corner a froze, seeing a large crawler-worm wiggle away, it's huge pulsating body undulating with every movement it made, as if it were made of gooey rubber or latex filled with a horrible fowl smelling liquid. He retreated, moving behind a large rock before spotting Engie out of the corner of his eye. 'I swear everything is getting bigger' he thought to himself, his mind focused on the path of the worm, 'first that giant rat and now a giant crawler-worm' he pressed himself against the large rock that sheltered him, He needed to get to Engie- and get inside a building, preferably one without rats this time.

With a glance, Engie looked over his shoulder, glimpsing a dark silvery object moving slowly behind him, he huddled down, trying not to let his fear get the better of him and bolt, he knew that thing would give chase if he saw what would be a tasty soon to be extinct species run in front of its face, he did though possess the riffle that Snippy had given to him- why though, was a mystery to him, he could barely aim, let alone shoot properly. ' If I stay still, it won't notice me… If I stay still, it won't notice me, if I stay still, it won't notice me…' the same thought repeated in his head. The worm turned, now facing Engie. His heart froze, his limbs to shake uncontrollably. But with the luck of Captain- the worm moved past, oblivious of the quivering Engineer.

Snippy moved quickly- ducking behind a half-destroyed wall, avoiding the worm before scrambling at the base of the hill. He could see Engie clearly now, just ahead of him, though- the Engineer's focus was elsewhere. The Ice caused the Sniper to slip and slide as he moved slowly. He needed to capture Gromov's Attention- without bringing the worm back. Thinking quickly, he gathered snow in his hands before lobbing it towards the scared man.

Engie Flinched as the ball of ash and snow hit him square on the head. He resisted shouting from fear as he turned to the source, stopping himself as he saw the familiar black, white and cobalt of Snippy rushing towards him. Damn, now he would have to wait longer if he was going to get back to a bunker.

"I was half-expecting you to get eaten" Sniper spoke to Gromov as he hid by the same rubble, "you would of liked that, wouldn't you, Charles" Engie replied sarcastically. " Look, we need to head back- now, the weather's getting bad again and if we stay here much longer- we'll be in a white-out with those worms." Sniper ignored Engie's sarcastic remark, trying to remain focused. "Well?" Engie asked, peering over the rubble to catch any sight of lumbering worm, "Which way?"

Snippy looked around quickly before standing, "this way" he pointed, following his own foot prints again, or so he hoped. Engie followed close behind, too afraid to left alone out-side for fear of being eaten.

A Blizzard soon started, full of ash and snow, blowing and weaving around the duo, making visibility absolute zero. Out of the blindness, snippy kicked something hard that rolled down a steep hill side that struck a wall causing it to topple and fall over, dislodging a car from its precarious perch of rubble and rolled down further smashing into another car that roared with a shrill alarm that pieced the night-time air with painful stabbing noise. "God dammit!" the Sniper grumbled, hearing the further roars of crawler worms, as if they had set off more than one alarm by moving around the landscape.

"Ugh!" Engie raged, making a chocking motion with his hands, "What did you do! They're going to find us now you clumsy buffoon!" He froze once more, hearing the creature before it came, rumbling with its pulsating body- roaring a loud shrill screech of a roar, followed by several other equally hungry far-off screeches. The silvery worm loomed in front of them, it's open mouth showing it's deadly three hundred sharpened teeth, ready to bite down on their fragile bodies. Engie swiftly moved, hiding behind Snippy, "Shoot… or run…?" he peeped. "Don't hide-" Snippy was cut short as the worm roared, saliva clinging to his black and white jacket. "Run... Defiantly RUN!" they both bolted the wrong way from 'home' but they didn't really want to try and dodge sharp teeth attached to a large gnashing mouth, Engie slipping at the start, his feet unused to running on slippery ice and snow, the riffle he possessed flung from the Engineer and was lost, eaten by the monstrous worm.

"Where do we go?!" Engie shouted, glancing back towards the large worm, almost feeling the teeth on his heels. "I don't know!" Snippy replied, out-sprinting the Engineer as two smaller Photoshop-sized worms joined in the chase. Snippy turned sharply, almost cutting off Engie as he darted down an ally. The scared man stopped, almost falling over on black ice, before turning on his heels and dashing too just missing the sharp teeth of the crawler worms. The duo were now trapped, although the collapsed building above provided protection from the worms which rammed themselves, hissing like ill pigeons, trying to fit through the gap all at once. The walls started to crack and groan as the buildings shook with the beasts ramming against them. "If we don't move, these will come down right on us!" Snippy spoke, pointing to the toppled scraper above their heads, a bit of rubble narrowly missing him, "maybe if we could find a Bunker or something-""Oh, so now a bunker is a good place!" Engie spited, acting like a little toddler. He soon backed off as a larger chunk of the building fell from the near constant ramming and pounding the worms caused, landing just by Engie's feet. "I only know the ones we've been too- I didn't have enough time to catalogue every bunker that was built!" Snippy once again ignored Engie, aiming his rifle carefully at the centre worm, which was wriggling violently towards them both, hemming them in further- back towards the rubble wall, its mouth snapping like a pair of strange scissors.

"Maybe if we're lucky- they'll cave themselves in" he commented, his focus ruined by more of the scrapper falling down around them. "It'll collapse on US too!" Engie replied, desperate and panic-stricken, his back up against the wall and his legs trembling like wind-swept twigs. "Just shoot the damn things!" he yelled towards the So-called Sniper. "Do you have any idea how thick that skin is?!" He argued, backing away as teeth snapped before his face. It looked like the toppled building wouldn't hold them all for much longer. He waited, trying to drown out all the noise and thuds of the worms as he took careful aim. The middle worm roared fiercely and Snippy pulled the trigger- firing directly into the creature. It stopped its sick wailing and slumped forward- dead. The two other worms stopped momentarily- partially confused why their larger 'friend' had stopped moving, before once again trying to squeeze through, now more difficult as the larger worm now lay lifeless, becoming another wall. Snippy fire off two more shots, blinding one of the worms which retreated in pain, wriggling off to some unknown lair to recover. The other shot fired directly into the other worm killing it. As it wailed around, it sprayed grey, foul smelling sticky ooze that mostly covered the unfortunate sniper before it- like its larger kind fell motionless and silent.

Snippy looked around, finding Engie in a corner, huddled and shivering. "Uhh…" Snippy spoke, trying to flick off some of the grey goo that still covered him, "they're gone now…" he tapped the engineer on the shoulder as he spoke, as if poking him awake. He juddered upward, startled. "O-oh.." he spoke, trying to brush any amount of dirt and ash from his coat- useless really, but old habits die hard, "We should move soon- that structure doesn't look like it'll hold for much longer- especially with the added weight of the snow and ash falling". "I actually want to see a hand in front of my face first before we go anywhere- We could get even more lost than we already are otherwise…" Sniper spoke, trying to think about the odds of how many more worms were patrolling around, and what that blinded worm would do if it ever found them again, "we could wait until morning- maybe build a small fire for the night- we would at least be able to see then, and most of the larger creatures come out at night anyway" "and we would get crushed by that thing" Engie pointed to the toppled sky-scraper, which was now creaking and groaning in the wind.

Sniper noticed a few cracks in the wall behind them that could be used to scale the wall to the other side and so he started climbing, the grey worm-goo making his hands slip at times, Engie was about to question the Sniper as he climbed, but saw sense and followed closely, hesitating the jump of the seven foot drop to the bottom. "Why did we even come out here…" Snippy asked himself. "You mean, why did you drag me out here?" Engie replied, a little Snappy, "you should have stopped me- we wouldn't be lost now". "I did say it was a bad Idea- I did say Seven would be fine. But now you dragged me out here worried about the luckiest man alive- that nothing could hurt, but no, you just had to go and find him instead of staying in a relatively safe spot with a fire…" they had exited to the other side of the alleyway, coming to another snowy bank and more toppled and downed sky scrapers, electrical wires and chords swaying in the blizzard wind that blew harsh snow into the duo's faces, disorienting them both, making the white-grey ground shift under them like a cold desert sandstorm.

"You sure this is the right way? I don't recognise anywhere…" Engie said, squinting instinctively as the Wind blasted his face. "Everything looks the same anyway...it's the snow." Sniper replied, he liked to think he had a good directional instinct though. "We have to go around the buildings- the worms chased us a fair way out..." He slipped slightly on a patch of ice, nearly falling flat on his face, but regained his balance enough to steady himself before moving onwards. "We could go through another alleyway to the street we were being chased on- at least then we would have a small Idea where we are…" Sniper didn't want to admit it, but Engie had a good idea with back tracking another ally, it was better than looking for random landmarks in a white out. "You lead us back then".

Engie veered back towards the row of buildings that had previously been the stage of their chase and found what looked like a half-collapsed alleyway. One of the buildings had almost crumbled completely, scattering its debris around, becoming deceptive in the snow-coverings. "Here looks like the next alleyway along, we could just continue from here…" he spoke to Snippy, making his way up the pile of rubble, his feet slipping every now and then. "If we can climb that rubble." Sniper said, looping the strap to his rifle over his shoulder, securing it on his back. He started to scrabble up after Engie, Sniper held parts with his hands though, making it easier to climb. "I just hope...there are no more worms."

Engie made it to the top first, and looked down upon the Sniper, "Wait" he paused, trying to gather his thoughts, "how many bullets do you have?- you know in case we do actually run into something else." The Sniper stopped, his hand on the top of the pile- the other in his pocket, "I don't know- maybe about six? Plus one already in the riffle" "Then I do hope we don't encounter anything again… we might run out of bullets, then we'll be defenceless here…" Engie replied turning and climbing down the rubble onto the other side, which was almost obscured by the toppled sky-scraper the rubble was originally a part of. But, with one misjudged step and a quick slip, Engie tumbled down the snowy rubble and ended up landing on his head before falling onto his side.

"Oww…." He hissed under his mask, gripping his head tightly as his curled into a little ball of pain. Snippy at first looked confused, but slowly skidded down the rubble-side to join the engineer "you ok?" he asked backing off slightly as Engie rose to his feet, still clutching his head in one hand, " I'll Also try not to waste my remaining shots, I still can't believe you let that thing eat my other rifle. My favourite rifle." Snippy spoke, changing the subject once he saw that Engie was standing and moving alright. "Well…" Engie spoke through gritted teeth, pain flowing through and under his skull, "n-next time you have a ravenous worm on your tail and it takes the riffle instead of your life- you can try and get it back- I'm running" he scowled under his mask- his head still throbbing with flowing pain.

Sniper stayed quiet- tapping the torch he still possessed against the frozen concrete wall in attempt to get it to work again. It lit up in the gloom before flickering once more in a dying Morse code and once again remained unlit and dead. "We could find our tracks again- I don't think it'll be too hard to find our foot prints with the worms…" Sniper spoke, giving up on relighting his dead torch. "Yeah" Engie replied, his head slowly recovering, "but how are we going to find them? Its pitch black out here and our torch barely lights for more than two seconds" Sniper Shrugged, "I did suggest we wait until morning…" "Yeah" Engie scoffed, "under a collapsing building!"

They shimmied past a wall of solid ice that formed quickly from a burst water-main, creating jutting icicles from every angle, making it look like an icy titan, ready to pounce upon the hapless waste landers. Once they cleared the icy wall they came to the street they had once been chased in. the wind still whipping up snow and ash as it blew into the duo, which only intensified as they passed the two corpses of the worms, who's outlines had started to soften in the ever-falling snow. "Alright," Snippy spoke, his goggles somewhat helping to distinguish outlines in shades of cobalt, "here's where we ended up, I think. So we could try and find where we left off from here" "I just hope we don't freeze to death before we get back…" Engie shuddered, guided only by hints of white and black, barely able to tell Snippy apart from the background.

"It shouldn't be too long if we pick up the pace" Snippy spoke, his hands going numb as his steps became faster, Engie too quickened his pace, trying to forget about the cold and focus more on not slipping over ice or his own feet. "I didn't realise we'd come out so far…" Engie murmured to himself, "Well…" Snippy spoke, "that's what happens when you're being chased by the new top-predator". The Engineer gave a silent agreement, knowing all too well that this 'new' top predator in this despairing ecosystem had been top for some time- working its way through the cracks and crevices under civilization's nose and as the boundary between their old world and the newly established eco system broke, the worms took their chance.

"I see light" Sniper's words broke through the Engineer's thoughts; he looked up to see a dim glow of orange in the semi-distance, good. At least they won't freeze to death, at least not tonight. They both sighed in relief as the glow became brighter as they neared the source. Only freezing to hear a loud, thunderous Boom from afar- coming from the near-by lake. "What… was that?" "I don't know…" Engie quivered, drawing his arms up to his head, like some medieval drawbridge. "Maybe it was Captain?" Snippy suggested, trying to spot any Captain and Pilot-shaped silhouettes emerging from the blizzard. "Well…" Engie said, walking towards the 'house' that was their home, "you can go towards that boom and get yourself killed- I'm going to rest in front of the fire" "no…" Snippy Shuddered, catching up to Engie, "I'm not going near open water or frozen lakes ever… I'm not getting eaten by a whale again" the Engineer Scoffed as he opened the barely functioning door to their 'base', the fire still glowing a cool, but dimmed orange as if had given up hope of living in this wasteland for so long, what heat it had given out before had escaped the small room, into the cold icy emptiness.

"Whales don't exist anymore" Engie chuckled, throwing what was left of what seemed to be a broken chair or table before flopping himself onto a ragged chair himself. "They do…" Snippy frowned, taking a seat on his 'claimed' sofa. "No, they don't, they went extinct years ago when the oceans became too polluted to support the ecosystem they relied on, and so they died of starvation. Maybe you just got knocked out by Pilot and thought that happened" Engie replied, enjoying his nice and comfy sit-down, if you could call a partially broken chair comfy. The Sniper let out an irritated huff, unlooping his riffle strap and placing it up against the sofa, "Oh really" the Sniper questioned, refusing to believe that living in a whale was his imagination, "I was gone for a month, how do you explain that?" Alex paused for a moment, his brain thinking of a solution to win this small 'argument' "sometimes, people in dreams or comas think it's been days or the same time they fell asleep or went into that coma- that could of happened to you." It was the best answer he could give, shrugging his shoulders slightly at the thought. "Maybe that's what happened to Captain and pilot… I don't know how big fish can get- but I bet they can swallow people" Snippy thought aloud, his mind wondering into the insane.

They sat by the fire in an awkward silence, the crackling and spitting of the flames the only sounds erupting and echoing around the room, Snippy gave the fire a poke with a metal rod laying askew on the fireplace, almost as if to tell the fire 'be quiet or you will get a harsh poking' "I'm getting worried again…" Sniper said- breaking the silence. He didn't know why he was so worried about Captain. Engie kept telling him that 'he was the luckiest man alive- nothing could hurt him', and why should he worry? Without Captain he's not doing ridiculous and impossible tasks, put forth to embarrass him in an inhumane way. "I keep telling you" Engie sighed, "He's the-""I know…" Snippy harshly interrupted, tired of the same speech over and over again, "I just am, ok?" he huffed, looking away from his source of annoyance.

Just as the thought of going out again to search for Captain had crossed Charles' mind, the door swung open violently as a familiar boot kicked it, "Guten Tag, mein minions!" Captain boomed entering the room, Pilot following close behind like an attention seeking hound. "You should have been at Zee Lake! I almost caught a fish the size of zis house!" he gestured openly with his arms, "But!" he held his breath, pointing ant an imaginary object, "zee bugger escaped my grasp! I did not see zee benefit of such a cowardly fish, so I let it go, since I am a generous Captein" the cowardly engineer once again had his hands drawn close to his face from fear that it was another worm bursting into the room and not Captain. "So was it you that caused that explosion?" Sniper asked, half relived that Captain was alright, and half relived he didn't have to go out into the wastes again. "Explosion?" Captain echoed, "No, Mein Sniper, you misunderstand- it was zee fish bursting through the ice like a slivery train that caused zee boom- it almost knocked me and Pilot from zee ice! But it did not, because it was just a fish, after all! Fishes can't knock me over!" Sniper relaxed a little knowing that Captain wasn't hurt or dead and that he hadn't abandoned them in this waste. Maybe what Engie had said once was right, that they were only alive because Captain wished it so, and that fish was probably dead now because Captain couldn't find a use for it. But all pondering was lost as Captain had declared an 'important' meeting in the now decrepit kitchen; all members were to attend without exception.