All I could hear was my own heart beating. I looked to the left at my brother, Charlie, who stood stiff, his back and hands as flat against the wall as humanly possible. I can't see the expression on his face through the silver tinted visor on his helmet, but by the way his hands shook as he clutched onto his rifle for dear life I knew he was scared. No, not scared… Mortified. I look once more into the opening of the hallway which is the only space dividing my brother and quickly turned back around to face forward once more, leaning my back against the wall with my DMR held close to my chest.. All clear. I let out a deep breath. It seems like it has been forever since I breathed last. I look over at Charlie. By the way he stands I can tell he can't take this much longer. This is the heaviest firefight our squadron has ever been in, not to mention that my brother and I are the only survivors from our squad. My only mission now was to ensure the safety of my brother. Even though I'm a year younger than him, I am stronger, faster, and more built for fighting than he is. I have to protect him. He is all I have left. We have to get out of here alive… I hear footsteps… A single pair of metal boots against concrete echoing down the hallway. They're slow, heavy steps. It's an elite. I feel a scream of anger build up in my chest, but I choke it out to avoid any unwanted attention from the Covenant. I look to the left at Charlie, who is already staring at me through his visor. I'm not sure if it's his heart I hear beating or my own, but it sounds loud enough to give away our position. I can see his knees shaking, his hands trembling. He's panicking.

"Charlie," I whisper in a choked voice

"What do we do?" He says back to me frantically. Even though his voice is quavering, hearing it comforts me, allowing me to think of a plan before it's too late.

"We need to do this as quietly as possible. The Covenant haven't figured out we're in here yet. As soon as he reaches the end of this hallway, I'll go for an assassination and you make a run for it. I'll catch up with you, don't worry."

"But Ren-" "It'll be fine, this will work… It has to work.." I pause, "I promise I will get you out of here, Charlie."

"But Ren, what if we don't get out," He whispers in a tone too harsh for my liking. "What if we die instead?"

"I will not allow that to happen… It won't" I snap back, now fully determined to get both of us out of here alive. "We go on my mark"

"Ren, pleas-"

"On my mark, Charlie" I growl. If either of us screws this up, the possibility of us getting out alive will be dim. So I wait. The footsteps getting closer. Louder. I want to hold my breath but it is impossible. The footsteps grow closer down the hall. Echoing. My stomach churns and I feel sick. Every instinct in my body is screaming at me to jump out and put a million rounds into the elites head, but I know that is not the best idea, considering that this place could be swarming with millions of Covenant for all I know. I bite my lip and glance to the side at Charlie. I can't tell if he is as scared as I am, or more…. The footsteps are close. I close my eyes. "On my mark," I say quietly. Three. Two. One. "Mark"

In a blur I see Charlie turn and begin to sprint down the hallway, the elite suddenly blurting out a loud, rough, and guttural roar as Charlie runs past him. It aims its plasma rifle and I hear several shots fire before I can think to move. I quickly jump onto the elite's back and hoist myself up by pushing my feet into its upper back and clutch my hands around its neck. The elite blurts out yet another rasping cry and openly fires into the air, whirling and spinning around frantically to get me off its back. I struggle to keep my grip on him in order to reach my knife that is equipped onto my thigh. The elite twirls around and slams me up against the wall, pressing all its weight into me. A groan rumbles in my throat and my grip on the elite loosens slightly. This is taking too long…I have to get to Charlie. My fingers find a slit in the back of the elite's armor and I grip onto with my left hand, releasing my right hand from its neck to reach my knife. The elite roars. To my relief, my hand finds the knife with ease and grip onto it, its soft handle conforming to every curve and groove in my palm. I bring my arm up and with all my strength I force it down into the opening in the elite's armor around its neck. I can feel the blade cutting through its tough skin, through its muscle. A stream of florescent orange blood trails out from behind the knife as I rip it out from the elite's flesh.
I jump off the elite's back as it falls with a loud thud, its gun hitting the floor and echoing through the halls. A moan slips from the elite's mouth but I pay no mind to it as I begin to sprint down the hallway to find Charlie.

The hallways seem endless. Every turn I make seems like I'm running farther away from Charlie. I make another left turn. The dirty concrete echoing beneath the weight of my armor. I turn right. A jackal lay lifeless in a pool of its own purple blood, its mouth ajar, staring at me with its glossy eyes. I must be going the right way.

I continue on the path, guessing at turns as I go down the hallways. I can hear rain tapping against the metal panels outside the Covenant base. I have to slow my pace to hear the distant low rumbles of thunder roll through the halls. I must be getting close to the exit. I sprint towards the sound, hearing it get louder every step I take. I see the exit. It's guarded by an energy shield, and the only way to bring it down is if I know the combination to disable it, but that would take forever. I forcefully jam the butt of my rifle into the control panel and the shields retract and the door clicks open. I open the door and run outside, feeling the raindrops hit my armor like small pebbles.

I can hear distant gunfire crack and pop through the air and I run towards it. The rain picks up, as well as the wind. The bare, rocky land that stretches in front of me gets muddier by the second. My boots thump and splash into the mud and some of it begins to stick and build up on the bottoms. I run through a puddle and wash most of the clumps off. Purple and blue lights flicker on the dark gray clouds and fade away within an instant, only to be met with the sounds of the Covenant weapons firing and echoing in the distance. I run faster.

I see a COM tower in the distance. If I can get there and hook my helmet up to it, I may be able to get a connection with the UNSC and request a pelican out of here for immediate evacuation. A familiar voice brings my attention off the COM tower. I hear it again, this time it's louder.

"Ren!"

"Charlie? Is that you?" I call back through the rain.

"Over here!" He yells, his voice quavering.

I follow his voice and it trails back behind a large rock wedged deep within the ground. I check behind me to make sure I'm not being followed and then crouch next to him. I look him over. His back is stiff against the rock, and his breaths don't seem to be coming naturally. "Are you alright?" I ask, cautiously keeping watch over all visible directions around us. I notice the rain has lightened considerably to a gentle mist, but thunder still grumbles in the distance.

"You tell me," He groans and removes a hand from his right side, revealing a deep, blistered plasma burn.

I inspect the burn closely. It's pretty serious burn from what I can see. I feel a pain in my chest from seeing him in so much pain and I have to look away. "Charlie, it's going to be okay. I'll get you out of here," I look over my shoulder to see if we're being watched, then return my eyes back to him. I sigh under my breath. I feel a ting of guilt spark in my mind, and for some reason, a lot of anger that overrides that guilt. If he would have paid more attention while running, we wouldn't be in this mess and he wouldn't be hurt. It's HIS fault, not mine. Now it's up to me to keep him alive. I shake my head. I can't be thinking like this, it's my job to take care of him, and that is my current mission. "Look," I say as I point east of our direction towards a tall glowing tower erecting from the ground high above the rocks. "That's the Covenant COM tower. If we can get over there, I'll tap into the system and hopefully be able to make a connection with the UNSC. I'll get us a pelican out of here and-"

"Ren, I won't be able to walk, I can hardly move,"

"Charlie, I'm going to get us out of here. You're going to live." I say firmly, though the confidence inside me is wavering. I look back at the COM tower. It's not far, only about 1 ½ kilometers east. I could easily sprint it, but Charlie on the other hand... I sigh.

I try to think of a plan. Something. Anything. We can't sit here. I look at Charlie, who is inspecting his wound. I get up and hold my hand out to help him up. He looks at my hand, then up at me. Even with his helmet on I can see that he isn't fond of my new found plan. "Get up." I say.

"Ren, are you serious? I can't I've got this burn and," He pauses shuffling through words in his head "Do you really expect me to-"

"I don't expect you to complain. Now get up, we have to go, now."

He utters a short painful laugh, "You gotta be kidding me, Ren, I don't think you understand, I can't-"

His words are cut off by a loud shattering noise. I turn my head to see several pink glowing needles coming towards us. They shatter against the rock like glass and let off a pink glowing mist that dissipates into thin air. I grab his hand and ignore his scream of pain. We run towards the forest line, towards the tower The pink needles follow close behind. I pull Charlie along with me even though he sometimes jerks my arm back when he tries to stop or slow his pace. I hear him wheezing and coughing behind me, sometimes yelling in pain when I pull him forward to hard, but I don't stop running. I can't stop running. We have to get out of here.

We reach the forest line and I throw the both of us into the shadows. Charlie falls to his knees and rolls on the ground in pain, clutching his side. I know he wants to scream at me but he's too out of breath to utter a single word. He groans and gasps for air, coughing and choking. I stand and look at him, leaning against a tree to catch my breath. He chokes once more and gets to his knees, ripping off his helmet and throwing it into the wet dirt beside him. His wavy brown hair looks black against the shadows, and it sticks to his face, wet with sweat. Tears fill his eyes and stream down his wet face. He holds himself up on all fours and breaths heavily, still coughing uncontrollably. He lets out a loud groan that sounds more like a muffled scream and grabs his side with one hand and gags, his body convulsing forward. He inhales a short breath and chokes on it, causing him to gag once more. He drops the hand covering his wound back to the ground and vomits.

"Charlie, calm down" I say in the best comforting voice I can muster, having to look away from him.

After a few minutes he drops to the ground and rolls on his back away from the vomit and breathes heavily, his arms and legs widely sprawled out on the dirt, weak from exertion. My breaths are steadier now, but my heart is pounding and my legs burn. I look around us. I can see the far distant glows of blue and pink from the Covenant weapons as they search in the night to find us. It's hard to believe we escaped them, especially with Charlie's screams of pain as we ran. I look back over at him. He still lies on his back, arms and legs sprawled out. His chest puffs up and down as he breathes. His hair is covered in mud, and his face is scratched and bruised, but it's not bad. I walk over and pick up his helmet from the mud and sit down next to him with it in my lap. We sit in silence for a long time.

"How- do I look?" He finally asks, his voice weak and shaky, but he still manages to smirk a little and push out a forced laugh

"Well," I hesitate "Almost as bad as when you had that burrito accident in the mess hall,"

He chokes out a laugh and turns his head to me. "So.. basically.. it looks like I shit- ..all over myself?"

I allow myself to chuckle lightly in order to lighten the mood.

"Yeah." I nod. "You're just as sweaty too," I say with a smirk

"..Lovely." He retorts.

I wipe the mud off the visor of his helmet. I notice it's cracked in several places, but don't bother to ask him about it. There will be more time for stories later when we get back. I let the both of us sit in peace for a while, listening to the rustling of the leaves and the silence that follows. I still hold his helmet in my lap and continue to fumble with it in my hands as I think of what to do next. I look down at the helmet. It reads ODST in small white print on the inner rim of the helmet. My brother wasn't outfitted to be a Spartan like I am. He also didn't want to take the risks that come along with becoming one. But it just felt right for me to undergo all the training and tests and surgical operations. It was worth it. I sigh and look over at him again. He seems more at peace now. His hands are behind his head as he looks up at the clouded sky. I almost don't want to leave. Having to keep moving means putting him in more pain, and it doesn't seem worth it. Not after all he's been through. I decide to brush my thoughts aside and stand up. He looks at me with his dark brown eyes, awaiting orders… like a good soldier. I offer my hand to help him up.

"…Again with the walking and the running?"

"Unfortunately," I reply.

He pushes my hand away and turns on his side and slowly stands up on his own, leaning on a nearby tree to steady himself. I hand him his helmet, which he accepts and slides it on. He looks at me, and I nod. Not sure what for really. I want to say something to him; something to encourage him, or motivate him. But nothing comes to mind. So I begin walking, listening to his unsteady footsteps following close behind.