Chapter 1
A/N: I feel like this is going to be a one chapter thing, but we'll see where this leads. It was a spur of the moment thing.
The city of Vale when to shit faster than I thought it would. A strange virus took over the population making people start killing each other. Not exactly zombie style like in the movies or books, but more like, person goes insane and bashes the other one in the head with a trophy and the bites into the dead person making them come back and continue to kill. Its strange as hell, though I guess it is a sort of zombie virus, but I mean, who cares at this point.
I enlisted in the military around a year ago; there I met my partner, Kadin. Dude has hounded me ever since we left the academy to talk to my supervisor for a spot at Vale. So, I said screw it and next thing I know I'm in Vale. The city was quite nice, well before shit hit the fan. Originally I was part of a squad, let's just say one of those damned things got a hold of a shot gun and made short work of two of my finest men. Now it was just Kadin, a girl, and I. The girl never told us her name; hell she really never said anything. All I know is she was close to one of the guys who died on our patrol. I still beat myself up over it, if I would have checked the alleys a little closer I would have noticed the gun before the beast could get it.
I've heard the girl speak once. It was the one time I heard her soft, sweet voice. It had a sharp tone to it, but meant no harm. You could tell the girl had seen somethings in her lifetime. I didn't know what. Supposedly she had been on patrol over seas when her convoy got ambushed and her team executed in front of her. The story went something like, she killed several of these mercenaries silently, and escaped via helicopter that was conveniently placed in the base she was captive in. Whatever the story is, she's a damned good soldier and I'm proud to have her in my squad.
Before the "outbreak" we were tasked with fighting a rouge military organization known as "The White Fang". The same organization that constantly threatened the Schnee Dust Company (SDC for short). They fight for the equality and fair treatment of Faunus. Faunus are these animal-esk type people. They share traits with common animals such as: Pandas, bears, cats, dogs, wolves, ect. Though I have never seen a bird Faunus before. I personally am quite found of the Faunus. They can prove to be very nice and generous people when you get to know them. Hell, I had a few friends back in Vacuo that were Faunus when I was first stationed there. Met them at a bar in the downtown area, been friends ever since.
I always wondered why our weapons tech wasn't on par with our other technology that runs off of dust. Dust is a major energy propellant; it's a natural resource that can be mined and harnessed. It has several other forms, but I wont bother with the details. We have what I like to call "old world weaponry". For our ground troops, we usually carry M-16 assault rifles that fire seven point six two bullets in a three round burst and a M-1911 point four five ACP. That or a nine-millimeter Beretta pistol for a side arm.
Personally for me, I carry a M-4 carbine, firing the same round as the M-16, but a smaller fully automatic version, equipped with an Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (or ACOG for short) with the standard four times zoom, standard Euro fore-grip and a flashlight. I always liked the feel of the M-4, just got used to it in basic training I suppose. I am squad leader Sky Jenkins of Squad F, Sargent rank, B Company of the 225th Army Regiment. My partner is of course Kadin Madison, my partner, corporal rank, and my third in command. Finally there is "Hopkins", the female soldier assigned to my squad, also Sargent rank, my second in command, and she was part of the 159th Rangers regiment.
I had picked up the girl's "name" when Patterson, one of my privates, was talking to her back on base before we went to patrol the western side of Vale. While I would like to say that we were okay living in the base, there was always the threat of infected assaulting the base. Guards gunned them down before they were two hundred meters away, more like one in particular. He was a sniper sitting on top of the communications tower with a M82 Beretta fifty-caliber sniper rifle. I had a special nickname for him, "The Hand of God". While I've never seen the man, he holds a special place in my heart for being the biggest bad ass on base.
I was laying awake in my cot in our squad barracks when someone made their way to my bed. "Captain." The voice said. The voice was soft, sweet, and sharp.
'No way.' I thought to myself. I put down the book I was reading and looked over to the girl, my face had a stupid grin on it I could tell. "What's up?" I asked.
"Sleep rotation is over, we have to go watch the gates now." The girl was trying to act kind, but she knew she had to alert me or else I would forget. I nodded and leaned over my cot to Kadin who was sleeping on the bottom bunk of the steel framed bunk bed. I punched the man slightly in the face, he woke up with a scowl on his face, and obviously pissed I woke him up. "Sleep rotation is over sleeping beauty." I said to him jokingly. He didn't take too kindly to the joke and gave me the bird before sitting up and putting his boots on.
I followed suit hopping out of my cot. The signature thin army green cotton comforter barely disturbed. Hopkins was already dressed in her uniform and had her vest on. I found myself staring for a bit too long at her, to which she cleared her throat and tore me from my stare and focused on pulling my uniform over my head. Kadin let out a laugh behind me. "Damn lady killer, take it easy." He laughed.
"Kadin shut the hell up would you?" I asked. I didn't want to be rude before a guard rotation; it made everyone on edge when I was. "Besides…" I whispered to him. "I'm way out of my league, I would never have a chance." Kadin gave me a look screaming, "I'm sorry". I just shrugged in response. We walked out into the cold air of the night and began our walk to the western most gates. The base was huge, it had to be. We had nearly three hundred thousand refugees on the base. Most of the refugees made their camps near the airstrip. We wouldn't have any deliveries for the next few weeks, so they were fine.
"Hey guys, time to switch. Go get some sleep." I called walking to my place at the gates. They all turned and looked at me and nodded.
"Thank god that's over. Cold as hell out here!" One of them called climbing down from the one guard tower. I walked over to where he was walking and stopped him.
"Forget your pocket heater?" I asked him laughing. He looked at me with a less than pleased face.
"Yeah, I did. And it sucked." He responded and then walked away giving me a wave on his way.
"Welp." I announced to my squad. "Here goes three hours of standing around doing jack shit." A laugh came from Kadin. I wonder what Hopkins's laugh sounds like, what ever, she was probably too busy in the guard tower making sure the spot light worked correctly to even hear my joke.
The first hour of the post was very uneventful; I mostly just stood there with a hand on my rifle and the other hand in my pocket. I was talking to Kadin about possibly getting us relocated somewhere further south. Even though it was only November, it was still pretty cold. My uniform kept me warm though; I don't think I've ever been cold on post, even in winter. Kadin and me made idle conversation, talking about pointless things. At one point I could have sworn I head Hopkins humming a song up in the tower. It didn't help we had the night shift, graveyard shifts always sucked. Our CO (Commanding Officer) knew it too, thus he made us take a ton of them. Dick.
I was interrupted in my thoughts about guard scheduling when I heard Hopkins yell from the tower. "Contact! They aren't infected!" I imdiantly flicked my radio on and turned it to a channel.
"God Hand, this is Fallen over." A pause for a moment, probably he was trying to get his radio out.
"Fallen, this is God Hand, send it." He replied.
"Hey, I have some civvies here at the western gate, they aren't infected. Please advise." I pleaded in a flat voice.
"Apprehend them, check for bites. I'll contact HQ. God Hand Out." He responded.
I opened the gate and Kadin followed me. There were two people. The first was a girl in black clothing and a black skirt with red details. The second was another girl, in a sky blue dress complete with matching skirt being held bridal style by the girl in black.
"Freeze!" I announced. "Any further and I will have to use deadly force!" I said trying to get my point across. The girl seemed to take the message as the spotlight shinned on her and her partner.
"Please!" She cried out. "You have to help her! She was attacked!" The statement caught my attention and set me on edge. Kadin raised his weapon in response, bringing the butt stock of the weapon to his shoulder. I grabbed the weapon's rail near the front of the gun and lowered it, shaking my head at him. He gave me a hard look before grunting with disapproval.
I started to jog over to where they were, the girl in black now on her knees and the girl in white on the ground. Now that I was able to see the two better, I would say they were in their mid teens. The girl in the white dress had stark white hair and the girl in black had of course black hair with the tips being dyed red. I pulled my pistol from its holster and slowed to a walk.
"Miss. I'm going to need you to back away from your friend." I said commandingly. She did as I said and scooted a fair way away. I turned to Kadin. "Check the other one for any bites." I said in a serious tone to which he nodded and ran over to the other girl.
The white haired girl was heavily bleeding from the stomach. I ran my hand along her entire body scanning for bite marks. It was procedure for everyone who was in the camp. I found no bites thankfully. I raised up my radio. "Hopkins, I'm going to need a medic, this one looks like she took quite the hit to the gut. She's bleeding pretty bad." I ordered, she seemed to get the message because I never heard back from her. I took of my battle pack and pulled out an extra large gauze bandage and wrapped it around the girl's stomach.
I looked down at her to see her eyes moving quickly behind her closed eyelids. "What ever the hell you fought sure beat the crap out of you. But you got away. I'm impressed."
"She's clear over here Sarge!" Kadin yelled over to me. I nodded in his direction.
"Alright, you follow us, do not get behind us. Stay in front of us the whole time into the base, keep your eyes forward." I announced to the other girl. By the looks of it, she seemed younger than the white haired girl. She did as I said with Kadin standing behind her, ushering her to the gates. I picked the other girl and carried her with my arm under her legs and neck. I walked up to the black haired girl. "Keep you eyes forward." I announced making sure she knew the order was still in effect. "What are your names?" I asked trying to sound a little friendlier.
"I-I'm Ruby." The girl stumbled out obviously scared out of her mind. "A-and that's W-Weiss." She finished. Her voice was shaky, like she had just ran more miles than she could handle.
"Listen." I said. "You're safe here. Weiss here should be fine. We've got medics on station ready to help. Relax a little bit okay?" I tried to coax her to calm down slightly. She seemed to drop her guard slightly. We arrived back the gate, Kadin watching our backs as we entered putting a hand on his rifle.
"I'll stay here with Hopkins and we'll keep watch." Kadin announced as he shut the gate.
"Alright. Stay safe you two. Send me a report every so often." I said cautiously. He nodded and I walked on with the younger girl still walking. Two medics rushed over to where we were and took custody of the injured girl and took her back to the medical unit inside the main base. I stopped walking and so did the other girl, she was obviously listing to my footsteps.
I stopped and crouched down slightly so we would be face to face. "Alright, you can look around now." She imdiantly looked at me. I took my helmet off out of respect, showing my buzzed black hair. The girl still looked scared. "Listen. I have no clue how in the hell you survived out there for weeks on your own. But you did. I can imagine you must be a little shaken up from your friend getting injured. She'll be okay. She wasn't bitten; she'll be back on her feet within the next few days. You are also free to go see her."
"G-Girlfriend." She said. I raised an eyebrow trying to decipher what she meant. "She… She's my girlfriend." She corrected.
"Ah. Okay. I see." I replied. "Listen. Like I say, she will be a hundred percent okay. While she is getting help would you like to get something to eat?" I asked, the girl looked pretty thin. I had no clue how bad it really was inside the city, but I would guess food is running low. She nodded her head in response. I smiled at her. "Okay, follow me. And do not wander off." I said still trying to be friendly.
My radio crackled to life. "Fallen, God Hand, message for you over."
"Copy God Hand, send it." I replied back into the radio.
"Command says we don't have enough space to fit both of them." He said bluntly. I kept walking, the dirt and pebbles crunching under my feet. We reached the mess hall tent and I gestured for Ruby to go inside. She walked in and sat down at the nearest table, I remained out side.
"Ruby, please give me a moment." I offered to her and she nodded in response. I left the flap of the tent to fall back into place. I walked a few feet away. "That's bull shit Mac." I said into the radio.
"Sky, if it were my choice, I would have no problem with it. Command says they are a liability." He responded.
"And three hundred K people aren't?!" I practically yelled. He could probably hear me without the radio. I had snapped. My nerves were on edge, I mean what the hell are we supposed to do? Let the girl get healed the say: Sorry, you have to leave. You'll probably die out on your own. Bye! No! That is complete bullshit.
"Listen. Unless they move into a barracks, the answer is still no." Mac replied.
"Fuck it then. They can stay in the F squad room. We have two spare beds, they'll probably be using one. Those two are a young couple. They wont take up too much space. They'll be fine. Tell the CO he can shove one up his ass if he thinks he is going to turn away two survivors." I said into the radio.
"You better watch it Sky. He'll get you dishonorably discharged." Mac said cautiously.
"For what Mac? Trying to protect the citizens I so vowed to serve and protect? I'm doing my job here." I said flatly into the radio. A grunt came from the other side of the radio.
"The CO is going to be pissed. Probably give you guys grave yard for the rest of your tour." Mac warned.
"Screw it. That's fine with me." I answered back. Satisfied I had convinced him I walked back to the tent and went inside. Ruby was already helping herself to what ever was being served. At the moment I didn't care, it was the person sitting across from the girl that worried my. I sat down next to Ruby and looked at the uniformed woman.
"Hey Jessica. You just finish a rotation?" I asked in curiosity.
"Yeah. We had a few screamers near the northern gate. They're easy enough to take out, but god… I hate the noise they make." She admitted.
"That's the reason they're called screamers. Annoying little shits." I looked over to Ruby who was not caring at all, instead digging into her food like she hasn't eaten in days. Which is possible…
"She's pretty cute. Charming too." Jessica said scratching the back of her head. Ruby lifted up her head and smiled at the comment. "She said she hasn't eaten since her girlfriend got attacked. Which was a few days back. She was on the far east side of the city when it happened. She has been walking ever since."
I looked at the girl worried. "That means…" I started. I was unable to find the words to describe my shock. "Holy shit. That Weiss girl has been in a coma?" I asked to no one in particular. It was more of a statement than a question anyway. The statement caught Ruby's attention as she stopped eating and stared at the ground. Remembering it all and a tear starting to from in her left eye.
I looked to Jessica and checked my watch. My shift wasn't over yet and She knew it. She nodded at me and I stood up. I put my Right hand on Ruby's left shoulder. "Listen. I've got to go back to my shift. Jessica will take care of you until I get back okay? You and Weiss will be sleeping in the F squad barracks. Jessica can show you, unless you want to check up on Weiss." I mentioned. Ruby nodded and I walked out of the tent after what I thought had been enough time.
Shit just got a tone more complicated.