Damon Baird's POV

"Baird, you and Dom need to keep your asses back here for a minute." Fenix said.

I rolled my eyes. Why I didn't just shoot him right then and there was beyond me. "Yeah yeah yeah, whatever," I muttered and leaned against the wall of the abandoned building to keep watch with Dom. Cole and Fenix were already up by the Troika, shooting it down pretty fast.

I'm not saying I enjoyed the war, but it was a bit more exciting than my past daily life. I had nothing then. I joined the military a few years before the start of the war, so they just drafted me then.

Dom nudged me a bit and pointed off into the distance, past a crushed car. I saw the swish of blonde hair and the glint of a Lancer as four or five shots went off. It was a girl.

She flipped backwards over the car and landed on her feet, blindly shooting over it with one hand as her other hand clutched her opposite shoulder. Blood flowed over her fingertips. She had been hit.

Dom started to walk towards her but I grabbed his elbow and yanked him back. "I've got this," I grunted, walking ahead of him.

"You're just doing it 'cause she's a girl."

"Shuddup, I'm completely against love-slash-like-slash-all that shit."

The girl spotted me and the hand that had been clutching her shoulder was fast to grab a rifle and point it at me as I crouched behind a different car. "Put it down, I ain't gonna hurt you."

She narrowed her eyes at me, but turned her attention back to the Locust as its last shot barely missed her head. She shot back at it and it fell to the ground. When everything was deemed safe she stood up and looked at me. "Name," she said, putting her Lancer over her shoulder once again.

"Damon Baird. You?" I asked as I stood up.

"Ryot Naime."

"Oh, fancy huh?"

"I will not hesitate to shoot you right here, right now." Ryot said, although there was a small smirk on her face. I smirked in return, but then turned my attention to her bleeding arm. "Shot?"

"Just grazed. I'll be a'ight." She shrugged before turning back the way I had assumed she had come from.

"Wait, where're you going?"

"Places," she called over her shoulder, amusement in her voice.

"Uh, there are places over here. Come on."

"What?" She asked. "Wait, are there others?"

"Yeah," I laughed, "plenty. We're actually headed into another neighborhood of them. Come on, I'm sure they'd help you with your arm. I don't think you were just grazed." Her hand was over the bleeding would once again and I raised an eyebrow.

Ryot sighed, then nodded. "Alright.. I'll come. On one condition."

"And it is?"

"I'm not part of your little group. By the way, they're waiting for you over there." She said. She then pointed at Dom, Fenix, and Cole, who were all standing with their arms crossed over their chests. I followed her motion and winced a bit as Fenix narrowed his eyes at me.

"Well shit, he's gonna be pissed."

"No shit Sherlock," he called over. "I can hear you ya idiot, now you and whoever the hell that is need to get over here. The gatekeeper is just around the building and there's a swarm of Locusts coming this way."

Ryot sighed and jogged over to them, me following just behind her.

Cole slugged me hard in the shoulder out of annoyance, then moved to greet Ryot. Everyone else introduced themselves as we walked through the building. After a few minutes of walking with the others, she slacked behind and walked beside me. COG tags rattled on their chain around her neck as she walked up the steep stairs and I couldn't help but ask, "Where'd you get those?"

Ryot looked down at her tags before her hand came up to clutch them. "They were my brother's. So was the Lancer."

"Where is he?" I asked, then immediately regretted it.

"Dead. Three days."

"Sorry."

"Yeah."

Some of the weaponless, homeless old men called out to us, one particularly towards Ryot. She looked at me, slightly nervous and I realized that even though she could shoot down nine Locusts, she wasn't used to places like this.

"Hey," I said, my voice actually soft for once. I was surprising myself. "It's alright."

I rested my hand on her good shoulder and she relaxed a bit, turning her look back ahead of us. Cole glanced back at me and raised an eyebrow. "She alright?" He asked.

"She's fine," I answered, looking at her. Her hand was at her waistband, clutching her rifle.

"No need to be so calm in such a dangerous situation," I said sarcastically. She jabbed her elbow into my side, although I could barely feel it due to my armor. I looked at her, taking note that she herself had nothing on but a tank top, baggy army jeans, and boots that I could tell were once her brothers; no armor. "Can't be too safe walking around without armor," I said.

"Eh." Ryot shrugged. "Don't have any."

"Well we need to find you some then, don't we?"

"I don't want any."

"Course you do."

"But I don't."

"And why not?" I was growing annoyed, quick.

"Because I don't want yours or any of your little groups help, okay?" She snapped, sensing my annoyance.

"Whatever. You get killed, it's on your own hands."

"Good."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Great."

"Damon, shut up."

"Naime, you shut up."

"Will you both be quiet?" Fenix hissed to them as Dom began talking to Franklin, the guy they were to be borrowing the Junker from.

I rolled my eyes, not paying attention to anything until I heard Franklin say, "And I want these two here for collateral," pointing at Cole and I. "And that girl, too. I want her here too."

Ryot stepped behind me, kind of using me to hide from Franklin. I could tell he made her nervous and narrowed my eyes at the jackass. "Yeah, alright. We'll stay." Then my gaze flickered to Fenix. "Go, ya assholes, the quicker you get there, the sooner you get back, the sooner we can leave."

"Come on, let me lead y'all over to where we eat," Franklin said, jumping up from his seat. Cole and I followed him and I knew Ryot was somewhere behind us.

"What's up with her?" Cole whispered to me.

"I don't know. She's scared I guess." I answered, shrugging.

"Awe, your little girlfriend's scared. Why don't you go and help her?" He asked, laughing a bit. I shoved him. "Shut up dumbass, she's not my girlfriend and you're worse that Dom."

"Really though, you should probably go talk to her. She doesn't seem to like the rest of us, you're the only one she seems to talk to."

"She's fine."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I heard her say and I realized that Cole and I had been so busy talking that we didn't see her already ahead of us. "Way to be discreet, by the way. And I can tell you one thing, I definitely don't prefer Baird over the rest of you. Not to be rude or anything but you're a jackass."

"Oh, because that definitely wasn't rude." I scoffed.

"I could've said sometime much worse, but I figure I'd be nice for once," she said in her girl-voice, which was innocent and amused as she glanced back at us, brushing her hair behind her ears.

"You? Nice? I'll believe that when the war ends."

She said nothing. At first I assumed I won, but with the smug smile, I later realized that she in fact did.