Chapter 4: First Mission
"War is the beginning of death. To celebrate any victory in war is to celebrate nothing but death." ~ Unkown
Note: I absolutely loved writing this Chapter for you guys. Hopefully i might be able to get 5 up today as well im starting on it even as im posting this up! Enjoy!Leave thoughts or ideas in the comments for me! :)
After about five minutes of walking V and Piers both ended back up at the bunkhouse, they walked inside and saw the other soldiers, Marco, Carl, and Andy, but none of them made any move to talk to either Piers or V. Piers' bunk was the one directly above V's and he could still remember why V had told him to take it and now he understood why they had that conversation.
"Hey Nivans, take the bunk above mine, don't worry about being any closer to those assholes than you need to be."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, shit is probably going to happen that you don't want to be a part of. Just trying to make sure you don't get caught up with it. There are worse things around here for that asshole Andy to poke at and a new recruit shouldn't really be one of them."
"Alright, I guess. Thank you."
V smiled slightly at Nivans before continuing, "No need to say thanks. Just try to keep yourself out of trouble ok Nivans?"
"Yes Sir."
V gave him a genuine laugh when Piers made that remark, "No need to call me sir, just call me V. Formalities are better left for the officers and those who care for them eh?"
Piers himself wasn't sure what to say to that but he nodded at V in understanding. He really did listen to the soldiers' words, and he was not sure whether or not he did or did not want to be around when things went down and he had a feeling it was going to be between this guy and the rest of Alpha Team. Piers was then jolted from his thoughts when Andy walked forward, with an evil look in his eye as he watched V.
"Hey, Brooder…. Sorry about… earlier…."
V froze in place and didn't even move when he responded, "Keep your apologies to yourself Andy. I know you didn't just come to tell me that shit all on your own and don't even worry about what you said earlier. The kid knows enough now and that is all there is to it."
Andy gave V a slow nod before he turned back around and went to his own bunk. Piers was not sure what they started talking about after that because once he sat down on his bunk he took out a book called *The Battle for Stalingrad*and started reading it while they were talking. He doesn't know what happened next to cause this, but he was pretty sure Andy, Marco, and Carl had been trying to come up with some sort of name to give him instead of *Nivans* or *Piers* which they seemed very intent on doing.
Piers was in the middle of reading his book when he heard Andy say, "Hey, Pup, how was your first day on base eh?"
It wasn't Piers that spoke up first but it was V. Piers felt like an ass because right before V spoke up about anything his book felt out of his hand hit V in the head while he just sat there in a stunned state of shock because he wasn't ever expecting to hear that name outside of this closest friends and family members.
"Andy lay off the kid on his first damn day why don't you? We don't need every freaking recruit running around with some half assed nickname you came up with on their first day."
"Lighten up V, he just wants to try and give the kid a name that he can use. What can be the harm in that? It's just a little name."
"Because the names you idiots come up with always mean something else Marco."
Piers hopped down from his bunk and put his hand on V's shoulder hoping to diffuse the situation before it got any worse. Piers wasn't sure why this guy was being so protective of him but it made him feel a little bit better and inwardly thankful on the inside. He saw how these guys were treating an older soldier and to Piers it seemed to be the only thing stopping these guys from going all out crazy trying to terrorize him.
"It's alright and sorry about the book. That just kind of caught me off guard."
V nodded at him and tried to detach himself from the conversation. He would definitely have to try and give the kid some breathing space so he could get to know what kind of fuckers V had been dealing with since their fucked up mission that seemed so long ago. After just talking about random things for a few minutes V noticed everyone head back to their bunks and he saw Piers at the door motioning him outside for a second. He had looked to see if the others were watching, which they weren't, so he headed outside to see what the kid wanted.
"Hey." Piers was the first one to talk.
"Hey, sorry about that kid, didn't mean to embarrass you or anything if I did."
"No, it's fine. Just kind of surprised how… protective you seem to be of me."
V sighed before continuing, "It's not so much as being protective as those idiots have scared off enough recruits with their crap. As far as I am concerned there's a lot more to you than anyone here probably even knows and I don't want those idiots fucking it up for someone that will probably be a future leader in the B.S.A.A. because lord knows I've dealt with enough of them over the past months, you shouldn't have too as well."
Piers nodded at him and extended his hand to shake V's, "Well, thanks for that I guess. I guess we should turn in for the night hmm?"
V extended his arm forward and shook Piers' hand, "Yeah, I guess we should. G'Night kid and just try not to take things too quickly around here alright?"
"Alright, thanks, V."
That night, when Piers went to sleep he has his first nightmare about the war and almost nothing in it had made any sense to him. He was at the top of a building, his team was being surrounded by B.O.W.s on all sides and they were being air lifted out of there. One of the members of his team was dragging him up the stairs to the chopper, but when he looked at the soldier's face there was nothing but an empty pit of black.
"Damn it all kid, you ARE going to make it! You get your ass up on the chopper or I'll fucking throw you in it!"
Piers was not sure who it was but he recognized the voice. It almost seemed like the voice of one of the soldiers that he was currently working with, although he couldn't seem to place who it was.
"What… what happened?"
"Bastards through in a damn grenade and you got hit with some shrapnel, don't worry kid you're going to be fine, just get your ass up on that chopper."
They were both nearing the chopper now, and Piers could see the empty voids as faces of four more soldiers, ushering them to the helicopter.
"You… you get on first, Sir."
"Kid, don't give me that hero bullshit, you are getting your ass out of here and you don't have another word to say in it, do you hear me?"
"Bu-"
"No buts kid! You are getting YOUR ass on that chopper and you aren't fucking looking back!"
With those last words the soldier handed Piers off to the men in the chopper and they hauled him inside. The other soldiers were yelling for him to get on the helicopter but he just stood on the outside and stared in at all of them, one by one he looked them in the eye and they all came to a quiet understanding, except for Piers.
"C'mon! You can still make it! Get up here!"
Piers was pleading with the soldier to get him into the helicopter but he just stood there, and looked straight at Piers, and for a second, he thought he saw something flicker across that black void of a face, but he couldn't understand what it was.
"Get his ass out of here! I'll keep in contact with you guys over the radio. Now GO!"
The helicopter took off and started and started flying away, Piers was in utter shock that they had just left one of their men behind. They started hearing crackling over the radio and Piers scrambled to grab his so he could listen in.
"A-ph- Alpha Team, do you read me?"
"We read you."
"Good, I don't know how much longer I can hold them; you have to get out of here NOW."
"We're…. We're doing our best…. I'm sorry…"
More crackling and static was coming over the radio now. Piers could hear the soldier's voice getting fainter and weaker, his radio must be dying. Then, from nowhere it sparked back to life and they could hear the sounds of a fire fight going on in the background.
"You should have died two years ago you fucker! This ends here damn it!"
"Heh heh heh… Still burdened are we? Now you're going to wish you had been the one to take that bullet, now you get to watch as the rest of your team dies slowly."
"Alpha Team do you hear me?!"
"We hear you!"
"STRAFE THAT FUCKING CHOPPER TO THE LEFT NOW OR YOU'RE ALL GOING TO FUCKING DIE!"
They could all hear a cackling laugh in the background. Piers didn't understand why they had to strafe the chopper so he looked out of the window. He could see a rocket coming towards them *This is it* he thought in his dream, *This is the end.* But, just before the rocket hit, an explosion rocked his nightmare and he woke with a start, feeling like he was having a panic attack. Once he had calmed down he looked at his watch and noticed that it was not even past three in the morning. He decided to get dressed and take a walk outside to try and clear his head from the nightmare that he was just having. Piers walked out the front of the bunkhouse and stopped dead when he heard a voice talking to him.
"Up a little early, aren't we kid?"
Piers was a bit frightened to say the least. He had not noticed that V was gone when he had woken up and wondered immediately why he was out here on his own, it was early in the morning and it was still pretty cold outside.
"I… couldn't sleep… kind of had a nightmare…"
"Nightmare eh? Don't think on it too much kid, we're all haunted by demons from our past."
"I… I guess… but it wasn't something from my past, I don't even know if it's something that could happen. It just completely freaked me out because I'm sure I recognized every voice in it, but I could never see any of the faces. They were just empty black holes looking at me."
"Really now? What was in this nightmare? What was so bad about it?"
"Well… I was being dragged up the stairs by someone, we were heading to an escape with a helicopter, I think I got hit by something from a grenade or shot, I don't remember which. The guy… he threw me into the chopper with everyone else and he stayed behind."
Piers stopped talking for a moment to try and regain his composure. The scare from the nightmare was still fresh and he still wasn't sure why those things were going on in that nightmare. V put his hand on Piers' shoulder to try and comfort him.
"Hey, kid. It's alright, it's better to get it out than to let it haunt you for the rest of your life."
Piers took a breath of relief, "We took off, and he tried to keep in contact with us from over the radio. It was pretty hard to hear at first but it got better to a point. He was holding back a lot of B.O.W.s and then we lost contact for a few seconds. When it came back we could hear a cackling in the background and weren't sure what happened, but we knew he was still alive when he started talking back to it."
"Really, what happened between them?"
Piers swallowed, trying to clear his throat for what he was about to say. He looked at V and remembered how familiar the voice was… but he couldn't place whether or not it was actually from this soldier.
"It… it said… *You're going to wish you had been the one to take that bullet, now you're going to watch the rest of your team die, slowly* and right before that all I could here was him tell the thing it should have died two years ago."
Piers watched V for any signs of a reaction to what he had just said. What he saw was not what he expected. He was expecting for him to stay calm and not really say anything. Instead, the soldier paled, his breathing became ragged and Piers saw him reach down to his left leg.
Piers nervously swallowed, trying to clear his throat for the question that was building up in his head, "Do… those words mean anything to you…?"
V looked him in the eyes, but didn't respond for a moment; instead he looked back at the ground and muttered something Piers could not hear. Piers was starting to be sure that V was the soldier who has taken him to the chopper in his nightmare.
"Yes… and no… tell me… how did that nightmare end…?"
"Well… the last thing that was said was *STRAFE THAT FUCKING CHOPPER TO THE LEFT NOW OR YOUR ALL GOING TO DIE!* and the last thing I saw was an explosion and then I woke up."
"Alright… well get back in that bunkhouse and try to go to sleep for me alright kid?"
"Alright… thanks again… V."
"Don't thank me yet…" is what Piers thought he heard V mutter under his breath as he went back inside to try and sleep again.
Later piers woke up when everyone's alarms went off around six A.M. He went over to the bathhouse and showered and got dress and went with the others to the mess hall. When he got there and looked at Alpha Team he was surprised not to see V sitting with the rest of them. He walked over to see if he could hopefully find out where the guy went.
"Have you guys seen V around?"
Andy and Carl just scoffed at him but thankfully Marco told him, "He went down to see the Captain about something."
"Alright, thanks, Marco."
"No problem, Nivans."
Piers walked down to where the captain had his quarters at but before he went inside he heard the Captain and V talking. He didn't want to barge in because he could hear them talking about him, and although it wasn't usually his style, he decided to eavesdrop on them.
"So, V. Have you learned anything else out about this new recruit?"
"Little bit, Sir. I also talked with him earlier, he had a nightmare and some things in it disturbed me."
"Really? What is it about someone else's nightmares that would disturb you?"
"It's not that he had the nightmare so much as what was in it, Sir. It is something from two years ago… and I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about…"
"So… hmm… just keep a close eye on the kid, we're going out on our first mission with him tonight."
"Sir?"
"We have had reports of pockets of infected bodies in the area. Several of the teams are being dispatched through the next few days to see if they can find them. But tell me, you know why I brought this kid here, what is your take on him?"
"Well Sir… what do you want me to say? What you know I can say or what you are afraid of me to say?"
"… Both I suppose."
"Well, Sir, he is definitely someone you would want as your second-in-command, although he has a lot of the same qualities as your… former second-in-command."
Chris sighed in his chair, "I thought as much. That is part of the reason why I wanted him to join the team; you know I don't blame you for what happened that day right V? It wasn't your fault what happened to Sarl, he did what he had to do for his superior."
"Sir, I know what the kid did, but that doesn't make what happened any less my fault in my mind. I should have been watching better that day, and I should have seen that thing that took aim at me, I wasn't paying attention and that kid risked his life to save mine and he died in the process and I've got to live with that every day of my life."
Chris sighed again, "I know you do, and I wish that you didn't let it bring you down. There are a lot of deaths in this war and there is still going to be more. Just try to take care of the kid alright? I don't want what happened to you to happen to him. I need a second-in-command and with all honesty if you would I would still have that man be you."
"I know you would Sir, and if that day hadn't of happened I probably still would be. But just promise me this, if any indication of that kid's nightmare should be heeded, when the time comes that I can repay what happened two years ago, don't stay. Just keep everyone else alive."
Chris' face darkened before he answered the soldier standing before him, "Alright… as you wish. Just don't stay behind if it can be helped ok?"
"Yes Sir, and one last thing before I leave."
"Hmm? What would that be?"
"I believe there is someone here who wants to speak with you."
Before he even knew what happened the door was swung open. Piers was still standing there and he was surprised at how quickly the door had opened, he didn't think V was standing right by it. V pulled him in and showed him to a chair while Chris just watched.
"So, Nivans… what do you want to talk about?"
