"Hey, Zena?" An instructor spoke as he looked at the class with near ambiguous eyes devoid of objectivity.

"Yes sir?"

" Why does it seem that we're missing five people today of all days?"

" I wish I could answer that sir, but I'm not in charge of the manpower department of this class."

" Hmmn, In the other rooms I saw entire classes gone or missing some." He replied with distress slightly hidden in his tone.

" Oi! How's the news?" Pyotr asked Erika as she looked at three 23rd century style tablets laid-out under her desk.

" Chyortz! It's nearly ten past eight and not a single notification so far."

" Hey did you guys feel a slight rumbling last night?" Uwe asked as a reak of scrutiny escaped his brow.

" Which one? The one on your bed? Hahahahahh! Oh shit!" Katrin exclaimed after looking at Lieselote's desk (empty!). "She's not here!"

" And you were kind enough to make an inappropriate joke in the most crucial of all times." He spoke with such sarcastic tonality, Shakespearian mood as if mocking through song and art ending with a devilish unimpressed smile. Classic Uwe.

" First my morning talkshow and now communications, this is grim. I'm wondering why the faculty hasn't declared a state of emergency." once more the instructor stated in his own grimdark way, but what do you expect from somebody who wears a victorian tophat with steampunk brass goggles with a metallic skull emblazoned on its leather straps. Not to mention the number of skulls and bones adorning his body, the wedding ring wasn't spared either. Considering that he had a good amount of attractiveness in him, it's still a question as to who married him.

'Sigh' the man sighed as he looked at that clock, ' another minute passes, another hour lost' he thought as he looked at the silent and attentive class. Attentive, that is looking at you with dead silent eyes watching your every move. With the withering silence that loomed, he looked at the book he brought and thought: 'might as well do over-time and visit darling in the hospital during my spare time.'

'Sigh' he looked at the class and gave a faint smile through his tight and cute lips. He opened his mouth as to speak and just as he was about to utter his first word, the school's alarm siren blared! It went with a few "beeps" and "dats" before going on a loop.

' Bleedin' evac crank! It's too early' He thought as he slammed his palm into the book.

" Okay, you know the drill! Class dismissed!" He said with a growl and packed up amongst the students, joining them as they went out.

" Is this bad?" Danya asked Andrey as he joined the line.

" The last time this sounded, a fourth of the town was dead." He said without a sense of personality at all, nearly as if a depressed ghost just spoke.

" If it so happens that the worst would come, are you ready to leave brother?" He asked in a way that nearly the entire class pressed their eyes on him, he spoke with emotion.

" Worst is yet to come and man you're creeping out." The reply came in an old broadway tune.

" Just remember to stay close to Irina and wait for me. I have it all covered."

" I wish I could vouch for that. We're lacking in terms of firepower." Katya spoke calmly and composed.

" Darling, I could finally say you never knew me."

***

1000hrs...

Somewhere near the agrarian outskirts of the city.

She looked at the sight of a boring Swamp with traces of metal and submerged military equipment scattered everywhere. "Outpost 18," She thought as she sighed, remembering the sad tale of its last crew.

" Why are we here Andryusha? This place had a bad history and reputation for years. This place gives us the creeps!!!" She stated as Andrey strolled in a very carefree way towards the bunker entrance a few hundred paces away from them.

Scarred, Damaged and Desolate was the carapace of the bunker that he approached. Yet he still went on as if it was his domain and his own country; one which harbored a danger that many would wish to just disappear.

Two lurkers the size that of an elephant lie in wait amongst the ruins. They watched him as strolled like a delirious rockstar holding an imaginary guitar plucking, stroking, and making sounds that seemed to come from a sitar than a guitar.

Irina felt her back shiver! She noticed something, a human bone clutched in the midst of the ruins, and it moved! She grabbed Danya's arm and clutched it, firmly and with eyes that had seen the devil himself.

She cried: " Stop him, please stop him! He'll get hurt!" She said pathetically and seeking empathy, pleading with him to stop his brother. He couldn't understand but Irina did, she knew precisely what she meant.

He kept strolling and strolling, until at one point stopped and stood still. In Irina's eyes, the world stopped and stood still as she saw claws and two massive creatures with metallic drills for tusks lounged at her guardian. They were closing in fast when suddenly, he jolted and stretched his arms to his side; stopping the lurkers in mid-air.

'Lazy Bums!!!' He flared at the thought and then as if in a concert stroked an imaginary guitar in his hand so brazenly that a discarded metallic guitar flew at him and couched itself in his hands. Another stroke and some strings from nowhere welded themselves to the guitar and made some unnerving noise as he stroke.

He went on stroking those strings making some little sense in the sound it made, that is until they found out what it meant. The lurkers rose from the ground and made orgasms that rocked their bodies. The music was a death tune, meant to imitate the sound of innards and blood spurting everywhere inside those massive monstrosities. Then came his end card, one final bloodcurdling stroke and the beasts erupted in thousands of bits the size of sawdust!

He played an intelligible tune, that resembling a challenge when a much larger 100-foot tall lumbering lurker awakened and approached him. He plucked a single string and a fuselage of an aircraft large enough to carry a battalion of men flew into the sky in the speed of light. The beast charged at the speed of twenty kilometers an hour when the object struck its head like lightning. This time it was the size of a smaller metallic bar that tore its skull from its neck.

Bloodied and with eyes so wicked, Andrey turned and said to his company: "Welcome to my humble fort. Move it! I have some people to show you." A few seconds later a patrol of four people in dark latex-like suits appeared running extremely fast as a much bigger Lurker chased them. Just as enough distance was covered, the group turned and faced the monster before sending a hail of heated plasma straight into its face, melting its monstrous flesh into goo.

"Did that twit send just a single team to hunt?" Andrey hailed them as he stood on the spot.

"We're still understaffed sir!" A member replied as they started to drift away and continued the hunt.

"Never mind!" He hissed as he turned towards the trio and went straight to the bunker.

They went in and were surprised by the population of the bunker they went into. It was alive inside but dead and desolate from the outside. Andrey explained that the people inside were from the "Black bottle Corp" and he gave them permission to stage their operations from here, and those four carcasses outside were unfinished cleaning he had to make after buying the place from the military.

They were strolling the busy desks with people saluting Andrey or Danya and sometimes ignoring the rest. They approached a sealed metallic door with a crank and opened it. Katya tried to get a figure on the door's thickness and found it was 2 feet thick. 'Absurd' she thought. 'a feet would've proved efficient.' Moving on to an office with a bed and a large locker was a man lying on the bed with a metallic arm. His face was odd to note, with an eye open and another closed, and soft breathing in between the tick of the clock.

"Brother! I do not believe I permitted you to sleep on my bed."

The man turned and faced Andrey with his other eye still closed.

"And I don't believe I gave you permission to sleep on mine when we were younger!" And at that moment the party learned that he lost that eye, his left eye.

He stood up though still drowsy but with a smile. Andrey walked towards him and only helped him lie down instead of giving the chap a punch to the shoulder as he always greets his twin.

"You should sleep more often, you're killing yourself with your habits."

"If only I had enough time to take a good night's rest, Otto's doing the job at the moment. Said he might as well fill in until I can stand."

Andrey smiled and looked at Danya as Dietrich turned his head towards the green-eyed teen.

Looking at the newcomer he greeted: "It's been a while, little brother."

"It's been a while since you whacked me with a newspaper. I always thought I was crazy proclaiming that somebody who looked like me smacked me with one."

The brothers laughed as Dietrich said: "What miserable bunch of smelly sandwich spreads did mom make in her spare time."

"A bunch of smelly shrimp pastes!" The twin said in unison as brothers laughed hysterically. The two girls meanwhile were still confused at this weird humor the three possessed.

"Anyway, mom did send his pastes. They're in the locker, want some Andrey?" Dietrich asked looking at Danya as Andrey went and fetched a jar and made a salty sandwich, worthy of a dialysis machine.

"You missed those didn't ya?"

"A lot!!!" Both said as they took a massive bite.

" Anyway, we're going to the arsenal. You get some shut-eye in the meantime alright."

"Yes sir, it is good for the taking." He said as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The group closed the door and went to the arsenal, witnessing soldiers being trained in their midst using live lurkers for training and lectures. Andrey walked and stood amid a thousand or more weapons and ammunition in front of him. He took a deep breath and proclaimed: "This just solved our firepower problem."

A corpsman went running towards him and screamed: "Sir! A package has just arrived in the tunnels, Commander Erich has asked for your presence."

"Erich, It's a bit odd for a NOBODY to be assigned with a package. Nonetheless, tell him that I'm coming in a jiffy."

"Yes sir!!!" The man replied and went on running. Andrey took a pistol and went to the terminal where the tunnels lead to other places in Azuna with its well-polished splendor of marble and terracotta.

There Erich was sitting with a pack of soldiers with him guarding a ten-foot tall box, six feet wide and eight feet across.

" Please, don't tell me this is another avtomat meant to kill me, Erich."

"Not at all, It's a gift from your father. You won't have problems with troops, he says." Said Erich with a smile. Andrey however went closer and broke a plank with his fist, an inscription was written on that side of a metallic machine.

He went closer to Katya and bit her slowly and tenderly in the ear. Her reaction was luscious and highly acceptive of his conduct and as such he asked: "It's the fifteenth isn't it?"

"Ja!" She replied as he once again asked: " Can I Have your egg?"