Author's Note
(DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters, places or anything else; they remain property of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. This is a work of fanfiction and love: please don't sue me.)
I would like to state unequivocally for the record that unless I somehow decide otherwise in the near future, this story is a one-shot. I just needed to stretch my creative legs a little; I've been feeling a little stifled writing nothing but Fire Emblem fanfiction, so I thought I'd try some Advance Wars instead. (can… er, anyone tell I'm a bit of an Intelligent Systems fanboy?)
Love it? Hate it? Let me know via review and maybe this'll become something more, one day; I'm sure I'll need some sort of project after Invisible Ties ends. I'd like to go pro, but fanfiction is just too much fun. Until that day comes, enjoy the snippet!
Read, review and enjoy!
12th Battalion
Will grunted, bashing against the rubble blocking his exit with the butt of the rifle he'd found, sweat making the shirt he was wearing stick to his skin uncomfortably.
His blue uniform tie had long ago ceased being anything but a nuisance, but for some reason he couldn't bear to part with it, and it hung loosely around his neck, a memento of a time when he hadn't been worried about his survival; just his grades, making his parents proud, and actually being able to talk to girls. Now all of that seemed so trivial as he fought to survive by trying to dig himself out of the rubble.
It had been nearly a week since he'd been trapped in the Academy mess hall, living off whatever snacks and drinks he could get out of the vending machines he'd smashed. Everyone else was gone; either evacuated or crushed under rubble. He'd been forced to live in the dark for a week like a rat, and now his food was gone, and he was down to drinking the cheap energy drinks that came out of the vending machine in the cafeteria. Which, of course, meant he was barely sleeping now. Hopefully he'd be able to find some proper food and water once he got out of the ruins.
Fortunately for him, one of the soldiers that performed guard duty around the Rubinellan Military Academy had been in the mess-hall trying to help organize the students for evacuation; the man had been killed by falling debris, like so many others, but his rifle had survived, and had proved an indispensable tool for Ed to beat down doors and clear rubble with.
"If only my range instructor could see me now," Will laughed, gasping for breath as he took a break, leaning heavily on the weapon.
The old man would harp on about him not respecting his equipment, but there was nothing for it; he needed to get out of this damned building, and he needed to do it soon.
"I'm not gonna die in here," he told himself, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. "No way… am I… dying in… here!"
With one final burst of strength the cadet smashed the rifle into the rocks, the butt cracking but the stones finally giving way. Coughing as dust began to fly about, larger rocks tumbling down away from the small breach, Will let himself stumble backwards, laughing with relief and renewed hope. The light from outside was weak; it was probably evening, but he couldn't tell. All of the clocks had stopped due to some sort of electromagnetic disturbance caused by the meteor shower that had trapped him in his current predicament.
Taking a few deep breaths once the dust settled Will leaned his rifle up against the wall, beginning to enlarge the hole by hand.
"Wow," Will breathed as he stumbled through the rubble. "This is… this is a mess."
He looked around the ruins that had once been the beautiful Academy Campus, eyes actually tearing up as he beheld the wholesale destruction. It had only been a week since the catastrophe, but everything looked so abandoned. It made Will feel completely, utterly alone. Buildings were just piles of ruined masonry and shattered bricks; the gardens and lawns had all been burned away, leaving ash and bare dirt as far as Will could see.
He steered clear of the bodies, leery of accidently coming into contact with one and getting sick from touching the rotting corpses; or so he told himself, anyway. The truth was he just couldn't bear the thought of having to look at the dead faces of his classmates and teachers.
A strong wind blew Will's hair around, the stench of decay on it making him gag, grateful for the fact that he'd appropriated a rag to act as a mask against the dust. It didn't really do anything for the smell, but at least it made him feel a little better.
In the distance across the campus he could make out the admin's office, still mostly intact despite the destruction all around him. It looked like just about everything else had been reduced to rubble and ashes, but the admin building had only been a single story, brick building; it was a converted bomb-shelter from the days when Rubinelle had been at war, so if there were any survivors…
"Hey!" Will called out, his voice hoarse and croaky, light-headed from the awful energy drinks he'd been forced to survive off.
"Hey, is there anyone out there!? Hello!"
He stumbled his way into the admin building, using the butt of his appropriated rifle as a make-shift battering ram to knock the jammed door open, blinking the dust out of his eyes as he stepped into the room.
"Hello!?" he called out into the darkened room. "Is there anyone in here!?"
Silence answered him, and the cadet gingerly stepped into the room. Fortunately it seemed mostly intact and lacking in the bodies decorating most of the rest of the campus. The older students always talked about the fact that the instructors had better food in the admin cafeteria, and Will was willing to bet that it wasn't just a rumour.
He picked his way carefully through the darkened corridors, careful not to trip on anything in the dark and wishing he'd find a freaking flashlight already, coming into what looked like a staff room of some sort.
"Oh thank you, god!" Will practically shouted, running into the room and the pristine vending machine against one wall.
Bottled water, sports drinks, sandwiches and snacks were all arrayed in front of him, making his stomach do back-flips and his mouth water. No doubt the sandwiches had gone bad after a week with no power, but the other things, chips, cookies, granola bars and energy bars, would do for now until he found the cafeteria proper.
Without even a second thought Will smashed open the glass front of the machine, expecting to hear the sound of an alarm. When he was met with more silence, he helped himself to all the water he could drink and all the junk he could eat.
His stomach finally full again, Will carefully investigated the rest of the abandoned administration block. It looked abandoned, and there was quite a bit of evidence that the staff had left in a hurry. Belongings were strewn about everywhere, pictures of families mixed in with papers and even a few articles of hastily discarded clothing.
Will shivered a little, realizing just how cold it was now that he wasn't trapped in that air-tight cafeteria like he had been. He bent down, dusting off one of the senior student's jackets he found amongst the rubble, the Academy's logo proudly displayed on the shoulders where the army or battalion' insignia would usually go. He slipped it on, happy to find it wasn't too much bigger than his usual size, before continuing his search. Even if he didn't find any more food, he had a decent supply of water now, so he could leave the campus and broaden his search range.
A further examination of the building revealed nothing but more empty offices and discarded refuse, leaving an empty feeling in Will's chest. Surely someone was still alive; they had just moved on to find food when the cafeteria had been destroyed, that was all. That's what Will had to do now, too; but it was getting late, and he was exhausted from digging himself out of that pit. He would take another quick look around in the morning and then set out for the city not far from the Academy.
Returning to the small staff room he settled into the corner for the night, eating another of his appropriated granola bars and drinking another bottle of water before nodding off, warm now in his new jacket.
Will resisted the urge to give in to despair as he wandered through the ruins of the city aimlessly; he hadn't seen a living thing yet, and he'd been walking for days. No people; no cats or dogs; no birds overhead; not even insects had been spared the calamity, apparently.
The crushing loneliness was starting to take its toll. Every day Will wandered the ruins, screaming until he was hoarse.
"Hello!? Is there anybody out there!? Hello!?"
Perhaps the most unnerving part was the lack of sunlight; every day was a cold, perpetual twilight due to the layer of dust in the atmosphere. Will hadn't really paid attention during science class, but it didn't take an officer cadet to know that that was most assuredly a bad thing. Crops would be impossible to grow; the world's ecosystem was most likely going through a major shift right now, and as far as Will could tell he was the only one bearing witness to it. It was meant to be the middle of summer, and yet it felt like he was wandering around the streets in late fall with nothing for protection from the elements except for his jacket.
All he had now was the rifle and a few small bottles of water left; it seemed like all of the shops had been looted, and none of the water mains seemed to be working. He'd thought it obvious that there would be no electricity, but not having water seemed like a serious problem. It was right up there with the fact that, for the second time now, Will was out of food.
"Man, I am so hungry," he sighed, sinking down to sit on a piece of rubble at about chair-height, wondering if he'd ever see other living people again.
The bodies had bothered him at first; they'd made him nauseous, they'd made him feel depressed and alone. But after wasting three days giving every body he could find at the Academy a proper burial, then stepping into the city and beholding the simple scope of destruction and loss of life he had just given up, beginning to see them as just another part of the scenery. He didn't want to think about it, though. All he wanted to do was find someone to talk to before he began searching for a volleyball or something similar to project onto.
Snickering at his own lame joke, Will decided he'd rested long enough, slinging his rifle back over his shoulder and standing, when a flash of weak sunlight on metal caught his eye.
Rushing over to the glinting metal that was half-buried in rubble Will felt his hope begin to rise for the first time in weeks.
A lone motorbike cruised down the rubble-strewn high-way out of the city, kicking up a trail of dust and moving at good speed. Will clutched the handlebars tightly, still not entirely used to the machine; he knew how to drive and how to ride a bicycle, but combining the two had been a little difficult at first.
For the first time in weeks Will had actually been glad that there had been no one around to watch him pop the clutch and be thrown flat on his back as the bike flew away from him when he'd first dug it out.
It was a civilian model; a low-riding machine that Will had always associated with gangs and thugs. Now that he was riding it Will's opinion had drastically changed; he was having the time of his life, or would be if he could manage to keep his eyes open in the wind. The bike's cherry red fuel tank had been pitted and scored, but there were no holes in it, and he'd even been able to find a jerry-can full of gasoline in the garage of one of the nearby houses. Things had finally been starting to look up for him, and he'd completed his search of the abandoned city in no time at all, barely adding another week onto his tally so far, deciding that the survivors would have left looking for food or shelter.
Just like Will was doing now. He'd long ago exhausted the food he'd been able to find, even if water wasn't as scarce. All the shopping centres had been looted while he had still been trapped, so he'd missed out on anything great; he'd managed to scrounge a few cans of beans at one point, but that had been nearly a week ago and he was starting to feel a little faint.
Will pulled over to the side of the highway, just past some burnt out car shells, breathing a deep sigh as the dust settled and he pulled the rag off of his face and kicked down the stand.
Will reached into his pack hanging off one shoulder, pulling out the small radio he'd been carrying around since he'd left the Academy two weeks ago, switching it to broadcast on all frequencies.
"Hello?" he said into the small box. "My name is Will. I'm a cadet from the Rubinelle Military Academy. Is there anyone out there? Anyone at all? Please respond, over."
He waited a few seconds before repeating his message, sitting astride the bike and waiting to see if anyone replied. The student climbed off the bike, taking a few steps off the side of the road and calling out with the radio again before slouching in defeat, switching it off and sliding it back into his pack.
"Please…" he muttered, despair sinking in for the first time in more than a month. "Please don't let me be the only one left…"
Will sighed, returning to the bike and leaning against it.
"The whole world's dead," he said to himself as he watched dust devils float across what had once been beautiful grassy fields, reduced to a few brown patches of weeds and dirt.
"I don't want to be alone," he admitted to himself, holding his arms and letting his chin drop to his chest.
The oppressive silence was beginning to grate on him; a dull whine, rising in pitch and lowering as he kept telling himself not to give up yet. The whine increased, becoming a dull roar that made Will stop and glance up.
"No way," he breathed, lights from jeeps off in the distance coming across the badlands, running perpendicularly to the highway back towards the city.
Will let out a laugh, throwing his hands up in the air in celebration before stopping.
"Radio… radio…" he muttered excitedly, riffling through his pack again and pulling the small radio back out.
"Hello?" he called desperately when he'd turned it back on. "Help me! My name is Will! I'm a cadet at the Rubinelle military academy! Um, do you read? Over."
Will waited a few moments, his breath catching in his throat expectantly as the radio squealed with static before a harsh laugh came across, the three jeeps veering towards the highway almost immediately.
Will swallowed hard, his hope turning to fear as he unslung his rifle.
The jeeps pulled up in a cloud of dust and exhaust, the beams of light from their headlamps cutting through the cloud like knives. A big, dark-skinned man rose up from the uncovered rear of one of the vehicles as several others jumped out, all carrying a weapon of some kind as they arrayed themselves before the cadet.
"Look sharp, roaches!" the dark-skinned man, apparently this group's leader, shouted, waving a big machine gun around one-handed, the bandoliers of bullets across his chest swaying with the motion. "We got us a live one, and he's just a punk kid! You know the drill! I want his food, and I want his weapons! Leave his corpse where it falls! Ain't no one going to complain!"
Will's eyes practically bulged from his head; the first living people he'd seen in more than a month and they were going to kill him for a beaten-up old rifle and half a bottle of water!?
"Wait," he said, holding his hands up pacifyingly and letting the rifle drop back on its sling as he backed towards his bike again. "Please! Don't do this!"
A big man wearing neat, if somewhat dirty, military fatigues stomped up a hill to where a slim woman with long black hair past her shoulders was waiting, looking out over the highway with a pair of binoculars.
"Give me tactical, Lin," the man said, running a gloved hand over close-cropped blonde hair as the woman handed him the binoculars.
"I've got a single solder being pursued by a pack of raiders," she reported as the man scanned the scene. "The soldier appears to be one of ours. Shall we intervene?"
The man hummed for a moment, watching as the soldier rode a civilian-model bike through the scrubland towards the ridge that the Battalion was currently stationed behind.
Captain Brenner was usually a cautious man; he would have preferred to study the layout of the area a little better first, he would have preferred to prepare at least one squad as back-up, and he would have preferred to not have to get into this fight at all, but as he watched the young soldier was thrown from his bike by a near miss from one of the bandit's RPGs, and his usually impassive face turned into a frown.
The kid was wearing a Rubinelle Academy jacket. That meant he was one of theirs. The Twelfth Battalion didn't leave men behind.
"The two of us should be more than enough to handle those clowns," he ground out, counting maybe eleven or twelve men in the jeeps. "Let's do it."
"Yes sir," Lin answered without a hint of hesitation in her voice, pulling her side-arm free of its holster and making sure it was properly loaded, no doubt following the same thought process as her superior.
Brenner didn't even look as he tossed the binoculars back to his Lieutenant, stepping off the top of the steep ridge and sliding to the bottom in a small avalanche of rocks and dirt, unslinging his own rifle from his back in the process. Lin followed him a moment later, leaving a much smaller trail in the ridge than her larger superior.
Brenner spotted the kid, trying to hide behind a small pile of rocks as bullets dug up the ground around him and shooting off pop-shots with what was obviously an appropriated weapon. He gave Lin a signal, and she nodded, racing off low to the ground in the kid's direction.
Brenner growled, shooting off a couple of warning shots from the hip at the jeeps, forcing them to swerve from their path and come to a stop.
Will glanced over the top of the rock as the shooting stopped, risking getting his head taken off but knowing that if he didn't find out what was going on he'd be dead anyway. He jumped as a woman, maybe five years older than him, skidded into cover next to him before forcing him back down.
"Get down, kid!" she hissed, popping her own head above the rock before dropping back down with him.
"Who are you?" he asked before he spotted the insignia on her uniform.
"Later," she whispered. "Just keep your head down and your mouth shut and you'll be fine."
Will glanced up carefully, astonished to see a single man staring down the bandits that had been chasing him, gun held casually at his side as he glared at the three jeeps.
"What's the big idea, dogface? This got nothin' to do with you!" the bandit leader called out, shooting the ground in front of the soldier's feet a few times for emphasis.
The man glared up at the bandit without flinching.
"It's got everything to do with me," he said, his soft voice carrying and almost sounding disappointed. "I'm a soldier. It's my duty. You remember what duty is, don't you? I think you used to be soldiers."
"Duty!?" the bandit roared with laughter, shooting indiscriminately into the sky. "Don't make me laugh! This world's dead, soldier boy, and so is your precious duty! We stopped being soldiers when the meteors hit. We're survivors! This is our time, and there is no law! We rob! We kill! We're kings!"
"Not anymore you're not," the soldier told them, levelling his large rifle.
"And who's going to stop us?" the bandit mocked as his underlings continued to roar with laughter. "You and the kid, there?"
"No. Just me," the soldier said, his face deathly serious in the face of the bandits laughing at him. "Your days of preying on survivors are over. I'm going to put you down like the rabid dogs you are. You may have forgotten your duty, but I have not."
"I'd like to see you try, loser!" the bandit challenged, levelling his own weapon.
"Lin," the soldier said, never taking his eyes off the bandit leader.
In one swift movement the woman on top of Will rose up, her pistol barking three times in time to the three bandits with RPGs dropping from the open backs of their jeeps. The soldier still didn't move as shots began to whiz by him, simply pumping the stock on his rifle and sending a grenade of his own flying with a high-pitched whine into the jeep closest to him, lighting it up in a spectacular fireball so bright Will had to look away. The raiders scattered, diving out of their vehicles and attempting to return fire.
The soldier was already moving, firing his rifle on three-shot bursts as he ran around the burning jeep away from Will, suppressing the raiders as the woman carefully edged the other way, taking shots with her side-arm whenever one arose.
"This… this isn't like the simulations at all," Will marvelled. "This is real!"
He could feel the heat from the burning jeep on his flesh and smell the acrid smoke in the air; the raiders that had been wounded were screaming as others shouted random curse words or clashing instructions, trying to organize some form of counter-attack as the shots from the soldiers kept pouring into them.
The male soldier's clip ran dry, and with practiced movements that took him less than a couple of seconds he had reloaded, the empty clip falling to the ground forgotten as he kept moving.
Will perked up, noticing one of the men that had been lying on the ground after being thrown from the exploding jeep sit up, training his rifle on the male soldier. Letting his training take over, Will stepped up into a kneeling position, locking the butt of his gun firm against his shoulder and sighting down the barrel, doing his best to make up for the bent iron-sights on the end. With a deafening crack the bandit jerked once and dropped again, lying still this time as Will took his first life.
The cadet blinked, lowering his gun as the soldier looked in his direction, offering him an appreciative nod.
"Stinkin' soldiers!" the bandit's leader shouted above the chaos as he dove back into one of the remaining jeeps. "Mount up and head for the hills, roaches! We're outmanned!"
The other bandits did likewise, only six managing to get back into the vehicles and speed off as the two soldiers kept firing after them. The man with cropped blonde hair sniffed, resting his rifle in the crook of his elbow and staring off after the bandits.
"That'll teach em," he muttered before turning to where Will was standing, staring at the burning jeep.
"You alright, kid?" he called, his heavy footfalls crunching dead grass and stones beneath his boots as he walked over.
"Yeah, I... I am now," Will managed to get out. "Thank you. My name's Will. I'm a cadet at the academy – I… I mean, I was. Before the meteors. That was the… the first time I've ever…"
"You never forget your first," the man said apologetically, clapping a rough hand on Will's shoulder. "A cadet, huh? Thought I recognized that jacket. So what happened? Were there any other survivors?"
Will shook his head slowly. He'd been pining for someone to talk to for more than a month now and here he was with a willing conversation partner not trying to shoot him and he couldn't think of anything to say? He took a deep breath, preparing to tell his story.
"The academy is gone," Will said after a moment. "One minute I was eating lunch and then... Everyone died. Instructors and friends... everybody. I was buried in the mess hall. I've been digging myself out for... I don't know. Weeks, I guess. I looked for survivors, but I only found rubble and bodies. I thought I was the only one left."
"You did well, kid," the big soldier said in a kind tone, patting the cadet on the shoulder again. "I'm impressed."
"I didn't want to die," Will admitted in a small voice.
"I'm captain Brenner," the soldier said, stepping back from Will. "I command the 12th Battalion, pride of the Rubinelle Army. Well, what's left of it, anyway. And this is my second in command-"
"First Lieutenant Lin," the woman said absently, staring out over the scrubland with binoculars. "Welcome to Brenner's Wolves, kid."
"We've made it our mission to seek out and aid survivors of the disaster," Brenner explained as he began leading Will back towards the ridge. "The world is a dangerous place now. I suggest you come with us. You'd be an asset to the Battalion with your academy training, and I know you can shoot at the very least."
Will nodded excitedly, not caring any more how stupid he looked in his relief.
"Yes, sir! That would be fantastic! You won't be sorry about-"
The cadet's gushing was cut short as a loud gurgling sound echoed out, making him close his mouth tight as his face went red.
"Are you alright?" Brenner snickered as Lin began walking back towards them, her own mouth quirked up in a small grin.
Will nodded. "Er… yeah. Just… hungry."
The Captain burst out laughing, slapping Will on the back a few times while Lin watched on patiently.
"That was your stomach rumbling?" Brenner snorted, his laughter finally dying down. "I thought we were under attack! Come on, then, kid. We'll get you some spare rations. Just don't get too excited. All we have is field rat-packs, but food's food, right?"
A week later and the Battalion had moved inland due east, away from the coastal region the Will had grown up and attended school in. He'd been confined to the hospital truck for the first two days being treated for dehydration and malnutrition; apparently one couldn't live off of nothing but energy drinks and vending machine snacks for a month without adverse side effects, but he was feeling better now and moving about the camp when the convoy stopped for the evening, getting to know the other soldiers he'd be spending his time with.
Occasionally, like the current situation Will found himself in, the Battalion would stop at some ruins to check for survivors, small teams of soldiers heading out on foot or in the lighter vehicles where terrain allowed, sometimes bringing back supplies and equipment, but never more survivors.
"Hey, kid, good to see you up and about," one of the privates, Jenkins Will had heard Lin call him, said with a wave as the cadet stepped off the truck he'd been in.
Will resisted the urge to sigh as he grinned at the young private; Jenkins was only a few years older than him, but of course the nickname 'kid' had stuck when the others had heard Brenner call him that.
"Yeah, I'm getting sick of sitting on my hands," Will said, nodding up to the command vehicle. "Captain in there?"
"Yeah, and so's Lieutenant hard-ass," the private groaned. "Enter at your own peril."
"Thanks," Will laughed, opening the hatch and stepping up the rungs into the truck's cramped interior.
Brenner and Lin both looked up from whatever local maps they were going over as he snapped to attention.
"Good morning, Cadet," Brenner said cordially as Lin went back to scanning the reports. "At ease. What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping I could go out with the search party today, sir," Will said, relaxing a little; there was barely enough room in the truck for him to stand at attention, let alone parade rest, so he just relaxed.
Brenner glanced over at Lin, eyebrow raised. She shrugged, still not looking up from the maps.
"You've got permission to leave camp, Will," Brenner said. "Don't wander too far away from the group; stick close to Private Jenkins, and do whatever Sergeant Carmine says. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" Will said excitedly, hurriedly opening the door to step back out and get his gear.
"Oh, and Cadet?" Lin called after him, making him hesitate halfway through the hatch. "Tell Jenkins that if I hear him call me 'Lieutenant hard-ass' one more time I'm making him pull latrine duty for a month."
"Yes, ma'am," Will said, doing his best to keep a straight face as Jenkins made a strangled groan outside the truck.
Will and three other men tromped across the rocky terrain, heading towards the ruins of a small town in the perpetual twilight. Sergeant Carmine was leading them at a subdued pace, obviously wary of Will's slowly returning health as he kept pace with the soldiers, breathing a little heavier than usual but not complaining.
"Doin' okay, kid?" Carmine called back from where he and the squad's other member, another private named Komo, were a little way ahead of Will and Jenkins.
"Yeah, just… admiring the scenery," Will grunted, jogging a little to catch up.
"Well, don't push yourself," Carmine said as he handed Will his canteen. "You're the first survivor we've found in months; it'll be no good if you drop dead now. The Lieutenant'll flay me alive!"
Komo and Jenkins burst out laughing as Will choked on the water, the Sergeant's joke making it attempt to go down the wrong pipe with explosive results.
"I'm fine, sir," Will assured him, handing back the canteen and wiping his face with the cuff of his jacket.
"Good," Carmine said with a nod. "Let's keep moving, then. We want to be back by nightfall, or O'Riley's going to eat all the decent rations on us again."
"How does that man not gain weight?" Komo asked as she and Carmine pulled a little way ahead of Will and Jenkins again. "All I ever see him eat is shit, and he's still a twig."
"Good genes, I guess," Carmine shrugged, their conversation fading to background noise as Will looked at the terrain around them.
The low light was still messing with Will a little; it was three in the afternoon, according to the analogue watch that had come with his equipment, but it looked like it was after six. At least it wasn't making it hard to sleep, but Will was worried about the constant cloud of dust in the atmosphere. After only a month all the grass and plants he'd seen was dead or close to; how would they continue to grow food? It seemed like the only option was to set up mass-hydroponics or lamp-light farms, but…
"Hello? Earth-to-Will, come in Will," Jenkins said, waving his hand in front of the cadet's face, snapping him out of his reverie.
"Oh, huh? What's up?"
"Nothing," Jenkins shrugged. "You just looked all serious there for a second; I thought I'd snap you out of it before smoke started pouring out of your ears."
Will snickered a little. "Yeah. I was just thinking…"
"About…?" Jenkins prompted as they walked.
"The world really has changed, has it, Jenkins?" Will sighed, kicking at the ground and making a puff of loose ash rise up. "This ash is everywhere. The sky is dark. This never-ending twilight's starting to make me a little loopy. Even the ground is coated in it. I've never seen so much grey."
"Yeah, you say that now, but wait til Komo gets stuck with mess duty," Jenkins whispered with a grin.
"I heard that, bastard!" Komo shouted from where she and Carmine were ahead of them.
Will and Jenkins laughed for a little while, before Will stopped, growing pensive again.
"Mark," Jenkins said, clapping a hand on Will's shoulder.
"What?"
"My first-name," Jenkins said. "It's Mark. And don't let all this destruction get you down. We're all still alive, right? So we'll keep on keepin' on, and eventually things will get better again."
"Unless you mouth-off at the Lieutenant again," Carmine snickered. "Then I'll be stuck looking for a new squad-member while they clean what's left of you up with scrub-brushes."
"When do you think the sky will return to normal?" Will asked as the squad starting moving together again and their laughter died down.
Komo shrugged, her blonde hair hanging past her helmet and down to her shoulders.
"Years? Decades? Who cares. I burned easy in the sun, anyway."
"Wow, there's a scary thought," Jenkins – Mark, Will corrected himself – laughed. "Just imagine, Komo on the beach, sunbathing. Sheesh, she'd even scare the fish away!"
"Bite me," Komo growled, taking a swing at Mark as he ducked and laughed, Will doing his best not to join in.
Komo wasn't an unattractive woman, but she was definitely a soldier, covered in muscle and easily out-weighing Will or even the other two men in the squad.
"All right you clowns," Carmine grunted, obviously trying not to laugh, too. "Get serious. We're almost at the town. Ten meter spread, standard paired search procedure."
"Hey, you alive?" Will asked, giving the body at his feet a gentle nudge before sighing and standing.
They'd been looking through the town for nearly an hour, and the outlook wasn't good. More bodies everywhere; more destroyed and looted stores; a crater where a gas station would have been lit up; more of the same, according to Mark.
"At least that's one good thing about the meteors," Mark said as he and Will started walking again, looking around. "No scavengers. We can't bury every body we find, but we don't have to worry about them being desecrated at the least."
"Yeah," Will sighed, mind flashing back to all the time he'd spent burying his friends and teachers at the academy.
"Oi!" Mark shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Anyone out there!? We're army, not raiders! We want to help you!"
The shout echoed a few times as he dropped his arms to his sides, glancing back at Will and shrugging before the radio at his shoulder chirped.
"Yeah?" Mark said, leaning his head sideways and reaching up to the little grey box. "What's up? Find something?"
"Yeah, an idiot," Sergeant Carmine growled over the radio. "Orders were to do this quietly in case raiders spot us, Jenkins. Or did you forget the briefing the Lieutenant gave us? Maybe you'd like to spend a little more time with her while she reminds you of the current situation."
"No, sir. Sorry, sir," Mark responded sheepishly. "I'm just getting sick of only finding bodies."
"I know," Carmine answered. "But be sick of it quietly, got it?"
"Yes sir," Mark answered.
"Come on, let's start heading back. Meet at the insertion point on the double. Carmine out," the Sergeant grunted before the line went dead.
Mark glanced over at where Will was crouching down next to another body, gently prodding at it and repeating the same 'are you okay?' line they'd both been spouting all afternoon.
"Hang it up kid," Mark sighed, pulling his helmet off of dirty-blonde hair and running a gloved hand through it. "We're too late. He's dead. They're all dead. Sarge's calling us back. Let's go. Mission's a bust. All these towns are the same. No survivors anywhere."
"I don't believe that," Will said, standing and moving deeper into the ruins. "I survived, didn't I? Someone else had to have! We have to keep looking."
"Will?" Mark called after him, hurriedly strapping his helmet back on. "Dammit, Will, where are you… We have orders to pull out! Will! Well at least wait for me, dammit!"
"Hello?" Will called into the ruins. "Is anyone here? Anyone at all?"
Mark had followed Will into the ruins, making up some bull-story about following movement to keep the Sergeant off their backs while he humoured the kid, but he was getting tired now.
"C'mon, Will, we're not going to find anything-"
The radio on Mark's uniform chirped again, making both men jump before Mark switched the frequency.
"This is Captain Brenner to all units," the radio said. "Raiders have been spotted in the vicinity of the ruined towns in the eastern fields off the highway. All militarized and non-militarized units are to pull back so that we can organize a counter-offensive. I repeat: raiders have been spotted in the vicinity of the ruined towns in the eastern fields off the highway. Get your arses in gear and hop to it, Wolves; let's take these sons of bitches out once and for all. Mechanized units to stations, infantry, defend the guns. Brenner out."
"Alright, you heard the Captain, Kid!" Mark said, turning and heading for where Komo and Carmine were waiting. "Mission's over! We got raiders coming. Let Captain Brenner step in and take care of the hostiles. We stay out here any longer, and they'll be sizing us for body bags."
"You think it was the same ones that came after me last week?" Will asked as he and Mark started to jog back to the others.
"Yeah, probably," the soldier replied. "They're territorial like wild dogs. The one that supposedly runs this area calls himself 'the Beast'. Heh. He's a joke. Brenner's gonna' put him down hard, and we don't wanna miss the party, so move it."
Will was about to answer an affirmative before something caught his eye and he skidded to a halt, nearly falling over in the process before starting off in another direction.
"Dammit Will, what now!?" Mark shouted at the cadet's sudden change of direction.
"There's someone over there!" Will called over his shoulder before sprinting off, leaving the soldier to follow with his heavier kit, falling behind a little as they ducked into what looked like an old shopping arcade.
"Hey! Are you okay? Stay with me here! Mark, give me your canteen, quickly!"
"Is she even breathing?" Mark asked, handing over his canteen as he reached Will's side.
The cadet was kneeling, holding a teal-haired girl maybe a few years younger than he was up with one arm, trying to wake her up enough to drink some of the water. Her messy hair was long, almost down to her waist, and her simple white dress was filthy, making it look like she'd wandered around the badlands alone since the calamity had hit. No doubt she'd wandered into the arcade looking for food and collapsed.
"She… doesn't look like she's going to make it, man," Mark said gently. "We've gotta get out of here before the raiders catch up."
"I'm not leaving her here," Will said firmly, checking the girl's pulse. "She's still breathing, even if it's faint. We can still save her. Help me get her up."
As Mark moved to assist the kid explosions rocked the area, knocking him from his feet as dust fell down from the arcade's ceiling.
"Dammit, I thought you said we had more time!" Mark shouted into the radio as the shaking finally stopped.
"Well I was wrong!" Carmine shouted back, gunfire echoing in the distance and across the radio, too. "Get your asses in gear, Jenkins! Move it!"
"Roger, we're on our way!" Mark responded, looking back to where Will was shielding the girl by leaning over her.
"Open your eyes..." the cadet whispered to her. "I know there's not much to see, but you can't give up. You're alive, you know? And where there's life, there's hope. Come on, please!"
Just as Mark was about to suggest they leave the girl, to his astonishment her eyes fluttered open and she glanced up at Will.
"Who… who are you?" she muttered weakly.
"I'll be damned," Mark sighed, smiling softly. "We finally found another one."
"Yes!" Will shouted, throwing his fist in the air. "You heard me! Yes!"
"P-please tell me... Who are you?" the girl rasped, shying away from the cadet's grip a little.
"I'm Will, that's Mark," the cadet said quickly, an excited look on his face. "We're with Brenner's Wolves, the Rubinelle Twelfth Battalion. What's your name?"
"I... I don't know," the girl said weakly.
Another explosion rocked the building, this time sending old lighting fixtures crashing to the ground not far away from the trio.
"That's going to have to wait til later!" Mark shouted. "We have to go! Now!"
"Okay, okay," Will called to him as Mark scouted around the exit.
"Don't worry," he added, looking down at the girl. "You've been through a lot. But everything's going to be fine now. Just come with me."
She nodded weakly as Will lifted her up, cradling her in his arms as he followed Mark back through the ruined town.
Will puffed hard as he followed Mark through the ruins, dodging around rubble and ducking to avoid the torrent of gunfire coming their direction.
"What's going on!?" the girl in his arms cried weakly as a stray bullet hit the side of a building near them, showering them both with dust.
"We're under attack," Will said. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
"Says the one not even holding his rifle," Mark grinned over his shoulder as they finally emerged out to where Komo and Carmine were waiting for them.
"They look pissed," Mark groaned, slowing as they approached.
Komo was kneeling behind some rubble, carefully taking shots at the raiders tearing up the town. Sergeant Carmine was red in the face, almost looking like he was about to slap Will and Mark for making them wait.
"What the hell took so… long?" he asked, his shout trailing off as he caught sight of the girl curled up in Will's arms. "Is that…?"
"A survivor, yes sir," Mark said as he fell to one knee next to Komo and started taking shots. "Will found her. Talk to him."
"Who?" the girl asked as Carmine stepped towards Will, shrinking into his arms a little.
"Sergeant Adam Carmine, leader of echo-squad, B-Platoon, Rubinelle Twelfth Mechanized Battalion," he said, snapping to attention and smiling at the girl. "It's okay. We'll get you out of here safe."
"Rubinelle..." she muttered, blinking a few times. "Rubinelle is one of the two main countries on this continent. At the last known date, the army employed one million, two-hundred and ninety-six thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-three men."
Will and Carmine shared a confused glance as the girl looked back and forth between them a few times.
"How did you know that?" Will asked gently.
"Rubinelle and its neighbour have been at war for a century," she continued, smiling up at Will. "Despite several armistices, the fighting has never truly ended. Ten percent of Rubinelle's GDP is expended on weaponry and research. The last recorded assessment of its military strength was 'excellent'."
"Okay, that's all well and good," Komo shouted over her shoulder. "But can she do something to get us the hell out of here!?"
"Where did you learn that, honey?" the gruff Sergeant asked the girl, throwing Komo a dirty look.
"I… I don't know," she said, her smile turning into a frown as she concentrated. "I don't know. I don't… don't understand."
"Let's talk about it later," Will suggested. "Right now we have to get back to camp in one piece. Any ideas, Sergeant?"
Carmine shrugged, grinning at the cadet and winking.
"Wolves are pack animals. You really think that the pack would let any of its members just die alone?"
The Sergeant's question was punctuated by the sound of heavy guns firing and engines powering over rough terrain, the ground starting to rumble slightly. Will risked a glance around the rubble they were hiding behind, careful to position the girl so she wasn't exposed. He laughed in relief, Komo and Mark both beginning to whoop and cheer as the Twelfth Battalion tanks charged towards the enemy, an armoured personnel carrier peeling off and coming right for them, someone in the turret atop the truck firing a steady volley of high-calibre shells at the raiders in the distance as it skidded to a halt, spinning so that the open entry ramp at the back faced the squad.
"Come on!" Captain Brenner shouted from the driver's seat as Lin continued firing non-stop at the raiders, barely sparing the squad a second glance.
Komo and Mark both rose, firing from the hip as they ran to the APC, covering Will and the Sergeant before pounding up the ramp after them, Mark smashing his fist against the 'close' button.
"We're clear!" Carmine shouted. "Go! Go!"
"Hold on!" Brenner shouted as he put his foot to the floor, the APC jumping forward.
Will had just managed to get the mysterious girl strapped in before he went flying as the Captain hit the gas, falling onto his back and finding himself staring up at the First-Lieutenant's legs as she kept firing from the turret, blinking a few times as her open jacket flapped in the wind revealing a bare and toned mid-section most women would probably kill for.
"C'mon, kid," Carmine laughed, pulling him up and depositing him in the seat next to the girl. "Rule one of APCs; hold on to something at all times."
"Especially if the Captain's driving!" Komo called from the rear of the transport.
Brenner's hand left the wheel long enough to change gears and flip the laughing soldiers the bird, grinning himself as he drove them back towards the camp.
Lin finally stopped her endless torrent of fire, stepping down into the transport and giving the girl a shocked look before heading up to the driver's cab and grabbing the radio.
"Package is secure," she shouted into the hand set. "All mechanised units pull back. Prepare for skyfall."
"'Skyfall'?" Will repeated, looking between the grinning infantry squad and the cab.
"Remember what I said before?" Carmine shouted over the roar of the engine as he strapped himself down. "Better strap in, kid."
Before Will could ask any more questions there was a deafening boom from back towards the Battalion position, before another huge explosion hit in the direction of the town, artillery shells raining down on the raiders like the sky was falling down on them.
Hence the codename, Will realised as he watched the conflagration out of the slit in the raised ramp at the back of the APC.
"Alright, everybody out!" Brenner called as they came to a stop in the camp. "Get any wounds tended to and get some rest! We're moving out at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning, so don't leave the camp again!"
The three soldiers complied, Mark giving Will a wink as he followed his other two squad-mates out of the APC, leaving the cadet alone with the mysterious girl still wincing and holding her ears from the artillery strike and the two commanding officers.
"Well, that was fun for a change," Brenner said as he climbed out of the cab and into the troop section. "I spend too much time standing over maps and… who's this?"
The girl blinked up at the big soldier as he walked over, a perplexed look on both of their faces as they looked at each other.
"I don't know," Will admitted, crouching down in front of the girl and attempting to undo the harness holding her into the chair without getting her long hair caught in it. "I found her unconscious in some ruined buildings."
"Good work bringing her in, Cadet," Lin said with a nod, all business as she was already pulling the spent-ammo dump from the turret to be recycled.
The girl cocked her head a little as Will finally got the straps undone and Brenner crouched down in front of her, too.
"What's your name, sweetie?" he asked, his voice strangely soft.
"I don't know," she answered weakly.
"You don't know?" Brenner repeated. "Listen, kid, no-one's going to hurt you here, so-"
"Er, Captain?" Will piped up. "She's been like that since I found her. Possible amnesia, sir."
The Captain took another look at the girl, still staring curiously at him.
"Alright," he said, patting his thighs and standing. "Let's get her fed and then debrief her."
Will, Brenner and Lin watched where the mysterious girl was sitting in one of the technician's chairs in the empty command vehicle, innocently tapping at the keyboard one-handed as she stuffed one of their precious few protein bars into her face, Brenner's large jacket covering her simple white dress ever since she'd stepped out of the APC and complained that she was cold.
"She lost her memory, huh?" Captain Brenner mumbled, rubbing his stubble coated chin in thought. "Is that what you're saying? It's not surprising, with all that's happened to this world. Sometimes I wish mine was gone too."
Lin nodded, holding the clipboard with the results of her debriefing in one arm as she stood ramrod straight. Somehow it had been decided that the girl would be more open to talking to another woman, and in a surprising show of gentleness Lin had patiently questioned her for more than half an hour before apparently being satisfied.
"There's more, sir," she reported. "It seems the girl has detailed knowledge of our post-meteor army. I would be interested to know where she obtained her information. Very interested, sir."
The way she stated that sent chills down Will's spine.
"Easy, Lin," Brenner chuckled, holding a forestalling hand up. "She's a survivor who needs our help, not an enemy combatant. Will saved her, and we're going to see that she gets someplace safe. Clear?"
"Sir," Lin said, snapping to attention.
"Me?" Will asked, pointing up at himself with a befuddled look on his face.
"She's your responsibility now, Will," Brenner grinned, clapping a hand on the cadet's shoulder. "Stay with her, and see that she's taken care of. I'm counting on you."
With that he and Lin stepped down out of the command vehicle, leaving a confused Will alone with the girl, ignoring the world around her as she studied the readouts in front of her.
"I've never even owned a hamster, sir!" Will called after them desperately, hanging out of the open hatch. "How the hell am I supposed to… damn."
Will grimaced, realising that Brenner and Lin had already disappeared into the camp. Turning back he noticed the girl looking up at him, an innocent expression on her face.
"More?" she asked, displaying the empty wrapper in her hands.
"Sure," Will sighed, running a hand down his face. "C'mon. Let's find the mess Sergeant; he can give you more and get you set up with some proper gear."
Will resisted the urge to groan as he set out the sleeping bag on the floor of his tent, the unnamed girl swinging her legs in her new military boots as she sat on the edge of what had formerly been his cot, watching him work. Of course there hadn't been any other tents. Or cots. Or even space in other tents for her. The Twelfth were apparently a very close-knit and organised unit, and not a single space was wasted.
Meaning that the only place for the girl to sleep was either with one of the COs, or with Will.
Naturally, that's why she was in his tent. Brenner would probably take her in no problem, but Will didn't want to add to the leader's burdens having to take care of the girl. Lin had just arched an eyebrow at him when he'd approached her, calmly reminding him that he'd just been given a two-man tent to use for himself not a week ago before closing her tent in his face.
"Why are you sleeping on the floor?" the girl asked, apparently a little more energetic now that she'd been fed.
She'd eaten enough for three people so far, even going so far as to take little bits and pieces from Will's tray while he'd been busy talking to Mark in the mess tent. It was amazing that such a small girl could pack it away like that.
"Because that's the last spare cot," Will sighed.
"So why don't I sleep on the floor?"
"Because the Captain told me to take care of you."
The girl quirked her head to one side before shrugging and letting out a huge yawn.
"Okay," she said as her yawn trailed off, curling up into a ball on the cot, basically covered by Brenner's jacket she still hadn't given up yet.
Will rolled his eyes as he stood, tugging her boots off and setting them by the end of the cot before pulling the blanket up over her. She must have been exhausted; she was already out like a light.
With a soft sigh Will switched off the small electric lamp sitting in one corner of the sparse tent, laying down on his back atop his sleeping bag, not even bothering to take his own boots or jacket off.
He was exhausted, too, and he needed to rest. The end of the world would go on tomorrow, and on top of surviving now he needed to find the young girl currently passed out on his cot a new home.
Will felt his eyelids grow heavy, not fighting it as he felt sleep sneaking up on him.
Tomorrow was a new day, and they were still alive. They both still had living to do, after all.
"Should probably start by finding her a name," he muttered as he drifted off to sleep.