A Wild Ride
Disclaimer: I do not own Strike Witches.
About the story: It takes place between the first and second seasons of the anime, shortly before the reformation of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. Special thanks goes to Zoids Fanatic, who did the beta reading for the story.
The train had been on the rails for the past two days. The monotone sound and the shaking of the carriages was hypnotizing the passengers inside. Behind the locomotive were two carriages filled with officers, behind them more carriages filled to the brim with supplies and the rest of the carriages held soldiers, Karlsland soldiers. This train was heading towards Marseille, where the passengers and their cargo was needed. But there were 3 special passengers aboard too. And all three of them were surprisingly young, though despite their age, they were more effective than the rest of the soldiers who traveled with them. This contingent came from the freed areas of Karlsland was part of the relief movement to restore Gallia, after defeat of the Neuroi above the La Manche channel. But the three special passengers had another destination. They were heading towards the front in Romagna, where a new hive appeared recently. The witches were humanity's last stand against the tide of aliens. Here, on this train the three of them were on their way, to the front line.
The door of the carriage was open, so sunlight could enter the interior. One of the witches was sitting on the floor, leaning onto an oil-green bag filled with personal belongings. She was reading a letter with a broad smile on her face. Her companion was snoring soundly a few meters away, laying on a haystack, her arms and legs wide open. The other was going to make a comment about how indecent the pose was, but she knew better, since almost all her efforts were in vain, and the blonde had such a happy sleeping face, so she decided to let her be for now. The train took a slight turn to the west so the rays of the sun changed angles and shined directly into the blond witch's eye. That made her face distort, causing her to open her eyes reluctantly.
"Fueee..." yawned the blonde girl, Erica Hartmann, who looked at her companion with hazy eyes "Good morning, Trude..."
"Good morning? Good morning yourself." snapped the brunette, Gertrud Barkhon, back at the blonde witch. " It's past noon already, how long were you going to sleep anyway?'
"Did you have any breakfast?" asked Hartmann, who got onto her feet
"Yes, around 5 hours ago."
"Eh? And why didn't you wake me up?
"I did. You were mumbling something about a hammock and turned to your other side."
"Oh. Wait... Now I remember... Shirley gave me a hammock she brought from Liberion. That was sure nice. I should ask her to bring one for me..." Barkhorn didn't answer, though she did give a long sigh and continued to read the letter. The Hartmann approached the door of the carriage, and stuck her head out. The sudden wind ruffled her hair and made her eyes water. She looked at the scenery, though since she didn't recognize anything she quickly pulled her head back inside, and turned towards the lieutenant.
"Say Trude, are we there yet?"
"Not yet. But frankly I wouldn't mind if we were there by now." Barkhorn said, still reading her letter, though she didn't raise an eye to Hartmann, who went back to her pile of hay, jumping back into it. Burying her face into the hay, she began an all too familiar cry.
"I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored! Ugh, I'm so bored!" Barkhorn, finishing her letter, put the two pieces of paper in the envelope she received them in, stood up and brushed off the dust from her uniform.
"Shall we have lunch?" asked the lieutenant to Hartmann. Hartmann immediately raised her head from her temporary bed, gazing at Barkhorn with sparkling eyes.
"Sure! What are we going to eat?"
"Same thing as yesterday; standard rations." Barkhorn said with an indifferent voice. As soon as the words "standard rations" left her mouth, Hartmann's smile suddenly disappeared and she turned away from her comrade.
"On second thought, I'm not that hungry." Hartmann said, crossing her hands behind her head, ignoring Barkhorn words.
"Hey, now, you should eat properly, or else you'll get sick. Come on Hartmann, sit down with me." Barkhorn said, patting the space next to her, inviting Hartman to join her in the dry and bland meal. She then reached for her bag, taking out canned food and bread. "Hartmann! You remember the last time you haven't eaten for that long, now do you? I don't want to scrape you off the ground again, it was embarrassing enough when I had to ask for officer Krupinski's help." However, Hartmann was ignoring Barkhorn's words, since she walked to the other end of the carriage where two crates were resting. Within them were the two's Striker units and their launching platforms as well as some spare parts in case the Strikers needed maintenance. Next to one of the crates was Hartmann's bag. The girl rummaged through her stuff to find her secret stash of sweets. She pulled out a chocolate bar only to find an infuriated Barkhorn standing before her.
"And what do you think you are doing with that chocolate?"
"I'm eating it, of course." Hartmann replied with a monotone voice, opening her mouth to take a bite out of the candy bar.
"Come on, you. We're eating together." Barkhorn said grabbed Hartmann's hand, causing her beloved chocolate bar to fall to the floor, both girls giving the candy bar a look of disgust.
" Eeeewwww, I don't wanna eat that! But standard rations taste horrible!" Hartmann complained.
"No buts." Barkhorn said, as she handed an open can with a spoon in it to Hartmann, who accepted her defeat, taking the canned food. She was hesitant when she smelled it, but then she slowly started to eat. Barkhorn, however, didn't have any problems with her meal. After the first spoonful of food Hartmann's face was rather distorted.
"This is worse then, I remembered!" Hartmann exclaimed.
"You have to eat it. We don't have anything else." Barkhorn explained. Hartmann continued with her meal, but her face showed she wasn't very fond of the food. Awhile later, she finally spoke up,
"Remember the meals Yoshika and Lynnette made for us?" Hartmann said, Barkhorn responding with a quiet hum. "Man, that was good food Well, besides that natto stuff. That was just unbearable. I just really hope we gonna get a good cook at the new post."
"Well, I heard that Romagnans eat a lot of pasta." Barkhorn observed.
"That sounds good. I wonder if they have any sweets."
"I remember Lucchini saying that Romagna had ice cream, and other sweets, like... tira... misu. Or something like that," Barkhorn said uncertainly.
"You think we gonna get to eat lots of ice cream?"
" I don't know. And why is it you only think of your stomach? You are a representative of Karlsland, people will judge us according to your behavior. If you only think about food, everyone will think we're all fat gluttons." Barkhorn said with a fair amount of irritation and seriousness in her voice.
"Yeah, yeah." Hartmann replied nonchalantly, causing Barkhorn to become more irritated. While she would not say a word, she never liked the irresponsible behavior of Hartmann. As if on cue, Hartmann walked back to the hay stack, spreading her back out upon the grass and tossing her half-full can aside. With nothing to do, Barkhorn retorted to staring out the window.
"Saaaay... Trude." Hartmann said, her voice clearly revealing her boredom.
"Hmm?" the brunette turned her head towards her fellow Karlslander and took a spoonful of food into her mouth.
"Do you have someone you like?" Hartmann ask, Barkhorn nearly chocking on the food. She coughed violently, dislodging the chewed food from her gullet.
"Wha- what's this all of a sudden?" Barkhorn asked with a startled voice.
"I dunno. I was just curious."
"O-of course... I had!" Barkhorn answered. That of course was a lie, and Hartmann knew that, from her own personal experiences and from her comrade's sudden embarrassment and the way she was blushing and stuttering.
"Teasing Trude is funny." Hartmann thought.
"And? How was she?" Hartmann dropped in the bait, waiting for Barkhorn to snap at it.
"She was... kind and gentle... and good-looking... and..." Barkhorn became red, and looked out a window.
"Ah... She must have been a great girl then." Hartmann commented
"Yeah, she... huh? What? A girl?" Barkhorn finally understood what was going on. Hartmann was shaking from laughter and had already started to snicker. "Hartmann!" Barkhorn shouted as Hartmann let out a hard laugh.
"S-Sorry Trude, but I could... I couldn't resist, you know..." she chuckled. Barkhorn put up a tired face. It was always tempting to tease the brunette girl, and Hartmann surely wasn't the type who would miss a chance to do that.
"Hartmann, you are impossible!" Barkhorn groaned, putting her can on the bare wooden planks "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." came the apology, while the blonde was still expressing her radiant smile at her fellow witch
"But you do love Chris, right?" Hartmann's voice sounded curious.
"Of course I do, but that's something different! She's my little sister and... I love her dearly." she paused and then she added quietly, "I would do anything for her". Hartmann wouldn't have even heard what she said if she wasn't looking at her face. Hartmann only placed her hands behind her head, and sank into the hay looking at the wooden ceiling of the carriage. There were small gaps between the wooden planks, and the daylight sneaked playfully inside; if it would rain, they were sure to get drenched inside. Yet Hartmann a didn't noticed that detail, as looking at Hartmann reminded her of Ursula, her twin sister, who was stationed back in Karlsland. Hartmann secretly wrote her tons of letters, but she didn't receive an answer. The blonde never told anyone, but she was also worried about her own sister. But she wasn't the type who'd show her concerns to anyone. She knew better; if something were to happen to Ursula, she would certainly know. She believed in the special bond between the twins, but she was always worried that something would happen to that meek, quiet sister of hers. Hartmann was lost in her thoughts, but came back to the present and looked at Barkhorn again, who seemed to be lost in her thoughts too. Hartmann knew what she was pondering about.
"Ah, then I suppose I should ask Minna about it." said the girl nonchalantly. She wanted Barkhorn to come back too, and apparently her trick worked. Barkhorn's surprised gaze was now fixed again on Hartmann. "I bet she knows more about this, since..."
"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea." Barkhorn immediately interrupted the blond witch. "Since, you know, Minna still didn't..."
"Yeah."
"B-but anyway, why are you so interested in love anyway?" Barkhorn changed the topic suddenly before they ventured deeper into the thoughts.
"I never was in love, and I guess I was just curious. I don't know how it feels..." Hartmann said, her last words barely audible.
"Well you're still young, and we're soldiers, so you shouldn't give much thought about that" Barkhorn said with much self-importance in her words. She tried to act knowingly about the case as much as possible, and tried to give some advice as the older part of the duo. Her words certainly lacked credibility in Hartmann's eyes, since she was inexperienced in love. Hartmann grudgingly turned away way from Barkhorn, muttering.
"You're dense as always, Trude." the brunette raised her eyebrows, as she listened to her friend but couldn't understand her words over the clattering of the wheels.
"What are you saying?"
"Nothing." Hartmann brushed the question off "I'm taking a nap." By this time, Barkhorn finished her meal, and put away the cans and Hartmann's utensils as well. She hated Hartmann's half-heartedness, and she wanted to scold her comrade and make her do her duty, but she couldn't just stand that the blonde left everything around. As she picked up Hartmann's can, she saw her friend sleeping in the broad daylight. Her hair swayed slightly in the wind.
"Honestly. She's so careless, she just acts like a little kid." Barkhorn thought to herself looking at the blonde's closed eyes. She was obviously dreaming something, since she pulled some weird faces. Barkhorn couldn't help but smile at Hartmann's face. "Why is it that she's only cute when she's sleeping so soundly? Well, at least she's not scheming some prank to pull on us."
The only thing Barkhon noticed in the next one and a half hours was when her bottom has gone completely numb from sitting on the hard, wooden floor. She stood up, made some moves to make the soreness from her muscles go away. At the same time she noticed, that Hartmann has woken up from her nap, her gaze completely blank as if she was still dreaming.
"What's up? Awake already?" Barkhorn couldn't understand the grumpy answer that Hartmann was mumbling. The blonde stood up and almost lost her balance when the carriage moved forward. Barkhorn thought she was still half-asleep. Hartmann slowly stumbled to the door, her steps as if drunk. Barkhorn's heart began to beat faster, afraid that the other would fall from the train if she wasn't careful enough. The blonde leaned against the door, and Barkhorn felt that something was wrong. "We're getting close, I can already smell the sea." Barkhorn explained to Hartmann, though no answer came from the other. Time slowly passed, and Hartmann began to sink to the floor on her knees. Barkhorn's heart began to beat faster as she heard some belching noises coming from the direction of her friend and then saw the remains of her lunch fly horizontally out of the door. Hartmann couldn't hear Barkhorn voice, as everything became black.
Hartmann felt several times that she was falling into nothingness. She was obviously dreaming and couldn't even tell how much time has passed since she was consumed by the darkness. She was hopelessly trying to grasp at something she could get her hands on, but there was still nothing. A little while later she regained some consciousness, and she felt that her body was lying somewhere. The darkness still remained, but somehow she felt calm and at ease as she felt something warm against her cheeks. Slowly she began hearing voices from a great distance, but she couldn't understand them and quickly gave up. Some time has passed, when she heard a certain voice echoing in her head again.
"...rica. Please wake up, Erica..."
The blonde girl felt a familiar scent and a slight tremble. She knew this scent from long ago, it was reassuring and calming. She slowly opened her eyes and saw something big and gray, the lights of a passenger car overshadowing a face above her. She recognized the face immediately without even seeing it.
"Hey Trude..."
The brunette quickly jerked up hearing the voice coming from below. Hartmann could now clearly see the face of her comrade. Barkhorn's face seemed worn out, her eyes were red and swollen, her lips slightly trembling.
"Erica!" she cried out loudly "You're awake!"
"Wha' happened?" blonde girl asked dimly, as she was trying to sit up.
Barkhorn put her weight on her left elbow, though sitting up. She felt something warm and soft under her left hand. It was Barkhorn's thighs that she was resting her weight on. Hartmann's hands were cold, but at that moment the brunette couldn't care less, she felt a sense of great relief. Suddenly she hugged the blonde girl before her, not realizing the strength she put into the hug.
"Hartmann, are you awake? Thanks goodness!" the blonde witch heard another familiar voice from behind. It was Minna, who stood at the door. Barkhorn looked around and only now did she notice that they weren't in the original carriage anymore, instead they were in a compartment of a passenger car. But this compartment was completely empty, and there was no sign of officers, who were supposed to ride with them. She also noticed that the sky was already dark behind the red-headed witch. She couldn't tell how long she was passed out. "How are you feeling?" Minna continued. The girl tried to answer, scratched her nose before she answered, but the only sound that came out of her mouth was a loud belch.
"I don't feel so well." she answered. "I feel dizzy."
"You should rest now. I'll get you some water." the wing commander said, quickly disappearing out of her sight. Hartmann collapsed onto Barkhorn's lap.
"Hey! Careful there!"
"Don't shout into my ears..." the blonde replied to Barkhorn.
"I-I'm sorry..." Barkhorn said quietly before going silent as Minna returned with a glass of water. After Hartmann drank the water, she began to question the two others.
"What happened?" Hartmann asked.
"You passed out and fell from the car. Barkhorn climbed over several cars while the train was moving at full speed to stop the train. She then carried you all the way over here. She then ordered the officers out from this car, and stayed with you all this time. There was something wrong with the canned food you ate. The medic said you probably have a bad case of indigestion. I'll go tell the medic you woke up. We'll arrive at our destination soon, and a doctor will inspect you again there, so please be patient." Minna said in a calm voice, along with a smile, again leaving the two. But before she went out to the corridor she turned to the two once more. "You should get some rest too, Barkhorn. Everything will be alright now." Barkhorn could only nod in response, watching Minna leave.
Aside from the sounds of the locomotive, it was quiet in the car. Hartmann closed her eyes again, but Barkhorn broke the silence.
"I'm sorry." she said quietly and let out a muffled sniff
"Why?" the blonde asked after a while.
"For making you eat that."
"Well, I said it tasted horrible..." Hartmann responded honestly watching as some tears welled up in Barkhorn's eyes. "You couldn't have known." she added, knowing immediately knew Barkhorn was blaming herself for the whole incident and wanted to calm her down somehow.
"I was so worried about you... I mean, I don't know what I would have done if you...
"But it's all right now." Hartmann cut in. "I'll be fine. But you have to promise me you won't make me eat anything like that again."
"I will." the brunette replied without hesitation.
"And you'll treat me some candy once we arrive." Hartmann said with a raised brow.
"I will." Barkhorn said with a laugh.
"And you will stay with me forever, from now on."
"I will." She said it without thinking. When Barkhorn realized what she had said, her face immediately became crimson again. Her friend managed to trick her again "Wai... what did you make me say again?" she raised her voice again. Hartmann let out a small giggle. Her voice made Barkhorn a bit calmer, and she started acting like her old self again. That was definitely a good sign.
"You should rest now." Barkhorn answered in a calmer voice.
Yes sir." Barkhorn said, and nestled up closer to Barkhorn's lap. The brunette took a pillow in her hands. "Here". She said, and waited for her to raise her head, so the brunette could stand up. Hartmann looked at the pillow gloomily.
"I already have one." Hartmann said, patting the brunette's thighs.
"But this way I can't stand up." Barkhorn complained.
"That's okay, since I'm sick and you promised me you'll be here." Hartmann smiled.
Barkhorn paused, and put the pillow down
"Sheesh. You're acting like a spoiled child. Fine, all right. But don't make a habit out of it."
"Fiiine." Hartmann replied. "Besides... if I weren't here I couldn't enjoy this view." said Hartmann said with a usual broad smile, peeking under Barkhorn's uniform and directly at her panties.
"Frau, stop looking at weird places and go to sleep already!" Barkhorn shouted, as Hartmann's laughter was soon muffled by the monotone sound of the train. Minna could already see the lights of Nice by the time she arrived in the cabin with the two, whom has fallen asleep together.