Vincent opened his eyes. Nope, he was still there. It wasn't some dream he could wake up from. He was still in the bar, with his glass of beer. It was never empty, no matter how he had tried to drain it. As soon as it was empty, it was refilled. He guessed that he was really appreciated.
In fact, every member of his company was appreciated, and they were squeezing all they could out of it. Charlie had two of the barmaids on his lap, Eddie was drunkenly trying to play darts, Stan was singing with rest of the company, all of them totally out of key, and all of them holding half empty glasses. The 406th medium tank unit of Orange Star was the unit assigned to help rebuild Green Earth. It was because of them, the 702nd Infantry Company, and one of Green Earth's mega tanks, that this city had driven out rebels before they could get anymore powerful. Thankfully, they had taken the rebels by surprise, so there was only one casualty on their side, and that infantryman had been treated and released from the hospital.
So here everyone was, celebrating. Vincent wasn't in the mood though. Jake, his CO, was at home probably, relaxing. He had let Xavier command his units. Now nothing was wrong the Green Earth CO, but Vincent felt that Jake really didn't appreciate his troops all that well. Vincent remembered when he had trained so hard to become a medium tank gunner. Now, he was looked down upon, because he wasn't a neo tank driver, or a mega tank driver. His unit wasn't as fast a regular tanks, and they weren't as powerful as the neo or mega tank, so his men were considered useless.
Vincent shuddered as he thought of the word expendable. He shook his head and drained his glass. Just like magic, it was refilled. Vincent was buzzed, but he wasn't to drunk. He could hold his liquor. He looked up at the barmaid that had refilled his glass.
She was a nice looking blond. Normally he would have stopped himself, but he allowed himself a nice look at her breasts.
"I think that I've had enough beer, thank you." He said as straight as he could, though after five beers, his voice was a little slurred. The barmaid looked at him oddly.
"Enough beer? No, I think that your just aren't drunk enough." she laughed as she walked over to Stan to refill his glass. This irked Vincent a little bit. He was a sergeant for god sakes! Normally, he would have these men's heads. He was close to his unit, but they, and all new recruits feared his stare. He had icy blue eyes that seemed to break your will. He knew this because he had learned the stare from his father. The odd thing was, he was only about twenty-five. He shouldn't have to train other soldiers. He should be out fighting, like he was doing now. Orange Star was messed up.
Vincent sighed, got up and left the bar quietly. Maybe the night air would help him. The stars were out in full force. A cool breeze smacked into him, ruffling his hair. He reached up a hand and ran it through his mop of red hair. It had been awhile since he had a haircut, but Green Earth got cold sometimes, and your head needed to be warm. He decided to check up on his vehicle.
Old Suzy Q was right where he had parked her. He ran his hand down her side, feeling where he had patched he up after machine gun fire, and even some tank shells. She had always protected him and his driver. He remembered when he had been forced to choose between two women, but when the other one had left him, Suzy Q had stayed right there by his side.
Vincent sighed again. He didn't know why he was so depressed. He climbed inside of Suzy Q and opened his secret compartment. Inside was a fresh, unopened bag of gummy worms. He took it out and climbed to the outside of the tank. When he had climbed inside, he had been alone. That wasn't the case anymore. A little boy and a young woman stood outside of his tank, waiting for him. At the sight of him, the little boy pointed and turned to the young woman.
"Sis! That's the man! I know it!" the little boy said excitedly. The boy's sister turned to the little boy.
"Matthew, why don't you head home? It's getting late." The young woman said quietly.
"Aww, do I have to?" Matthew whined.
Vincent realized this girl wanted to talk to him. So he thought of a quick fix. "Hey kid, if you promise to go home, I'll have your sister give you this whole bag of candy." He said, showing them the gummy worms. In wartime, candy was very rare, since the materials were put into other things. Since the main war against Black Hole had ended only a few days ago, candy was still rare.
"Okay, I promise!" Matthew said quickly and started sprinting away. When Vincent saw that the kid was far away and stilling running, he jumped off the top of the tank. The young woman approached him then.
"Are you really going to give him that?" she asked, looking at the bag.
"Of course. I always keep my end of the bargain. Now what can I do for you?"
The young woman looked around timidly. "Are you the man who went into the flaming school and saved Matthew?" she asked.
Vincent stroked his chin. He realized he needed a shave. He thought back awhile. He had charged into plenty of burning buildings before. Did he ever do it with a burning school? He snapped his fingers, remembering.
"Yes, I ran into a burning school once. I may have carried Matthew out, I don't know. All I was doing was concentrating of getting the kids out."
She nodded, looked around, and then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. This surprised him, and he couldn't help but blush.
"Thank you for that. I don't think mother could have handled Matthew's death."
She said quietly. Vincent nodded in response, understanding. She then looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet, like she was embarrassed to say what she was going to say. "Could you do me one more favor please?" she asked.
Vincent couldn't see why not. "Only if I can receive fair lady's name." He said bowing, seeing if she was flattered easily. Apparently she was, because she turned bright red.
"It's Cecelia." She said, smiling a little.
"Then dear Cecelia, what service can I provide you?" Vincent said, regretting it. He sounded like a hooker, according to his fuzzed mind.
"Have you ever fought on the front lines with any Green Earth medium tanks?" she asked.
Vincent hated remembering his battles, but he did promise her he'd help. "Yes, I've fought with Green Earth medium tanks before." He said quietly.
At this, the Cecelia got a hopeful look in her brown eyes. "Yes? And what happened? Did you meet any of them?"
Vincent knew where this was going, and Cecelia wasn't going to like it. "No, we didn't get a chance to talk with the troops. It was a foggy day, and my company and a few other companies met up with five Green Earth medium tank units. They insisted they travel with and ahead of us. Everything was going well when we ran right into a bunch of Ooziums. The Green Earth tanks were…" he stopped. He could already see that Cecelia was starting to cry. "Well, whoever you asking about could have been in another medium tank, in another place." He said quickly.
"No…he wanted to be on the front lines. He would have done that." She said, sobs starting to shake her voice, with tears streaming down her face. Vincent slowly put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her. Almost automatically, Cecelia wrapped her arms around Vincent and let all her sadness out. Vincent hugged her and just let her cry. Unfortunately, he had had to do this when Ralph and Hugo got blown up, and their wives hadn't been any better at holding back their tears.
"Well, maybe it wasn't him." Vincent said to her, still trying to convince her. "Who was his CO?"
She sniffed, clearing her voice to talk. "His CO was…Drake, I think."
Vincent smiled. "Well, the tank unit's CO was Jess."
At this news she stopped crying. She looked up into his face with tears still in her eyes. "Really? So he didn't die there? He might still be alive?"
Vincent was about to respond when Matthew came running into view. Vincent blinked in surprise. The kid seemed excited about something.
"SIS! SIS! He's come back! He's come back!" he was yelling. Cecelia turned to him and walked up to him, rubbing the tears from her eyes.
"Who's come back?" she asked calmly.
"Big brother's come back!" Matthew responded. He grabbed her arm and started pulling her away. Cecelia didn't resist. Instead, she just turned and looked back at Vincent. She didn't have to say thank you. Her look said everything.
Once again, Vincent was alone. He climbed back on top of Suzy Q. He knew he didn't have anything like that when he would go home. His family had disowned him for joining. Most of his friends had cut their ties with him. It would be a lonely time in Orange Star. Maybe he'd come back here. For now, he was just hungry. He opened the bag of gummy worms and started eating.
"It's just me and you now Suzy Q. Do you have a problem with that?" he asked through a mouth full of worms. Suzy Q didn't respond. She didn't have to. She had spent her life protecting Vincent, and she had never left him. Her actions were loud enough for a deaf man to hear.