Louis Wrath's Story

Casper had been sitting in a dark corner of the room with the fireplace, covered in a series of blankets that he carried with him on a strap that hooked to the military style bag that he accommodated on the group’s adventures. Sleep, like most other luxuries, had become nothing but a distant memory. Hell, even before the invasion Casper could barely remember a time when he could sleep soundly. When he was young the fear of his father, may he rot in hell, had kept him shaking in his bed for years. Even after he left the sick bastards house he would have long nights of starring at the door of his one room apartment, worried that his father would come back again.

Nowadays if he wasn’t having nightmares of prison or sexual abuse he was so paranoid that the aliens would come barging through the door that he couldn’t get to sleep. So most nights ended up like this one, lying under the covers and writing out the draft for one of his two newest books. One was simply a journal in which he chronicled every day of his life in the new world; he started back when the aliens first descended from the skies like the horsemen of the apocalypse a little over ten years ago. The second was a book he thought up just before the invasion and never got around to writing until recently. He needed a release so what better way to do that than writing his own world? His book was called “Chronicles of Days Past” and took multiple events of his own life to create a unique story about an alcoholic musician who travels a distant galaxy, living on scraps to survive. Then, one day an army of intergalactic invaders show up to devastate the galaxy and the musician falls into the company of a band of survivors. Each character was based off someone in the group, with himself being the musician and so far it was looking very promising.

Casper was on his tenth college grade journal, each year had its own journal, and the first journal of his book. He had hit the jackpot a while back and raided an office max for as many journals as he could hold and a few writing utensils. More than half of his supplies weight was paper and pencils. He didn’t care; it helped take him away from the harsh reality that surrounded him everyday. He was already on the second chapter of ‘The Chronicles’ and already he thought it was going to be too depressing. He needed something to lighten it up a bit but he wasn’t sure what yet, maybe he should start taking into account a comedic relief. If anything the group was never short on laughs.

As he lay there writing the sound of footsteps caught his attention and he looked up from his spot on the floor just in time to see Louis take a squat near the flames, the man had been walking around for a long time. He probably didn’t notice that Casper was awake or he simply didn’t care to check as he knew that the ex-author usually wasn’t. Louis was a good man, the only other in the group that was almost as old as Casper. Still, Casper took the cake in age which did not help in his self-confidence at all. Being the soldier of the group he was always up late to be sure the aliens didn’t sneak up on them. Casper had been writing Louis as the strong armed and cunning soldier of the group in his book; wasn’t satisfied with just that though. Louis had a story behind him and Casper wanted to hear it all, after this entire book would serve as a tribute to the group after the war…if humanity even survived extinction that is.

Slowly Casper uncovered himself and exposed his body to the dark corner. Instantly the cold air of the unheated shadows shook his body and he wrapped his arms around himself.

Christ it’s colder than a witches left tit in here. Casper thought as he closed the spiral notebook he was using and placed it neatly next to his blankets. He hurried to his feet and marched over to the warmth of the fire. The warm orange and yellow glow illuminated his body and he instantly felt more relaxed. Nothing like a warm fire to sooth the nerves, especially in the snow storms of Colorado that Casper had known his whole life.

Taking a quiet sit next to the former marine, Casper put his hands out over the fire and closed his eyes. The sound of the flames and the glowing warmth reminded him of Christmas, the one day of the year when his father would put down the drink and the family would sit around the fire and all pretend to love one another.

“This is nice isn’t Louis, everything in the world is fucked up and yet we can still enjoy a nice fire.” He smiled with amusement and shook his head “funny how such a simple thing can mean so much, isn’t it?”

A single tear began welling up in Wade's eye as he struggled to hold back the emotion. The pain of loss, the sting of failure and the sorrow of never again getting to read of his favorite characters exploits. The merc sniffled, almost like a child would, as he rubbed his nose with his forearm. His eyes scanned the page of his book at an even speed, he was paying careful not to miss a single word. He was nearing the end of the epic moment in the book he was reading "Deep into the Heart of no Return", a science fiction novel written by none other than Wade's own group mate Casper. Poor Casper was unlucky enough to find out that not only was Wade reading his books but was a huge fan and the Merc with a Mouth made it his personal responsibility to complain to the author every chance he got when something in the book rubbed him the wrong way. A fan having constant, unlimited access the the author of their favorite source of a media was a dream come true, even at the end of the world.

Finally unable to bear any more torment Wade put the unused condom he'd been using as a book mark between the page and closed the book before stuffing it in his pack. He groaned with a tired yawn with a stretch as his mind was still reeling from the fresh literary loss. Wade got to his feet and stumbled around the room he'd been staying in looking for his shirt which apparently had grown legs and walked out. He grumbled to himself as he kicked around in swanky bedroom, or at least once swanky bedroom. Time and the slow decay that came with no occupants has reduced the room and the house as a hole to a shadow of it's former glory. Wade half chuckled to himself as the condition of the house reminded him of the condition of the planet.

"Ah, there you are ya sumbitch."

Wade said aloud to himself as he found his shirt hanging off an old lamp. It must've landed there when Wade ripped it off last night and hurled it into the darkness of his room without really looking. He turned around and headed for his pack but slipped and fell with a hard thud. He cursed aloud with a flurry of profane words, half of which he probably made up, as he reached beneath him to see what he slipped on. His hand grasped something oval in shape with a series of ridges and bumps along the exterior. A familiar soft jingling sound rang out as he lifted it up as the safety pin clinked against the body of the device. Wade lifted it up and found himself looking at one of the countless frag grenades that was supposed to be in his pack but that must have tumbled out.

"Ah ha, oh that could've been bad."

He said with an amused chuckle as he got to his feet and tossed the grenade casually in his hand a few times before dropping it in his pack. He strapped his dual Colt 1911's to either thighs, grabbed his tactical knife which he slid into the sheath at the small of his back before leaving his room. He trotted down the steps noticing the chill in the air. He half shivered as he hit the bottom stair to see Louis and Casper sitting around the fire place.

Wade always like Louis, he was a solider, a good guy but one thats seen enough shit that he began to question shit. Hell the guy no doubt had lost people, who hadn't these days, but the way he got quiet when he thought no one was looking was a dead give away. Wade never felt the need to push the issue and ask him and end up catching a fist to his teeth so he just left it alone. He was well aware of his faults and one of his biggest was subtly so if Captain America ever wanted to chat he'd listen but he wouldn't ask much, safer that way.

Next to him was someone Wade had quickly latched onto due to his love of the man's books. At first Wade probably was more of an annoyance to the author than anything and while that may very well still be true Wade's lovable, albeit incessant, jolliness won over the author and the two had become something of friends since banding together. Casper was another one with a dark and spooky past that Wade knew nothing about. It seemed to be a running theme in this group. Caspers was a little different seeing as how Wade knew a little bit about it. Something to do with drugs and booze, plus a little jail. Wade was considerably less afraid of getting shot by Casper which allowed him the freedom to ask the man why he seemed get all weird when they all wanted to have a drink. Capser didn't really give him many details but did fill him in on the cliff notes.

The thought of cliff notes hurled Wade back into the piercing loss of his favorite character.

"Yo author Douche McKillmyfavoritecharacter!"

Wade said in greeting.

"What's up Cap?"

Wade said quickly to Louis before turning back to Casper.

"Dude you killed her? You killed her?! Ellie was my fav, my bff, my home girl and you just gibb her? Dude that's cold even for you."

Wade complained as he took a seat next to Casper.

"I cried bro, like for reals, tears of sadness and a little rage. I mean she went out cool what with the whole sacrifice herself for the group thing but fuck man. Right in the feels man."

The gentle bump of someone walking absent mindedly into the sarcastic mercenary shook him from his fan based whining causing him to to turn his head in curiosity.

"Hope you're gunna by me a drink first bub."

He said jokingly as he turned to see who had come up all on his ass. To his surprise it was Ulysses, that hot reporters camera guy. He seemed like a pretty chill guy, that was when he wasn't drooling after Kat, which by the way was nothing against Ulysses cause that smoking hot blonde was easy to drool after. Wade had been caught lost in her mile long legs on more than one occasion, stupidly staring like a drunk ape. Wade always guessed Ulysses had a real thing for her, even though this proverbial Clark Kent seemed to constantly get played like a bad song by the head strong reporter.

"What's up Smallville?"

Wade asked only to have Ulysses began screaming wildly like he was seeing a ghost.

''No...you aren't here...you...you..YOU ARE DEAD!''

He shouted as panic took him. His eyes were wild and erratic as if whatever sight only his eyes saw terrified him to the very core. Ulysses lunged for Wade only to find himself thrown to the ground in seconds. Wade wasted no time grabbing his arm and throwing off balance before whipping him to the floor. The merc got on top of Ulysses, pinning his arm down with an expert twist keeping the camera man from moving or risk breaking something valuable.

"Hey sunshine, you're buddy Wade here. Not sure what the hell you're seeing but sorry to disappoint, I'm not dead, well not since last time I checked. I am also pretty sure I am in fact "here", if I wasn't I don't think I could have your arm ready to pop the way I do. If any of this is sinking just let me know so I can let you up, this bromance moment is getting a little weird."

A tremble racked through her whole body as a cold crisp wind whispered from behind, violently blowing snow and blonde strands forward. Kat shivered as she pulled the down coat tighter around her lithe form.

“Damn waste of time!” She muttered to herself furiously; warm breath clouding before her in smoky puffs.

This weather was going to drive her crazy! Kat thought mutinously spitting snow. She couldn't get a good shot on anything up in the sky. It had been two weeks since she and Ulyssess had come across the house once more and the weather had steadily gotten worse as had Kats temper. At this rate she was never going to get back to the Underground. To that warm studio with lights and cameras and electricity! And some damn form of civilization!

Kat trudged on through the knee high snow. Her temper the polar opposite of the freezing weather. She just wanted to get back down there. Was it so much to ask to sit behind a warm desk and report the news? She'd spent years risking her neck up here on ground zero to report the latest developments of the war between the two freaking alien fractions. It was high time someone else do the hard work! Kat convinced herself. In fact when she got back down to the Underground, she would tell – No! She would demand that she be given position of Anchor. She was done with this shit!

“Whoa!”

A large cloud of snow puffed up into the air as Kat landed flat face first in the snow. Sputtering and spitting, she managed to sit up and attempted to brush all the snow away . . . unsuccessfully.

“Argh!” Kat seethed angrily, her hands flailed sending more snow to stir the air.

She was so sick of this shit! She shouldn't have to live like this. She should . . . She should. She should be sitting under the lazy French sun, sipping a cappuccino with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.

Sniffing, wiping her cold red nose on the back of her hand Kat sat in the pre-dawn darkness in the stirring snow for a moment before looking out across the distance. The wind whistled a haunting tune as dead as the forest that surrounded her. A flame flickered in the distance. Kat was tempted to call it home but she stopped herself. No, it was not home. It couldn't be. It was . . . It was just temporary. That's what she had been telling herself for the past ten years. Moving from one place to the next. One report to another . . . Kat just couldn't believe that this was all her life amounted to.

It wasn't long before Kat was opening the front door. She had ventured out during the dark of night when the snow had lightened but as soon as she had gotten far enough to not turn back it had start falling in bucks. Blocking any view of Denver and the huge space crafts that hovered over it.

Slamming the door shut, not caring if she woke anyone, Kat stomped into the main room trailing a track of melting snowflakes behind her. Coming to a stop before the fire, Kat quickly shed the large puffy down coat and flipped the furry Ugg boots off her feet; shivering in pleasure. The heat of the roaring fire hit her like a heavenly brick wall.

Man, she needed a drink.

It was only then, she began paying attention to the scene before.

“Nice.” She smirked down at the two men on the floor as she pulled out the handy cam she always kept in her coat pocket and flipped it open. “I always knew you were queer Winston. I'm so getting this on camera.”

Wade was about to respond to Ulysses explanation and corresponding apology when he heard Kat and noticed the camera.

"Are we on camera?"

Wade said stupidly before turning to look down at Ulysses then back to Kat.

"Well... this is awkward..."

He said forelornly before he seemed to sigh in resignation before he lifted him to his feet and brushing off his shoulders like a doting mother before a pageant.

"Well good buddy, guess there's only one thing to do. DANCE!"

Wade proclaimed dramatically before he proceeded attempt the worlds worst excuse for Beyonce's single ladies dance. Unfortunately for all those in attendance Wade also felt it necessary to butcher the songs lyrics as well.

"If you like it you should have put a ring on it! If you like it you should have put a ring on it! If you like it you should have put a ring on it! Something something ...(incoherent mumbling)... All the single ladies! HOHOHOHO!"

“Yeah not even I want that on camera.” Kat said snapping the camera shut but no without being able to fight a smile.

Heading towards the side board near the back of the room, Kat opened the cupboard and inspected their levels of alcohol stock. They were fast dwindling. But tonight she was breaking into the good stuff.

Grabbing a bottle of Jack and a tumbler, Kat filled it to the top for herself, not bothering to offer any to the others. She needed warming up from the inside. Coming back to the blazing fire, Kat slumped down into one of the comfy couches and flipped the small screen on her camera open again. Hitting the rewind button. Come on! There had to be something useful recorded tonight . . . Except there wasn't. It was just black broke by white flashes as the small speaker crackled with the sound of the wind.

Swearing something vicious. Kat turned on the couch so her bare feet dangled over the armrest heated by the burning embers in the hearth. Sighing heavily, she took a hearty gulp of the amber liquid in her glass. The whiskey burned a warm trail down her throat, warming her from the inside out.

She had to get out of here . . .

“So why were you two getting it on in the middle of the floor?” Kat questioned lazily. “With an audience? I didn't think you were into that sort of thing Ulyssess? Winston on the other hand . . .” Well all bets were off.

"What we done? Ah shit I was just about to whip out the cat daddy."

Wade said with slumped shoulders like a child in the grips of utter disappointment. He kicked his toe at the ground saddly before looking up at Kat and strutting over to her before casually leaning on her shoulder.

"Hey Lois, next time we crazy kids break it down you need to join in and turn this bro down into a ho down."

Wade's face was plastered with a big stupid grin as he went on ignoring Ulysses more serious words. Some people thought Wade's way of making light of every situation was merely out of his own stupidity or childish immaturity. Some people would be wrong. Others would say that it was his subconscious making light of the grim seriousness of his surroundings. Others would be no more right than some people. The truth was Wade didn't really give a shit. He was like a dog chasing cars, he wouldn't know to do with one if he caught it.

"Oh and shit I dunno, this time it wasn't me forcing cuddles on members of our group. Smallville here thought it be fun to go all crazy before having me rock bottom his ass."

"Dibs!"

Wade said excitedly as he rushed over and relived Louis of the heavy, heavy burden the beers no doubt brought upon him. He pulled one out of the plastic turtle killer and popped it open with a clean hiss. He took a long thristy gulp before sighing in joy and looking at Louis with a happy grin.

"Dude, I kinda love you right now."

He downed the beer within the next few gulps before popping open a second, tossing himself on the couch and kicking his feet up.

"Ok Avengers, what's the plan from here? Alien ass kickery? Loki style trickery? Pancake making-ery?... ok so the last one didn't rhyme. Shit it's not like I have the time to sit there and write out what I say like I was sitting in front of a computer writing some shitty online role-play or something. I can't proofread my thoughts."

"Hey Lois, next time we crazy kids break it down you need to join in and turn this bro down into a ho down."

“Why would I do that? You and Ulyssess seemed to be enjoying yourself quite well without me.” Kat commented blandly, moving so the big lug slumped across her back slid down suddenly.

She kept a surreptitious eye of Wade Winston, always. He had a thing about getting up close and rubbing up on her like a Wolf in heat. Kat didn't trust any of the wack jobs in this house. She didn't know them well enough. And even if she did she wasn't the friend making sort. She didn't have time for such trivialities in her life. But she couldn't deny to her own surprise that Winston's goofing around genuinely brought a smile to her face. One she didn't always show. Like presently.

Turning to Ulyssess; Kat had ignored Ulyssess earlier comments. He was a bigger kill joy then she was. Plus, she hadn't brought him along for his opinions. His job was to get a good shot of her and then a decent shot of the situation. Coming to this cabin had relaxed his work ethic and if he didn't pick up the slack soon, he was going to get one of her sharp talkings to.

"Pleasure to see you alive and thriving Ms Lawless." Kat turned in the direction of Louis Wrath's sardonic voice.

She smiled brightly at him. A smile that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Listening with half an ear as Louis ran through their choices of breakfast beverage.

“I think I'll stick with what I've got.” She commented taking another sip of the strong whiskey.

"Ok Avengers, what's the plan from here? Alien ass kickery? Loki style trickery? Pancake making-ery?... ok so the last one didn't rhyme. Shit it's not like I have the time to sit there and write out what I say like I was sitting in front of a computer writing some shitty online role-play or something. I can't proofread my thoughts."

Kat scowled at Winston's words.

“Where exactly would you fight Aliens in the middle of a snow storm, genius?” She snapped.

"In the snow?"

Wade replied back with a blank stare. Suddenly the image of every member of the group engaged in a massive team battle snowball fight with the aliens played out in his head. Louis had a gatling gun that fired snow balls. Ulysses and Casper were in cover behind the safe walls of the snow fort lobbing snow like grenades, that of course exploded on contact in a shower of snow crystals and shrapnel. Wade was bamfing around the battle field with dual ice katanas fighting alien snowmen. And then there was Kat, prancing around in a skimpy little bikini and snow boots as she fired a dual smg's that fired ice spikes.

"Awww awesome...."

He muttered to himself as he got lost in his day dream.

Shit on a shingle, here comes his biggest fan girl. Wade was a good man but he did take the book a little too seriously, Casper was flattered he enjoyed his works so much and the two were friends but every time something happened that he disagreed with he got audio hate-mail sprayed in his ear.

It was actually rather funny that the big hulk of a man got so emotional over the characters, Ellie too nonetheless. "Deep into the Heart of darkness" was a book about a group of escaped convicts who take a family hostage and flee into an untraveled part of the galaxy and are consequentially stranded on a mysterious planet. However, in standard horror fashion, the planet is inhabited by an unknown entity that hunts them down one by one. Ellie was the spunky teenage daughter of the family and was purposely written to be loved by the reader so it would be extremely emotional when she met her inevitable and planned end. Up until her death only the convicts were being slaughtered and as any good writer could tell you, that just wasn't enough.

"Well, I wanted to go out in heroic fashion but she served as more than just that spunky teenager that everyone liked. She was a symbol of innocence and fun and when I killed her I showed how that innocence had also died in the rest of her family." Casper explained to the mercenary. In truth he did like having someone to explain his motivations to. Before the merc could respond Ulyssess bumped into him and the chaos started.

Before Casper was even sure what had happened, the cameraman was flipping his shit and Wade was jumping on top of him. Kat was filming, Casper was dying of laughter and this was going to make a great addition to his book. Wade, probably in attempt to distract from the awkward moment, got off of the camera man and started to dance.

Casper smiled at the cameraman "Now White, apocalypse love is a lot like prison love. The sex you want, you ain't getting and the sex you getting you don't want."

The rest of the group proceeded to discuss amongst them and eventually some drinks got pulled out. Casper looked at the cans with a drool and literally had to bite his tongue to resist screaming out that he wanted one.

He looked to the merc daydreaming about his snow war, “I have to admit, I agree with Kat, there is no way we can fight in this.”

Kat swung up onto her feet; whiskey sloshing, listening to Casper's comical explanation of sex in the worlds current war torn climate. Before Wade got that stupid look across his face and was lost in one of his fantasies. Kat kicked him hard in the shin to bring him back to reality.

“Look,” She said exasperated and irritated all at the same time. “We do need to do something. I can't spend the rest of my life hauled up in a house in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of guys one step removed from going homo on each other. So what's the plan? I mean after the snow stops.” She questioned Louis the unofficial leader of this weird ass clan.

She had to get back to the Underground. People were actually trying to do something down there. Kat couldn't believe that the world would never be put to rights again. It just had to!

“You write this shit.” Kat turned to Casper. Though she liked to read, science fic horror wasn't her favourite genre. “How do the humans in your novels make it out alive?”

So she'd asked the question. But even Kat wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer, unless it had a happy ending . . . For the humans. Taking a sip and then a gulp of the amber liquor, Kat decided it wasn't enough . . .