Dave: Be Someone else

Who the hell are you now? Well, as you glance over to your hand which hold your dog tags, and traced along it are faded letters spelling out, David Walker. Oh right. Your name is now David Walker, but everyone on the base calls you "Hesh", a shortened version of your middle name, "Hershel". For the moment, you, your younger brother, Logan, and German Shepherd, Riley, have been resting up in your little den. Or at least your brother was really the one resting. You, however, are just bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and Riley is determined to snatch it out. He nearly bit your hand when you threw it this time, and as you pushed away to remind him he wasn't supposed to hurt his allies, he growled playfully. You take a moment to look at Logan to make sure he didn't wake up.

Nope. He looks pretty cozy where he is right now. Though you were supposed to wake him up like, an hour ago, you thought you'd let him have a break for once. You both were up against some intense shit this month, and pretty much have been for ten whole years. The Federation had been at large for many years, and as soldiers, you fought to bring them down. They believed that you guys were weak and defenseless. But you and your team fought hard to a bloody stalemate, but now all you can do is wait. Wait for that wake up call to the next battle.

"Viking-Six, you there?" You hear a voice in your radio, "Hesh? Logan?"

Logan moved his head to speak, but remained asleep. A grin spread across your lips and you spoke before he could, "Uh, copy. Yeah. Go ahead."

"Reports are coming in. Houston got overrun last night. Command wants another sweep of the wall ASAP."

You shook your head. The Federation played their next card, apparently. "Shit... Any survivors."

For a moment, the comms were silent. Then the private over the radio spoke again, "Stand by. I'm getting new information."


Dave: Wake up

Wait. You're alive?! Oh no shit! You're alive! But as you slowly come around, all you can feel is the pain spreading throughout your body. Your vision is partly fuzzy and dark, part from your aviators which surprisingly still stayed on your face. You're lying against something hard, and it feels a bit awkward to be lying against it. Shakily, you lift your hand to remove your shades, instantly blinded by the light shining down on you. Though it clears your vision a bit, and you see that you're on a floor of another building and only your left leg is hanging off the edge. You finally move, grunting against the aching pain in your bones. But you fight through it, down at the collapsed building below you; The building you were on before. Recalling hanging by the chimney of the roof, you only assume you fell and slid into this building as soon as it started to tip over. How'd you manage to survive something like this? Where's Bro?

Oh God. Bro. You jump off the floor you are on, thinking it was going to be a harsh landing with the pain spread throughout your body. As you hit the landing, you break and fall through the glass before tumbling and falling through other parts of the building. All you could do was brace yourself until it all stopped. When it finally did, you sighed out heavily like you were going to cry. But no tears broke through your eyes. All you could do was shout in pain as you stood up once more, feeling stings and scratches from the glass shards. Your ankle especially ached in protest as you began walking, and you can almost feel it swell past your shoe. Then, not too far from the edge of the building, laying out in the dim light of dusk, was bloody body. But you knew who it was! Oh my God, Bro! The building shook, seconds away from collapsing.

Your legs ran as fast as they could as the building inched closer and closer to you. As you leapt out into the light, the building collapsed, and you laid there for a moment, preying that the structure didn't crush Bro. But when you turned around, he was still laying there, and you crawled over to him, pushing his sword out of the way. Though you take him into his arms to lay him on your lap, something was immediately off. Your hand touches his arm, feeling nothing but cold skin. He stayed heavy and limp in your arms. "Bro, c'mon," You rasp out, "We, fuck... We can't stay here..."

You try pulling him, get he still stays limp. "This isn't funny. We need to go!" You finally freeze, feeling not your blood from those small, newly earned cuts, but Bro's against your leg. Instead, your focus stays on the wound in this ribs. "B-Bro...?" No response. You start to shake, trembling at the fact that you're holding your dead brother. "No... You can't... No! Bro, come back to me...! Don't...! Don't leave me here-" You're interrupted by a river of vomit escaping your mouth. After puking it twice, you cough and pay no mind to it. You stay staring at him. He was still wearing those anime shades, which you always thought were a piece of shit, and his baseball cap was sitting not too far from his head. With a shaky hand, you reach out to take the shades off, and you see those orange eyes. They're open. But they didn't blink. They just stayed staring up at nothing. "Don't do this to me, man," You cried, ducking your head into his chest, "I... I need you..." Somehow for some reason, you felt that he was still with you. Only he was standing behind you, his hands pulling you in for a hug and saying, "You're never alone, little man." But he's gone! He's never coming back!

As you trembled and cried, you look around, seeing dead bodies all around you, some crushed, some missing limbs, and you puked once again that the sight of a dead mother holding her bloodied child. Y roll over to lay on your back, your head laying on Bro's arm that extended out. I don't want to die. I didn't want you to die, Bro. Now all you can do is wait for your turn. You're going to die. You know you're not going to make it this far in a city that lies in ruins, and you know for sure you can't survive on your own. You put your shades back on to shield out the daylight that shines in your eyes. They're slightly cracked. Just before you're about to close your eyes, you hear voices coming from nearby. You turn your head over, seeing a few figures looking through the buildings, checking bodies for pulses, one of them said aloud, "This place is dead, man."

While inhaling, you end up coughing several times. It was weak, but loud enough to grab the soldiers' attention. "Over there!" One of them pointed out, and you scooted closer to Bro's body. Their footsteps got louder, and you saw one of them come into your view, putting his fingers on your neck and shouting out, "We've got a live one!" You tried clinging onto Bro's shirt, but saw you couldn't hold on for very long. One of the men looked at Bro, then back at you. You were reaching out for your brother, wanting to stay with him but at the same time wanting to seek the treatment you needed. The soldier setting you down on a flat spot called for a medic before taking off your glasses, looking at your tear-filled eyes. "Look at me, kid," he said, "We're gonna get you help. You're gonna be okay."

You tried to speak, but all that came out were more cries and gasps. He set a hand on your cheek, cooing, "Just keep your eyes open, little man." At the last part, you broke down into an even heavier sob-fest, shaking from the chills and shock. A few other faces came into your blurred vision. One of them was looking at your wound before putting a oxygen mask over your nose and mouth. You wanted to curl up and bawl all over the place, but you were in too much pain to do so. One man was telling you to calm down, the other trying the comfort you as best as he could, and the last was pulling out a needle. You weren't even paying attention to anything else that was happening. You were in too much emotional pain more than you were physically. You couldn't even feel the needle going into the veins of your neck, which made you wonder why everything was starting to feel woozy all of a sudden.

Your head began to get heavy, and your trembles simmered down a bit along with your sobs. With all your effort, you tried to stay awake.

But you just couldn't.