NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4820136" data-attributes="member: 3285">Dead Letter: Part 9 – Who Let the Dogs Out?Howls and growls echoed all around them, an interruption to the staccato beat of the alarm that rang across the facility.“Guard dogs?” asked Fiona, pointing her revolver everywhere at once.“Worse,” said Jim-Bean.A bluish-red hound, its flesh torn and hanging, lurched from the darkness and slammed Keith to the ground.  He unloaded Jim-Bean’s Glock into its stomach, but the thing didn’t even react.  It bit hold of Keith’s face and worried his head like an old rag.Jim-Bean fired his HK in a spray, peppering the hound with bullets.  Its head exploded and it fell off of the bloody mess that was Keith.“I need a weapon!” wailed David.  “Keep them off me!”Jim-Bean didn’t get the chance to celebrate his victory.  Something big and wet slapped into his back, knocking him to the ground.  He rolled as teeth snapped at his face.It was another hound.  Jim-Bean struggled to maneuver the HK into position but he didn’t have room.  It bit down hard on his arm.  He screamed.The hound’s head exploded.  Fiona stood over Jim-Bean, both hands on the revolver, the barrel still smoking. “Thanks,” said Jim-Bean with a smile.“That was close,” said David, clearly shaken.  “What happened to Keith?” He took a closer look.  “Oh Jesus, look at his face!  LOOK AT HIS FACE!”Keith had no face. Guppy was down as another hound knocked him over.  He struggled to keep the dog’s mouth from biting his throat, but only ended up getting one arm gnawed on. Fiona took aim and fired.  BOOM! The midsection of the hound exploded off of Guppy.  As David stood freaking out, another hound snatched his ankle.  He fell down, wailing.The dog began dragging him into the darkness when its jaw was torn off by a sniper’s bullet.Fiona spun, pistol at the ready.  “Is that it?  Is that all of them?”“I think so,” said Jim-Bean.  He put to fingers on Keith’s throat.  “Keith’s dead.”“Oh God,” moaned David, clutching his ankle.  “I think it bit my ankle.”Fiona leaned over Guppy and listened to his breathing.  “Guppy’s unconscious, but he’s alive.”“I don’t feel well…” said David.Jim-Bean walked over to David, who sat rocking on the ground.  “That’s because you’re infected.”  He put the HK to the back of David’s head and pulled the trigger.He never knew what hit him.  A bullet hole exploded out of David’s forehead.  He slumped over.Fiona screamed, whirling on Jim-Bean.  “You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you!”Jim-Bean put up his HK in a gesture of compliance.  “Easy.  Easy.  David was infected with the Sapphire pathogen.  He’s was already dead, he just didn’t know it. That’s why there’s a green alarm instead of a red one; there was a chemical leak at this plant, something we had nothing to do with.”“What about you?” snarled Fiona, the revolver steady in her hands as she aimed it at Jim-Bean’s forehead.  “You were bitten!”“I…can compensate.”“And Guppy?  Are you going to kill Guppy too?”Jim-Bean sighed.  “No, I’m not going to kill Guppy.  I have friends who can help him.”“What kind of friends?” asked Fiona, not taking her eyes off Jim-Bean.  “Your American-Indian friends?”“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you, Fiona,” said Jim-Bean carefully.  Behind him, Hammer and Archive stepped out of the shadows.“You!” said Fiona.  “You’re not government agents, are you?”“Close,” said Hammer.  “We’re something more than that.  Now if you don’t mind, we’d like to save Guppy’s life.”Fiona put the pistol down.  Archive went over to Guppy and applied a poultice to the wound. “Your arm,” said Fiona softly.  “It’s not bleeding anymore.”Jim-Bean held up his forearm. There was no trace of a wound. “Just a scratch,” he said with a smile. “Like I said, I haven’t been entirely truthful with you. But I need to know I can trust you with that gun, because we’ve still got a job to do. If this chemical leak gets out into the atmosphere, the damage to the environment could be catastrophic.”“Are we still here to blow up ABC?”Jim-Bean nodded. “They have to be stopped.  If they can do this to dogs…”Fiona lowered the pistol.  “Then count me in.  But after this, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”“We’ll explain it in full detail,” said Jim-Bean.  “I promise.”Guppy sat up gasping from Archive’s ministrations.  “Dogs! Big dogs!”</blockquote>

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