BLOODWORTH 3: Blut und Stahl by Tai Goodman (distant reading TXT) 📕

over his shoulder. "Put that piece of shit down and let's do this with our fists, asshole." Rick threw the grenade launcher on the floor and held up two balled fists. "You don't have the balls to come kill me. Just cause you caught a fucking grenade."

Phoenix sprinted towards Rick, and then Rick stopped him by catching him by his neck inside of his hand. He was squirming all over the place while he was in Rick's grasp. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaa! HAHAHAHAHA! WAS THAT- WAS THAT REALLY IT? THE MASKED TERROR, THE MASKED TERROR, JUST GOT CAUGHT BY A FAT GUY. AND NOW HE'S BEING CHOKED TO DEATH."

 

Phoenix punched Rick in his forearm once, and then attempted to punch him in the face. Rick socked Phoenix in his head and continued to hold him within the palm of his hand. "You're worthless and WEAK! I can't even fucking LOOK at you right now! Now... GET OUTTA MY FACE!"

Rick tossed Phoenix through one of the building's windows. 

 

"Alright, let me correct myself. This is how I end. Fell from 13 stories. Gonna take a while to scrub the guts and blood off the ground once I hit it. I saw more in America than I did anywhere else. Got this far. Tried so hard. Turns out the nice guy finished last." Then Phoenix started soaring towards the ground. 

Calvin's jaw dropped at the sight he just witnessed. "Ph-Ph-Phoenix?" Calvin mumbled. He walked towards the window, but was stopped by Rick. "I KILLED THE AMERICAN, NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE BRIT." Calvin was thrown against the floor, far from his gun. Rick plumped himself right over Calvin's chest, and then wrapped his fingers around Calvin's neck. "WHAT'S WRONG? TROUBLE BREATHING? I KNOW, RIGHT? I HAVE ASTHMA. One day, when I was a young boy, I forgot my inhaler. I had to sit out from a game we were playing. Then the next day. And the next."

 

Calvin reached for his weapon, despite the distance from it. Rick forced Calvin to look him in the eye by shoving his head upwards. "LOOK AT ME. YOU AIN'T GETTING THAT BACK SO WHAT'S THE POINT ANYWAYS?"

Calvin slammed his fists against Rick's arms. "...Get off!"

His vision started turning blurry, his eyes watering. "See you in hell, CHUMP." Then Rick listened to what seemed to be a machine. "THE HELL'S THAT NOISE?"

Then in front of an unbroken window, a window washer's platform rose to the 13th floor. And PHOENIX was on top of it. 

 

"No... HOW?" 

 

Phoenix punched the window's glass into snowflake sized pieces. Walking through, he cocked his pistol and aimed it at Rick's crotch, firing. "AAGH!"

Rick hit his knees, and with his finger, Phoenix angled Rick's head up to his face. "HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE?"

 

Phoenix inserted both of his thumbs into Rick's eyes and split his skull in half. Then he turned to Calvin. "We ain't got time, get on that thing out there so we can go!"

Calvin nodded, while confused, and walked outside with Phoenix onto the platform. The platform was set to go to the roof, and traveled vertically. "I hope this damned thing goes faster, we're exposed!" Calvin indicated to Phoenix while clutching his weapon again. The platform reached the top where the helipad is. "You know how to fly a helicopter, mate? Cause I don't!"

 

"Well I can learn."

 

Phoenix climbed into the cockpit and looked at the plethora of controls and gadgets. "What in the hell is all this shit?" 

Calvin climbed inside and noticed the mounted machine gun on the side. "Hoo hoo hoo! I need to use this thing at LEAST once!" cheered Calvin, gripping the machine gun's grips. Phoenix pulled a lever, and the lights on the vehicle turned on. "Shit, wrong one." He looked for the switch to the air-traveling mechanism, and discovered it, labeled, "LIFT-OFF." Phoenix then saw the key was left in the ignition. "If I know one thing about helicopters, it's not about the helicopters itself, but it's that the pilot of this one is a complete idiot!"

 

The helicopter floated off of the ground as the propellers rotated at a higher and higher speed, along with the back one, and flew away. Calvin's eyes fixated themselves on the gas station from a bird's eye view. "Hmm..."

Calvin aimed the machine gun at the roof of the station and KA-BOOM! The gas station exploded into a giant mushroom cloud of orange, black, and grey, sending debris out of its radius. Phoenix said, "WHOA! JEEZ! CALM DOWN WITH THAT THING!"

 

And then Calvin was pounced on by someone from behind. "AAHH! PHOENIX! HELP ME, MATE!" 

He was hanging onto the skid of the helicopter by both of his hands. The pilot, however, was hanging from one of Calvin's shoes. He removed a knife from one of the pockets of his pants, and stabbed Calvin in his foot. "AAHH! WHAT THE FUCK?!"

 

He removed the blade, and plunged it into his flesh again. Phoenix looked behind the seat and abandoned the cockpit. "HOLD ON, MAN!" 

Phoenix was about to reach for Calvin, and noticed the pilot. "Oh, it was a trap all along. But still, I mean, who leaves the keys in a vehicle and just leaves it alone? That's just fucking retarded." Phoenix shot the pilot in his shoulder, causing him to release Calvin and fall to a low death at ground level.

 

Chapter X: Hot LZ

Calvin looked around at all of the land accompanied by futuristic buildings and technology they were passing. "When did all this... 'Electronic shite' come? I can't remember the last time I saw a tree in a huge patch of grass," Calvin questioned Phoenix as he was flying the helicopter. Phoenix shrugged and examined the controls, yet again. 

"Better question is when was the last time we've seen a huge patch of grass. All this industrial, electronic, and robot shit's all the United States are now," Phoenix questioned Calvin as a response. "I mean, if you did, I'd pay you a few grand just for a picture as a memory." 

Phoenix then noticed a spot of color besides him in the corner. Beige. Wrinkled. He turned and saw Hans in the co-pilot seat. "Great. Now that we're out of the proximity where we fucked shit up, you know where Montana is from here?"

Hans responded, "Nein."

Calvin answered, "What? Can't hear you cause of the helicopter blade!"

 

"WHERE'S MONTANA? IS THERE SOMETHING HERE THAT CAN HELP US GET TO MONTANA?" 

 

Calvin looked around in the back of the aircraft. There was a map of Asia. "What the shite? Are you kidding me?" 

He brought it to the front of the helicopter, and when he sat down, Hans moved over, appearing to be cramped. "I found a map of ASIA. ASIA! WHO CARRIES A MAP OF ASIA IN A HELICOPTER BEING PILOTED IN SODDING AMERICA?" 

He was about to rip it. "PIECE OF- BOLLOCKS!"

 

His thumb moved the continent of Asia downwards. Calvin stopped and looked at the map. "What in the hell?" Calvin asked. Phoenix looked at the map. "What?"

"It just bloody moved. The map did."

Phoenix laughed and asked, "A piece of paper... It moved?"

"Watch." 

 

Calvin swiped to the left of the paper, and then did it again. "See." He then scrolled to where the United States were. "Oh. Wait a second..." 

He zoomed in, and the map of the USA became more and more detailed as he zoomed in. Alright, so we're still in Iowa, which way are we going?"
Phoenix checked the compass which was being stared at by Hans. "North."

"Go a little to your left. We can get a shortcut across South Dakota."

Phoenix piloted to the left, to South Dakota. 

 

Then a memory flashed through his mind. It was of the police station during first few days of the Nazi regime's control. Phoenix looked at his hands. He felt weak. "Where am I?"

Then from the back of the police station, a giant needle with yellow fluid inside of it crashed through the cell wall, through the bars, and the point impaled Phoenix through his side. "AAAAAH!" 

And all of a sudden, he felt even stronger than before. A Nazi exited a room, spinning in quick 360 degree circles, and then stopped in front of Phoenix with a shotgun. He turned it around and pointed the barrel at himself. "What the hell is in my mind?"

He grabbed onto the shotgun and blasted the Nazi, only to watching him float through the ceiling and disappear. There was a sudden ruckus beneath him. And Phoenix found out that the station was rotating sideways. "OH NO!"

Then it stopped once Phoenix landed on the ceiling, beaten from the disruption it caused. Nazis entered the building with weapons.

 

"...!su htiw emoC !nopaew ruoy porD!" 

 

"What?"

Then a rewind symbol appeared in front of him like a floating phantasm. The cry reversed, and revealed, "Drop your weapon! Come with us!"

Phoenix pumped the shotgun, and blew open a Nazi's chest with the blast. CH-CH! He turned to the second Nazi who was ready to fire. He pulled the Nazi to his left in front of him. "TAKE HIM! NOT ME!"

"I'll take both, asshole!" Phoenix spouted without thinking clearly. His finger squeezed the trigger, sending out a shotgun blast that didn't travel all the way. Instead, it was stuck floating in mid-air. "Ummm... What?"

The blast then slowly floated into the front Nazi's face, and sent pieces of flesh and blood everywhere. The buckshot floated out of his face, floated over his head, and then went into the back of the other Nazi's skull. "AGH! MEIN LEBEN!"
Phoenix hit the ground with both hands on his head. "GOTTA GET A GRIP!" remarked Phoenix, clutching his head. He clawed a few of his hairs out of his scalp, and looked up to watch a Nazi melt into a puddle out of pure fear. "Ha ha ha... This guy melted. Melting's for PUSSIES. And I'm not a pussy." 

 

The front of the building was destroyed, and a Nazi helicopter was outside. "WHOA, WHAT THE FUCK?"

 A grenade launcher appeared in his hands, and a voice informed him, "Do it, NOW." 

 

Phoenix cocked the grenade launcher and fired a projectile into the helicopter, taking it down. And then Phoenix awakened from the dream.

 

Chapter XI: Denial

 SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH DAKOTA

 

Phoenix opened his eyes to see Calvin impaled through his side, with his hand on Phoenix's shoulder. He blinked and then tapped Calvin. "Hey... Wake up..." 

Shaking his body back and forth, Calvin didn't respond. "Cal. Buddy, we gotta wake up. I don't know where I even am..." 

His vision cleared and he discovered Calvin was dead. "HOLY SHIT! AGHHH WHAT THE FUCK?"

Phoenix inched backwards and then fell through the helicopter door, and into a forest. "So much for no trees. Guess I was wrong." He peered upwards, seeing the helicopter had crashed into a bunch of trees. Abhy emerged from the