Second chapter cool! I wrote this on a kindle so sorry for grammar/spelling blehhhhh. There is no spell check on this thing, at least not one that works well. But anyway enjoy and thank you for showing interest in my sorry.
"So what happens now when one of us dies?" Cage asked repairing a broken suit.
Rita looked up from hers. It was a fascinating question. What would happen now that both of them could reset. One could reset and find the other knowing that the one they just saw was probably still alive. The concept hurt her mind. If one died would they both reset? Or would the other go one leaving the other to reset and find the other in a new reality. It was quantum mechanics that no one ever questioned. "Umm. I don't know. There obviously isn't any prior reference. To be safe I'd say if one of us die we should both die. So say if you die I kill myself and we will see each other at the next reset. If not I don't know what would happen."
Cage nodded his head. It was a very interesting concept. But like Rita he didn't want to think about it too much. There was no way to tell what would happen until it happened. They continued working on the modifications to their suits.
"I'm glad. I've seen you die too many damn times. It'll be nice to have you watch me die for a change and have you remember. I hated watching you die."
"I didn't know you cared." Rita smiled.
"Are you kidding? I-" he started with a smile but couldn't find the words to explain his experience and just stopped. It was harder than anything he had ever done in his whole life. Somehow it felt worse than having to kill himself but he was used to it by now. In his experience with death, it didn't hurt.
"Are you going to finish that thought Cage?" She asked intrigued.
"What?" He said looking up from his work. "Umm no. No. I'm, I'm done." He stuttered. Rita laughed at him and put on her suit.
"Are you ready. You should be heading to your plane by now. You don't want to miss boarding or ill have to do it all myself." Rita said. She was right he had to get to the docking bay soon. He nodded and put on his suit then headed to the bay.
As he walked there a thousand thoughts were going through his head about the mission. This time he was going to be taking Rita to the farm house but it was because it had a helicopter. He didn't know exactly where he was going but being in the air seemed like a better idea than being on the ground. The only problem was that Rita always, always died there! Every freaking time! He had done it so many times by then though that he thought he had a good plan for this time around. And that included a TON of missiles. That was his best option. Let Rita take off, shoot the living hell out of the mimic hiding underneath it and then jump on from the roof. He had gone over it with Rita but she thought it was a stupid plan. She only agreed because he promised her that if it didn't work they could try her way the next time. But they desperately needed that helicopter. They could go anywhere with that thing and even though he had already been to the dam it never hurt to have a helicopter on their side, that was his logic. That was the exact reason why Rita thought he was a complete idiot. He liked that about her. You couldn't stop her from speaking her mind.
He got there just in time. J squad eyed and cursed at him as soon as he strapped in as usual but it didn't stop him from doing anything. It was only the thousandth time they had yelled at him. Take off followed soon after. Some one called him a dead man and they were told it was okay to be scared. It wasn't okay for him. He had been there a hundred times, if he was still scared by then there would have to be something wrong with him. He stopped being scared by the fifth jump, adrenaline rushed through his head every time, the sensation was extreme, but he wasn't scared.
A few moments later and yet again the plane was hit and began to shut down in mid air. People dropped at cage dropped soon after. His line broke and he hit the sand hard. He watched as a fellow j squad member was hit by a fallen plane and another was attacked by a mimic. He had no time to waist watching them all suffer on the beach. He had to get to Rita, escape to the town, and race to a vehicle. It was a long Sprint to yet another crashed ship but he found Rita in the midst of a battle with a mimic. She saw him then shot the mimic dead in the face.
He saw her smile seeing the mimic fall to the ground then turned to him excitedly. "I remember doing this last time. It took me twice the amount of time to kill it last time! I really do have the power again." She said excitedly. She had forgotten how useful it was to be able to reset; when she died again she could kill the mimic even faster and remember so much more. She was grateful to Cage for making her able to reset again, more than he knew. She just wished he had told her before he had her killed. "So now what?"
"We go head for the farm house past the trailer park." He said breathing heavy having ran all the way there.
"The farm house. I don't recall ever being there. Have I? Been there with you before?" She asked not being able to remember a previous time yet. Cage hesitated. The farm house was a place that had some of the the most intense memories since the whole situation began. She died every time and every time she did she told him a little bit more about her personal life, sharing one more thing about her that was truly personal. And every time he felt a little closer to her, and then she'd die a few moments later. He learned so much about her in that little farm house. Learned what she liked and hated, how to tend to her wounds, her middle name. That was the reset he remembered the most, when she told him her middle name. It was the closest he ever felt to her.
"Yeah you have." He answered simply and softly.
"Well how many times? Why do we need to go there?"
"There are useful supplies there. Some of the best stuff we've ever run into." He said starting to run out from under the cover of the ship. Rita shook herself and ran after him, her senses alert and active, her blood pumping, her feet running, her guns ready. She caught up to Cage quickly but shuffled now and again in the lose sand but every soldier did, it was horrible terrain. Their armor fired in every direction at every target they could focus on. The mimics weren't paying so much attention to them but whenever one was within firing range they gladly shot it till it exploded. Cage took Ritas hand as he did the last time and ran up the sand hill that separated the battle field from the abandoned town trailer park. There were never any mimics past the fifth yard but the hill was nearly 200 yards long. It was a difficult climb covered with loose sand and rock and every time he did it he could barely breathe.
Every time Cage ever climbed that hill all went silent. The climb was so long and difficult that when you had started you couldn't stop no matter how tired you were. He was so tired and the air was so muskey that the only thing he could do was climb and breathe with just the sound of his heart beat blasting in his ears as loud as a drum symphony. He just has to keep climbing because once he got to the top it wasn't the end, just the beginning of an even harder journey.
They got to the top of the hill both exhausted from the climb. It wasn't the steepness or the length that made it so hard, it was the slipping and loosened sand that covered it, it made it so much harder than it had to be. They got the the top despite it. Rita got to the top and almost fell to her knees her breaths heavy and close, but she would not let herself fall. She gathered herself quickly and grabbed Cage who was still panting on the ground.
"Come on, we have a lot of ground to cover." She said beginning to pull him.
"Wait... Wait for a second." He said between breaths and rose to his feet. "There's something we need to do first. Something we always do when we get to the top." He told her turning back to the battle field.
Rita turned as well and what she saw was breathtaking. It was a horrible scene of mangled bodies, fire and wreckage. She had never seen the view from that angle or at least didn't remember it. Dunes of sand full of corpses and crashed ships. So much torn metal from destroyed ships covered the battle ground, more than she thought there was. More than a hundred ships and three thousand of their pieces scattered, some burning some burnt. As they stood they could see mimics coming from the sky or the sand attacking soldiers, killing them brutally. It was a sight of nightmares. So much chaos so much destruction so much death.
"You see this everytime?" She asked. He didn't look to her. He was too busy watching the destruction. He just nodded. He had seen it so many times but he never got used to the sight. The fire, the ships, the death. It was from a nightmare and he had to live it everyday.
"Alright. Let's go." He said beginning to walk away.
Rita looked back one more time then caught up with Cage. "You never answered my question Cage?"
"What? Which one?" He asked.
"How many times? How many times have you been this way to the farm house?" She asked once more.
He stopped. How could he put it in a way that didn't make him seem weak in front of the angel of Verdun? "Too Damon many." He answered simply and continued on. The answer seemed good enough for her.
Once again they took the truck with the trailer attached to the back. This time he made sure the trailer wasn't attached so there was a lot less "activity" during the ride there. But it was a nice time for him to talk to Rita. All the other times he had drilled her about her life so that he could relate to her better the next time. This time he let her ask the questions. She actually, surprisingly was open to the idea in a joking sense only asking strange questions. She hadn't completely acknowledged the fact that they were stuck together for a long time. No matter how many times they died.
"What college did you go to?" She asked
"Virginia tech." He answered.
"Siblings?" She asked.
"Two sisters. Mariah and Willa." He answered.
"Guilty pleasure?"
"Eating a whole family size bag of chips in a day." He answered finally breaking a big smile.
"When did you lose your virginity?" She asked inheriting his smile.
"Whoa. That escalated quickly! Ummm I'm going to say 17? Maybe."
They were all smiles. It was a long car ride and Cage had gone through it fifty times but this was the one that seemed to be the most interesting. Rita had never shown this side to herself before. Laughing and asking strange, strange questions. It was an interesting change. "What about me? You know any answers to any of those questions about me?" Rita asked.
"College, no. A brother named Marshall, and you love coffee and marshmallows which personally I find just wrong!" he said feeling the wind slow from out the window. After that his smile was quickly erased. That meant the time had come where the car lost gas and they were headed to the farm house. He hoped that this time things would be different. That they could find a way to keep Rita alive and both make it to the helicopter. The chances were slim. He didn't even know why he wanted it, it just seemed like a good option. But he didn't know how he was going to get both of them in it and off safely. He could only hope that his crazy plan was good enough.