In a world at war, every battle is for survival.
-(Stephen's P.O.V.)-
The screams of artillery shell's raining down all around my tank was the fear that drove my crew and I on. Every shudder through the hull of our tank was a constant reminder that if we stopped, we would meet our demise at the hand of a fiery explosion. "God Dammit Steve, don't move in a straight line, we ne-" CLANG! I flinched as the hull beside my head bent inwards, and I looked towards my gunner and shouted, "Load the main cannon! We have an enemy tank to our right!"
With every jolt and rumble that echoed through the hull of our Matilda II tank, we fought to remain in control of the immense power that this vehicle had. I popped the hatch and grabbed my Sten, preparing for the worst, and as I stood up and brought my automatic rifle to my shoulder, I looked up and saw a few scout aircraft commencing in dogfighting while blimps filled the air. Every blimp in the air had the insignia of the Nazi regime, and I grit my teeth as I looked back down at the ground and began to fire the gun at the various enemy troops trying to use anti-tank guns on this vehicle. Gunning down a few of the troops, I quickly ducked back into my tank as a bullet ricocheted off my helmets dome. I looked over and saw another Matilda tank beside us take an artillery shell directly to her frontal hull, and concealed her condition in a thick black cloud. I didn't need to wait long as the tank roared defiantly from the black cloud, and fired its main gun; taking out several foot soldiers that were manning a mortar installation. I cheered as I shook my rifle into the air; we were now past enemy lines and pushing into their base camp. BOOM!
I jerked back slightly as Mark fired the main cannon to our Matilda, and I ducked back into the tank and said, "Well done gentlemen, we have breached the enemy lines! Let's take out that artill-" I was cut off as the sound of loud screams and whistling soared overhead, and I felt a chill run through my heart as Steve and Mark both looked at me. Reaching up, I hammered the hatch closed, and I ripped the radio box from its casing and shouted into the speaker, "BRACE!"
The whistling stopped for only a second, before I was thrown forward and against the interior hull of the tank while we began to take hits repeatedly. I lost all hearing a few seconds into the barrage, but when it was over, I saw a hole in the side of the tank, along with what was left of Mark's mangled corpse. I felt an icy chill wash through my body, and the radio set crackled to life, "Commander Stephen of Tank division one-one, you need to push forward with the remaining two Sherman tanks, over!"
Steeling my nerves, I grabbed the speaker box as I wiped blood from my forehead, and shouted into the speakers, "Affirmative sir, proceeding with friendly American tanks to artillery placements, out!" I placed the speaker box back on its stand and moved over and placed Mark's remaining body along the back of the tank, and I looked forwards as Steve stared fearfully at the blood soaked seat. "Steve, get this rust bucket moving before your bloody wanker ass joins him!"
That got my driver moving, and we were soon moving again, and I looked back towards Mark and closed his bloody eyelids and mumbled, "You served the queen well lad, rest easy…" I snapped back into action as I reloaded the main gun, and as I sealed the barrel to the cannon, I moved back to the commanders seat and grabbed the radio box as I opened the hatch once more, and saw that our once sandy tank camouflage was now speckled with black dents, along with the silver sheen of metal sticking out through many of those dents. "Friendly Sherman tanks, we are down a gunner, we will require your additional support if we ru-" I was cut off briefly as an artillery shell detonated beside our tank, but only shrapnel rained down harmlessly. I continued on as if nothing had happened, "Run into trouble, copy?"
"Roger that commander, remain by our sides and you won't have anything to worry about!" Replied a voice of an American, and I could only surmise it was of the farther two tanks since the hatches were closed. Ducking back into my tank, I put the radio box back where it was designated to be, and then I moved over to the gunner's seat, and I looked out a few slits on the upper portion of the armor before I rotated the cannon, and pulled the trigger. The tank rumbled and shook like a beast possessed, and I saw the enemy panzer tank take a critical hit to its fuel tanks as it went up in a ball of flame. Standing back up, I reloaded the cannon as we jerked suddenly, and I nearly hit my head again as artillery shell debris rained down on us. I growled as I readjusted the cannon's aim, and I sighted in on the first large howitzer artillery cannon, and I started to zero in on it until the radio crackled to life as the commander of another tank shouted, "They are turning their AA guns on us! All tanks bre-AHH!"
The commander was cut off as an explosion sounded from somewhere to the left rear of our tank, and I fired. "Steve, get us off this ridge, take us straight down into their camp!"
"Y-Yes sir!"
Just as the tank lurched, another thing happened, and I don't know what happened, but as soon as the feeling of electricity stopped surging through the cabin, lightweight feeling took over my body. VRRROOOOOOOM! We landed with a hard lurch on the ground, and as it did, I felt an extremely cold breeze shoot through the hole in the tanks side. I lurched away from it, but almost as soon as I did, the tank shook as something heavy hits its side. Dink dink, CLANG, dink dink dink…
The sound of automatic fire, along with the boom of a cannon shell reached our ears, and I quickly worked to loud another shell before the armor alloy of the tank gave way to whatever and whomever was shooting us. I moved over to the hatch as Steve said, "S-Sir… there is snow instead of sand…"
Impossible! I store out over the white expanse of the valley we were in, but my attention focused on the green tank that was about two leagues from us, but it wasn't of a design that I knew of. The white flashes continued from that sole tank, while another flaming husk of another that looked like a Sherman was behind it. Grabbing the radio, I looked over and saw another tank, this one looked like an original Matilda tank design, but it was practically in flames as a small village lay a few dozen feet from it. "This is Commander Stephen of the Armed tank division one-one, hailing any able bodied friendlies!"
BOOM!I fell down and into the tank as a piece of shrapnel lodged its way into my shoulder, and I shouted in pain as Steve shot his head towards me. "Commander!" He began to get up, but through the pain I shouted, "Don't you dare stop driving this rust bucket Corporal!"
He flinched, but he complied as I heaved myself from the commanders' seat and armed the charge in the barrel, and I turned it towards the enemy tank as it began to move. Before I could fire however, and explosion rippled along the backside of the tank, destroying its right tracks in the process. I grunted as I too fired, and saw the shell impact under the large turret…
-(Gregory's P.O.V.)-
I was limping through the village of these hominoid white wolves, and I fell down as one passed me. I was scared, tired, and in pain. I clutched my side as I stood up and continued to run towards me damaged tank, which was being operated by two of my remaining men from the original five men crew. We were defending the western flank when that bi-plane crashed into the side of our tank, and I'm not sure how, but those propeller blades pierced the hull… THOSE BLOODY WANKERS!
Passing another weird hut, I spit a blob of blood from my mouth as I stumbled slightly, but when I did, I fell next to another hominoid white wolf, and this one was holding my dying comrade in a way that seemed to be comforting him. He was no older than seventeen, but we needed troops for this bloody war that was taking place on the entire world. I moved up and grabbed his shirt collar as his eyes closed, and I shouted, "Don't die on me Philip! We will beat those bloody wankers so you can go on to see your mum again!"
His hands shakily grabbed my wrists as he said, "S-Sir… w-we both k-know I won't ever l-l-live from this wound…" while he said that, the white wolf rubbed its hands over his shoulders while it said something in a strange language, but I only ignored it as I opened my mouth to say something, but Philip began to cough blood as the large cash in his side and the cut on his arm began to take their tolls on his small body. All my men were injured, and now one of them was about to join the other in death. "S-Sir… tell… tell my… tell my mum I l-love her…"
It was one thing to try and keep your crew-men under good morale, but when they knew they were going to die, it made it all the harder to accept the sad fact with them. I leaned forward and took this brave souls body into my arms as I cradled him closer to me, and I could only begin to weep as he began to cough pitifully. Every cough was weaker than the last, and his body was beginning to feel cold as his eyes had lost focus. I didn't want to see his death, but I wasn't about to abandon him. I wiped my eyes as his last cough let out his last breath, and when his eyes classed over and became foggy, I knew he wouldn't take in another second of life. I stifled a sob, but I held him close to me as his blood began to soak into my trench coat and underlined shirt. CRACK!
Just as I looked up, a white wolf fell from a bullet hole in its chest, and then another one, and I saw a German standing there firing madly with a KAR rifle. "YOU BLOODY WANKER!"
I reached down and took the python sidearm pistol from Philips holster as I stood up, but I still gently placed his body on the snowy ground. The Nazi faced me and began to bolt his rifle, but I aimed the pistol and shot him in the shoulder. He flinched, but he weakly stood back up as I brought the hammer to the magnum back. This time his shot went first, and it hit me in my thigh. I cried out in pain, and my shot went far and wide as I fell to my knees. Doing my best to push through the pain, I pulled the hammer back again, and when I aimed up at the German, I fired, and saw a splash of blood rip through his leg. This dropped the German, and I pulled the hammer back again, and fired yet again. I'm pretty sure this one killed him as it went through his chest, and I heaved myself back to my feet as I switched the pistol to another hand, and grabbed my own magnum as I made my way over the hill. BAANNNNGGG!
I fell to the side slightly as my tank just went up in flames, and I saw a pair of Nazi's trying to get back up; and that was when I saw the open hatch and their grenades. Just to say simply, the rage I felt was immense, even as their tank went up in flames, and so I turned my rage on them as I fired the two pistols into them mercilessly. When I lurched back, I dropped both my pistols, and I reached down as I pressed my hands into a wound on my chest. My hands came away sticky and scarlet with my blood, and I looked up, and saw three other Germans holding their rifles towards me. One pulled the bolt back to their rifle, while the other two lifted there automatic rifles up and aimed at me…
-(Stephen's P.O.V.)-
Steve was manning the automatic rifle I gave him from the top of the tank, and I was picking off enemy troops with my side arm. I was struggling to remain on target as the pain in my shoulder kept throwing my aim off, and I only managed to down two of the three troops that had just shot down my comrade from the other Matilda 1 tank. When Steve jumped down and landed beside me, I looked over and said quietly, "You go left; I will go right… go!"
Running forward, I prepared my sidearm with a new clip, and I clenched my teeth to try and block out the pain I was in. I slid to a stop beside the flaming husk, and I saw Steve round the side of the tank. Taking a breath, I did as well, only to find myself watching Steve fall to the ground clutching his neck while blood oozed between his fingers. "NO!" The soldier looked over his shoulder before I began to fire all the bullets in the magazine of my pistol into his back. When the click sounded, I threw the empty pistol at the dead troop before running over to Steve, who was thrashing in the snow as he tried to stem the flow of his life fluids.
Sliding to his side, I also pressed my hands against his neck, and my hands began to quickly become sticky with blood. I shook my head as I reached up and whipped my blood from my forehead, and I flicked my wrist and splattered the blood all over the snow beside me, It wasn't supposed to happen this way… we shouldn't even be here, we were in the desert not half a bloody hour ago!
"S-Sir!" He managed through to gurgle out through his blood filled and filling mouth. He began to convulse as his eyes clenched shut, hiding his fear filled blue eyes. He reached down and ripped his pistol from his holster, and he held the butt of it out towards me as his eyes jerked between my own, down to his chest. My heart lurched as my throat tightened up, and I could only shake my head as his eyes began to water, and he said, "P-P… pl-ease, sir!"
Reaching down and wrapping my fingers around the grip, I peered into his eyes, and I sighed as he gripped my forearm. Placing the end of the barrel against his shirt, directly over his heart, I locked eyes with him, and pulled the trigger twice in a quick successive burst. He jerked up slightly, but his convulsing died down gradually as his grip almost immediately lost its strength, and his hands fell down to his sides and in the snow. I dropped the pistol on his chest, and I fell down and back onto my ass, and I looked down at my blood soaked hands. I felt pain in my shoulder, but I didn't care too much to tend to my own injuries as I began to scoot back, until I was pressed up and against the armored tracks of a tank. Leaning forward, I placed my bloody head in my bloodied hands, and I proceeded to weep my eyes out as my friend since childhood lay dead, not five feet from me…
Looking up, it was now I saw I was surrounded by these strange white wolves that stood up. I had only just now acknowledged them as being here, since I had just heard them talking. Whatever the hell they were, I wasn't done feeling the pain of losing my crew, but I wasn't going to forget about them. I stood up, and this caused many of the strange white wolves to back away quickly, and I walked forward, causing a few to take out knives from hidden places. I stopped by Steve's corpse, and I yanked my own knife from its place on my hip, and this caused many of the knife-wielders to get into a fighting stance. I didn't care too much on their intentions, because with or without a knife, I would kill any one of them if they showed they were allied with the Nazi troops, which I saw were lying dead all along the rim of the snow mound.
Flicking the knife away, I saw a few of the wolves look towards me with a curiosity, but I ignored them as I bent down and picked Steve up. Turning around and walking around the now smoking tank, I proceeded to cross the snow to my own tank, which had died out now that no one was running its engine. I will give you and Mark a proper burial… even if it kills me.
Walking over, I set Steve's body down beside the tracks, before I began to climb my tank, and into the tank, which now smelled of death. Moving over, I grabbed Mark's body, and pulled him with me, and very carefully moved him out of the tanks hatch with me.
By the time Mark was on the ground, many of the wolves had come closer, and I walked around to the back of my tank, and grabbed the small foldable latrine shovel. Walking back over to the side of my tank, I stopped in front of my two comrades in arms, and I proceeded to scoop snow and then dirt, out from under me…
…
An hour must've passed by now, and I was grateful for the strange creatures who had brought their own shovels and began to dig alongside me. It seemed they knew what I was trying to accomplish, since while they let me work on this grave by myself, three of them worked on another. The graves were pretty deep by now, and as I dropped my shovel and jumped into the hole, I was starting to feel lightheaded once more, and I knew it was from my own blood loss. Reaching up, I grabbed Steve's shoulders, and carefully dragged him into the grave, when he was set in a way that he would rest naturally in his afterlife, I grabbed and took his dog tags off. I dragged myself out of the hole, and then I turned and looked towards Marks body, which had been covered in a silken white cloth that was now stained with blood splotches moving towards his body, I was prepared to bury them before I passed out.
Walking over, I grabbed his dog tags as well, and I placed both pairs over my neck and tucked them under my shirt for safe keeping. As I stood back up, I grunted in pain as I clutched my shoulder, and I slid my tank commanders' jacket off a little bit, and I jerked a piece of metal from my shoulder. The jagged edges were soaked in my blood, and as I dropped it, I felt a warm breeze surprisingly wrap its way around me, and as I fell to my knees, I knew this was the end…
-The Next Day-
Groaning, I felt light headed as I tried to sit up, only to feel someone hold me down as a female voice said, "Rest, you need your sleep… drink this…"
I was too tired to open my eyes to look at the lady, but I felt something warm being pressed against my lips as a fluid forced its way into my mouth. As I swallowed the fruity flavored liquid that was offered to me, I could feel the warmness spreading throughout my limbs as I once more began to feel drowsy. Pulling my lips away from the drink, I sighed as I once again began to drift off into sleep…
-Sixteen Hours Later-
Rolling over, I crawled forward and out from under the blankets that were covering me, and I slowly began to push my way up to my knees. I saw my jacket was lying on the ground beside me, and so I reached over and put it on. The memories of the previous events came to mind, thus giving me a bitter taste in my mouth while I stumbled towards the entrance flap. Walking outside, I saw it was night-time, and I shook my head as the cold began to nip at my body, and for a brief second I considered going back inside and under the warm covers. No, I have no idea what the hell these bipeds are, and why they look like wolves, but I need to get to my tank, and now.
Walking as quietly as I could, I noticed none of the wolves were out, meaning they had to all be asleep. I looked forward, and as I saw a KAR sticking out of the snow beside what must be a grave, I spit on it as I jerked the rifle from the snow. I have no idea where I'm at, but something tells me every weapon will be valuable.
I stumbled on something that was below the snow, and as I reached down, I discovered two British Python pistols that were standard among the British military. I grabbed them both and slid one into my empty holster, and I pushed on to my tank, which loomed ominously in the darkness of the night. I began to climb the side of the tank, and I saw a Sten automatic machine gun resting on the hatches open handle, and I felt a painful lurch in my gut; that was my Sten I had given to Steve. I shook my head from those depressing thoughts as I pressed myself onwards, and I leaned over and into the hatch while I placed the weapons along the side of the Commanders' seat. Turning around, I jumped down, and when I landed, I was pressed up against my tank as one of those animal like things was looking into my eyes intently, and I flinched from the surprise of not meeting a humans gaze.
"You are in no condition to travel and fight… we must get you back to the medical hut immediately." Said the strange Lynx looking biped, and I was surprised as she grabbed my arm and began trying to pull me with her. I stopped her almost immediately, and I asked, "What are you?"
Her ears perked towards me as she looked at me, and she said, "I'm a Lynx Keidran… who are you? I know you can't be from around here."
Shaking my head, I walked past her and towards the other Matilda tank, but I stopped as I remembered how it went up in a ball of flame when some Nazi's threw grenades inside of it. Turning around, I saw the female Lynx was looking towards me with a frustrated gaze as she said, "The least you can do is some me some kindness after I saved your life from the elements. The wolves of this village wanted to just kill you and those grey cloth wearing humans, but I convinced them that you were fighting to protect us instead."
"Alright, fine, you want to know my bloody name so much, here it is. My name is Stephen, Stephen Polanski Armen. I am a Tank division commander, and I am trying to get somewhere important… now, do you have any other questions…?"
"Lots…"
While I was driving the tank, I looked back and saw Fate, as I had come to know her, holding onto the seat she was in with a death like grip. I chuckled very briefly, and I knew it was going to be hard to convince her she was safe inside this tank, but I also didn't want to have to stop driving, in case an enemy did present itself to us. I hope this Oasis place is how she says it is… just if Steve was here, then when we would both be able to enjoy it.
I felt another bump in the road as I continued to drive forward, but it was only so that I could put the war behind me, and rest in peace. I didn't want any trouble from the wolves, so I had stayed there for a little bit while I explained my situation, along with a brief history, before Fate and I had left. I placed full confidence in the map she had shown me to guide us to where we were supposed to be, so I thought that maybe we would arrive sooner than thought. Either way, this trip will be over soon, I might just be able to live peacefully there once we arrive as well…
A.N.: Here is that one-shot. Sorry if it isn't what you all expected, but near the end, I kinda went brain-dead on the idea. ALSO, I'm so tired, when my phone went DING, I thought I was at school because I had begun to doze off… lol… I got scared for a second.
Disclaimer: All TwoKinds content and original characters originally belong to Tom Fischbach.