The shell was too close. The rifle stock slipped from her shoulder, weapon falling from her grasp as her feet began to pound the earth. The bomb's secondary and tertiary detonations were sending flame and brick high into the cloud-filled sky. The zig, zag, duck, roll, dodge, repeat of training flew out of her brain with each thundering heartbeat, her line straight and narrow. Shrapnel exploded to her right, making her stumble, but with gritted teeth she pushed herself to the edge of the shell's crater.
Their base was in ruins, nothing more than blasted rubble and melted debris. Ceilings had been opened ruthlessly to the sky, walls pockmarked with scraps of munitions and scorch marks, crumbling to dust as she watched. Soldiers carried wounded brethren between bleeding arms and missing limbs. Others cried, rocking the bodies of bunkmates and friends to their chest. Anna sucked air down her throat, rooted to the spot as the full scale of the destruction etched itself into her brain.
Soldiers pointed her onwards, increasingly close to the heart of the broken building. She navigated the twisted mass of metal and brick, holding her breath as her eyes searched every nook and cranny; a paradox of relief and fear washing through her as her target did not appear again and again.
Anna should have known where she'd find her, and maybe deep down she had. The communication room's metal door had buckled, left side blown completely inward. She listened for the tell-tale humming of equipment, the clicks and whirs of the radios and telegraphs housed within the darkened room.
Silence.
"Elsa?"
The name echoed into nothing, unease settling further in Anna's veins as she remembered that the same utterance would have been nearly smothered by the comings and goings of military personnel not two hours ago.
A muffled groan in the room beyond had her heart in her throat and her fingers like crowbars against the still-warm surface of the door. A few hard wrenches cleared the entryway, the metal toppling back with an almighty crash that reverberated throughout the vacant space. Anna coughed, attempting to dissipate the upset dust with waves of her hand.
"–'s there?"
The voice was thin, barely audible.
"Elsa!"
"That can only be Anna." There was a smile behind the words. "We're back here."
"Who's with you?" Anna asked as she picked her way through the components and papers strewn about the floor. The bomb had knocked the power out, so thankfully there were no sparks waiting to catch the entire room on fire.
Elsa coughed harshly before answering, and when she spoke again her speech was raspy and clipped. "Decoding partner. When the explosion hit the ceiling began to collapse. I pushed him behind the desks before taking cover myself." A pause. "He hasn't spoken since then so I don't know if he's alright. Will you check on him for me?"
Anna agreed, finding him right where Elsa had described. But one look and she knew he was gone.
Elsa's voice came from farther in the room. "Is… is he hurt?" Anna closed her eyes, exhaling through her nose.
"He didn't make it Els." Quiet greeted her. "I'm sorry…"
"No it's…well it's not okay but…" She cleared her throat. "How did he die?" Anna crouched to examine the body.
"Looks like he hit his head, or something did." Her lip curled, disturbed despite her respectable amount of time in a warzone, at the large dent in the man's head. "This thing," she hefted a large slab of concrete, "appears to be the culprit." She tilted her head up, "Probably from the ceiling like you said." The sound of fabric shifting had Anna discarding the piece and working her way farther into the room. "Where are you Elsa?"
"Actually I'm f-fine Anna," came Elsa's voice. It seemed different than before. "You can go back I'll… I'll meet you outside."
Anna paused, confused. "If you're fine, why haven't you left yet?" The fear of before began to creep up her spine. "Elsa? What's going on–?"
"No, Anna please, just– You have to go."
"I'm not leaving without you Elsa," Anna replied stubbornly. "I promised, remember? The day we got our draft notices I said I'd go where you go and make sure you come home. You promised the same for me."
"Anna I–"
"So you can see why I have a problem," Anna grunted, pulling herself over the last obstacle, "with you breaking that prom–
And then she saw Elsa.
"–ise…"
It's the most random things that come to mind: the irrelevant, the stupid, tiny things that don't matter. Like how the blood clashes so horribly with her platinum hair, how the concrete crushing her leg has some old graffiti on it, or how incredibly uncomfortable her position is, with her shoulders propped against a wall while the rest of her is splayed out like so much dead weight.
"You found me…" Pointless things, like how sad Elsa's eyes are as she says that, but it's all Anna could think about, staring at her sister.
Reality slammed into her like a cannon; she even felt her chest cave.
"Elsa!" The soldier ran forward and pried the weight off Elsa's leg, the sister saw the clenched teeth, the bone shards, the crimson stains on everything. Thoughts spewed unfiltered across her tongue. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you tell me to leave? Why would you do that? Why why why?"
"It wouldn't... have mattered," Elsa said faintly. Her left arm shifted, hand clinging to her right side. Blood flowed between her fingers, each breath widening the ever growing pool beneath her. Her uniform was soaked.
"Like hell Elsa," Anna shot back, "like hell it wouldn't have mattered." Her hands worked by themselves, months of training taking over and within minutes Elsa's leg was splinted and bandaged. "With the base gone there's going to be a full retreat. We can detonate the explosives beneath the desks and destroy our intelligence or take whatever you and your partner were working on and get the hell out of here." Anna reached out to take Elsa's hand and lift her up.
"Getting out huh? That sounds… difficult." Elsa eyed Anna's hand and seemed to deliberate with herself for a moment before turning her head away "Do you think we could… maybe just sit here? Just… for a little while…"
She trailed off, gaze fixing itself somewhere beyond what remained of the ceiling. As Elsa became silent, a chill ran down Anna's spine, and she placed her hand on top of the one Elsa held over her right side. The one covered in blood. "Let me see that," she urged gently.
"It's nothing Anna." Elsa snapped, not meeting her gaze.
"Elsa," Anna replied, a nervous edge leaking into her voice, "what happened after you tried to protect him?"
"Nothing! Nothing Anna just–!," Elsa became frantic, her breathing more labored. "You should go. I'll be fine I just have to, to…"
She wouldn't look Anna in the eye.
"It's bad isn't it?" Elsa flinched and glanced to her right before attempting to stare holes into her boots. Anna stood and walked in the direction Elsa's eyes had gone, searching for something out of place. Elsa continued to whisper, "It's nothing, it's nothing," behind her.
She stumbled, kicking an object across the floor. A twisted piece of metal a half foot long whirled into the light. As the metal spun, the tip created lazy circles on the floor. Frowning, Anna picked the fragment up.
Her hand came away wet.
Calculations raced through her mind: inches and widths, distance and angles, anatomy, physics. The bloody metal was the length of her hand. Too much.
"I took it out," Elsa's voice echoed quietly. "Second charge went off, caught me in the side. I didn't, couldn't stay on top of him with that in me. Would have gone… all the way through." Elsa breathed slowly, carefully, too carefully. "I thought he was safe there, y'know? So I took it out; so slow, it seemed to take forever. Pain," her face tightened, arm pulling inwards unconsciously, her uniform squelching with the movement. She licked her lips and swallowed before continuing. "I threw it away but after that I… I lost consciousness."
Elsa's head dipped against her shoulder, her eyes finding Anna's. They were so tired.
"I'm not leaving." she murmured.
"What do you mean you're not… leaving…" The truth snapped at the edges of her conscience, numbers running through her brain. Elsa didn't answer.
Her first step was shaky, her next slightly less so. But pace by pace Anna made her way back to her sister, nearly sprinting before skidding across the floor on her knees. She buried her face in Elsa's neck, arms tight around the blonde's small frame. She pressed herself close as tears rolled down her cheeks, ignoring Elsa's weak attempts to push her away. Her sister beseeched her, something about armies and running and being safe somewhere else. Sorrow boiled into anger. She knotted the uniform's fabric in her fist, forcing Elsa's face mere centimeters away from her own.
"This never would have happened if you'd just protected yourself!"
She was screaming. She didn't care. Elsa faltered, her own tears threatening to spill. Anna knew her anger was unfounded, knew that Elsa could never abandon someone in danger. But anger was easier than loss, easier than regret; anger scorched through her veins like a volcano and Anna just needed to feel.
Time slowed, seconds to minutes, minutes to hours. Elsa breathed slowly, eyes softening; and with them Anna's rage.
"You know I couldn't to that," she whispered, hand coming up slowly to cup Anna's cheek. Her palm was warm, slick. Anna fought the urge to vomit. She gripped her sister's hand, tears carving tracks through smears of blood.
"You have to go," Elsa wheezed, pushing with what force she could muster on Anna's chest. It was tiny, pitiful. The soldier was gone and the sister was the only thing left. "Troops will be here soon, that was their plan: bomb the base, overrun the front lines. We heard them Anna, before the shell hit."
"No! I'm staying, here, right here, I'm not going anywhere!" Anna's head swiveled, looking for a solution she knew wasn't there. "There has to be another way. We can–"
"Anna!"
Shock silenced Anna. Elsa's eyes widened.
"Anna!" Louder this time with the accompanied scraping of rubber soled boots against concrete. The shouts echoed around them, cavernous almost as the sound swelled in the empty room beyond. Elsa craned her head and Anna knew instantly what she was about to do.
"Don't you dare... Don't you dare Elsa!"
"Kristoff!" Elsa cried, face contorting as the muscles in her chest spasmed and blood spurt as her wound tore at the edges. "Kristoff!" Anna stared, muted, watching Elsa shout her life away. "Krist–!" Elsa contracted violently as coughs racked her body, wet and horrid. Blood spat between her teeth, dripping down her chin and neck.
A sudden large presence beside her snapped Anna out of paralysis. Kristoff was on his knees, hands twitching as his eyes flicked over Elsa's body and the dead man, summing up the situation in seconds. Elsa began talking as soon as he entered the room.
"You need to take Anna and get away from here. They're coming. They're going to set fire to everything after they've stolen all the intelligence. I… can take care of things here, but you, you and Anna need to leave."
"Elsa, no," Anna pleaded, fingers digging into the blonde's shoulders. "We can't leave you." She turned to Kristoff. "We can't leave her. We can carry her, drag her, something! Kristoff are you listening!? We have to save my sister!" She punched his shoulder, her last shout born of nothing short of fury at the big man's silence. Kristoff had not once looked at her, instead making unshakable eye contact with Elsa. Anna breathed heavily in the quiet, head snapping between the two.
Elsa gave the smallest of nods.
Kristoff closed his eyes.
Two muscled arms wrapped around her waist and in the blink of an eye Anna found herself in the abandoned room beyond, the darkened doorway getting smaller and smaller.
"Nooooo!" She wailed, fists pounding uselessly against a sturdy back. "Kristoff go back! Elsa's still in there!" Her thundering heartbeat matched the tempo of Kristoff's feet sprinting away from the base, pounding in her eardrums. "I promised, Kristoff! I promised I wouldn't leave her!" Her heel connected with his jaw, drawing a grunt from the man but no slackening of his grip. She twisted and fought, clawed, kicked, and bit.
Her ears pricked at the sound of a muffled explosion.
Anna watched, face ashen, body limp as the communications room collapsed inward like a black hole. The world turned grey, silent; even as the jets flew overhead and enemy tanks rolled over the hill.
Well, not completely silent.
Kristoff's tears for the sisters may well have been bombs themselves.