Red Scout felt the blood splatter down his body, and the sound of the Blue Soldier crying out. He looked up, and saw the Soldier clutching his bleeding hand.
"Shit! Missed his head!" shouted a familiar voice.
"GET THEM!" Blue Soldier screamed at his men!
But the bullets came hard and fast at them, blowing up around them, cutting into their arms and thighs. The Blues realized then that they were outside the barriers. They turned tail and ran away, fleeing the scene and leaving the Scout behind.
Scout rolled onto his side and watched as his teams Soldier, Sniper, Spy and Medic came running up to him. He used his good arm to try and sit up as they came to him. He reached out with his good arm towards the Sniper.
Sniper fell to his knees quickly and pulled Scout into his arms, holding him close. Scout didn't care if the crushing embrace hurt his body, he was just happy to be in his arms. He clung to Sniper as he was scooped up into that warm body.
"Ve Vill get you fix up!" Medic said, using his medigun on the runner. His wounds healed slowly, and slowly he felt better. The group started to move out of there, Sniper refusing to let him go.
"How did you find me?" Scout asked as they headed back towards the base.
"Well, that's the darnedest thing!" The Soldier went as they ran. "It was the Blue Scout that told us! He told us that you were going to be killed, and we took a chance coming here. Glad we listened to him!"
"Do you take us as idiots?!" Soldier barked at the Blue Scout. "Why should we believe you?"
"Because, you have been fighting to find him for ages, and this is the only lead you have." The Scout replied cooly. "Either you believe me and take this chance, or you don't, and you loose your Scout permanently."
"We took a bit chance, Lapin." Spy said to the Scout. "We decided to trust him, and we weren't wrong in doing so."
"Glad you listened." Scout curled up more in Sniper's arms as they slowed their run. They stepped into the warm, familiar homely base, and Scout fully relaxed. "Thank you…"
"Don't worry about it." Sniper said, kissing his brow.
No one noticed that they had been followed, not even the Red Spy. The Blue Spy walked away from the group, after hearing whom it had been that told them what was happening.
He thought the Blue Scout was rather forceful when he talked about killing the enemy. Normally, the Runner hated the idea of perma-killing anyone, and hated to play in their games with prisoners. So when he insisted that they kill the enemy runner and display his body for the Red's to see, Spy found it very suspicious. Now he knew why, he wanted them to bring the Scout into the open so his team would save him.
Well now, he had something he needed to talk about to the rest of his team.
The next three days had both teams trapped in their own bases, due to horribly bad weather. The blizzard outside raged so loudly, it kept everyone up most of the night. Heavy and Pyro at Red had to go out every day when the winds died down a bit to shovel and melt the snow, less they were buried inside their own base.
Scout and Sniper didn't mind. Sniper didn't sleep in his trailer at the winter fort, for it was freezing in the underground garage. He had his own room inside the base, but he did somehow make it almost look identical to that of his van. All he really needed was Scout in his bed, and the two could keep each other warm. Which they did often since Scout was brought back and cleared for it.
Their relationship did bother people at first, mainly due to the age difference. Their Scout was only 19 years old, and the sniper was 38, an almost twenty year difference. They feared that the Sniper was taking advantage of the boy, or the boy was trying to use Sniper as a plaything. But they do not doubt the fact that the two can and will kill for each other, and loved each other deeply.
On the fourth day, the weather was starting to clear up. The Pyros from both teams were called out to melt the snow out in the field, so there could be a fight tomorrow. Blue Medic thought it was stupid, because all that is going to do is cause a lot of ice to form.
Still, it gave Scout a chance to go outside a bit, along with Sniper. Scout's endless energy couldn't be kept in check for too long, and he needed to run. Sniper warned his lover not to get too far, and got a snaky reply in return. Sniper walked out there, his rifle strapped over his arm, as he walked through the ankle high snow on the path.
Scout would run ahead of bit, but never too far out of Sniper's sight. He would run a few yards ahead, but come running right back, sometimes jogging in place as he waited for Sniper to catch up.
"Damn, Aden, you're slow." The younger man sighed as Sniper walked up to him.
"Damn, Max, you have too much energy." Sniper said, patting his head as he got next to him.
"I can't help it! I want to run!" Scout whined. With that, he shot forward, towards a large burned down cabin that marked the center of the map, smacked dab in the borders of both territories.
"Don't run too far!" Sniper shouted as Scout rounded the corner.
"Quit treating me like at-" Then the Scout started to scream. "ADEN! ADEN!"
Sniper's smile fell right off his face. He pulled his gun into his hands and bolted towards the cabin, thinking his lover was being attacked. He got ready to blast the head off of the one that scared his Scout.
Only, when he rounded the corner, he was in for a horrific sight.
It was the Blue Scout.
He was tied up like a scarecrow on a post, completely naked with no protection from the cold. Barbed wire was wrapped around his arms, going over his shoulders, around his neck, and down his torso, binding him to the post. They cut into his skin, and small droplets of blood oozed out of them and down his body. Three large nails were hammered right into his legs, and he was left to dangle there. His body was bruised, his face all swollen, and turning blue from the cold. The word "TRAITOR" was carved over every inch of his body, save for his head. He was out cold, shivering slightly. Not awake, but not dead.
"My God." Sniper whispered, staring at the horrible sight in front of him. He gripped his gun tightly, feeling horrified and angry at the same time.
"We…" Red Scout came forward and wrestled with the wire. He hissed as some of it cut into his hand as he pulled. "We gotta get him down!" He pulled harder, ignoring the pain. Tears stun his eyes as he tried to tear down the bindings. "We got to get him down!"
"Max! Stop!" Sniper grabbed his hands, and pulled them back. He looked down at the blood that soaked through his gloves.
"Please…" Max looked at Sniper, pleading. "Please, he saved my life…"
Sniper looked at him, and then at the Blue. It was true, the Scout had saved his lover's life, he couldn't ignore this. This could had been his own Scout, if the Blue's had their way.
"Alright." Sniper went up to the young man, looking at the wires. He found the end of one, and started to unravel the Scout. He did this as quickly as he could, and caught the injured man as he fell from the bindings.
"Hold him." Sniper said, carefully handing the Blue to the Red.
Red Scout held the Blue to him, wrapping his arms around the shivering body. Sniper pulled off his winter jacket, and wrapped it around the blue carefully, and picked him up.
"Come on, lets get back to base quickly!" he said to Scout.
The Scout nodded, and they ran back to their base.