Chapter 4: Lonely Road

It took only about 10 minutes to collect anything we might need along with the dog tags of the ODSTs. Before we were ready to move on, however, there was still the issue of where we were moving on to.

"I say we head into town," said Hudson.

"Dude we'd be ambushed the second we leave the school yard, I say we stay." Smith joined in.

"Joe?" Asked Matilda, noticing I was looking off into the distance.

"Hmm?" I replied, lost in thought.

"What do you think?" She responded.

"I think… That none of you have looked into your helmet's functions." I replied bluntly.

"And you have?" Hudson asked.

"You should all have a map function, which is currently showing you UNSC and hostile forces across the city." I answered. Sure enough, though, they all checked and they had the map function I mentioned. "Now that you all have figured out how the map works, I say we head towards the nearest UNSC line." I explained.

"Don't get me wrong Joe, I love the idea. But we are currently far behind enemy lines, how the heck are we going to get to the UNSC lines?" Hudson added.

"Who said it was going to be easy?" I shot back. "One way or another we are going to have to fight our way through the Covenant. So let's make something out of our effort to escape. Let's hit any and all Covenant outposts, batteries, bunkers, etc… so who's with me?"

"I think we can all agree that we are going to regret it, but we're all in this together Joe." Matilda said as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"As touching as this all is," Smith piped in. "I say we start moving out, we need to put a lot of distance between us and the school."

"Agreed, let's move out." I replied. As we all started to walk out of field, we couldn't help but take one last look at the symbol of our school, a tiger. He was painted on the side of the refreshment/ticket booth. His claws extended out in a swiping motion, while he was roaring. We then proceeded to begin our journey down the new lonely roads of our war-torn city. However, it wasn't nearly as quiet as you'd expect it to be.

"Hey, I know we are supposed to be quiet and deadly and all, but I mean seriously this ghost town is giving me the creeps and I need some noise." Hudson said not 5 minutes after we left the school.

"Anyone up for a bit of a classic?" I replied as I started to play Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day.

"Joe where the heck did you find that?" Questioned Smith.

"Remember those features I told you about?"

"Ya?"

"Someone downloaded music onto my helmet."

"Screw you." He replied jokingly.

"Haha" I laughed back, but sure enough the song kept everyone occupied and boosted their moral. However, as the song ended Hudson had an idea.

"Guys, I just had the greatest idea of all time!"

"Is it how to shut your trap?" replied Matilda. Everyone laughed at that comment.

"Haha very funny. No, what we need is: 1) a squad name and 2) code/nicknames for ourselves."

"Hudson that is your smartest idea yet!" Exclaimed Smith.

"I know, I'm a genius." Everyone could just picture the smile behind his visor.

"Well what names have you come up with then, genius?" Asked Matilda.

"Hey just because I'm a genius doesn't mean I have to do all the thinking."

"Everyone come up with your own callsign, and we'll tell you what we think. Same thing goes for when we decide our squad name." I joined in. "However we are not stopping to discuss this so everyone keep moving."

"I call Stinger." Responded Matilda.

"Why stinger? Why not-" started Hudson before he was cut off by Matilda pumping her shotgun and ejecting a shell. "okay, nevermind, I like it. However, that stings 'Stinger'."

"Hudson we're going to call you Chatterbox." Said Smith.

"Oh come on she gets to pick a cool nickname and I get assigned Chatterbox?"

"Yes" We all replied in unison.

"Fine, I won't argue because in all honesty that name couldn't be more right. Haha." he responded with a laugh.

"That just leaves me and Joe then." Said Smith.

"Yeah I guess so." I replied.

"Hmm… I think my callsign should be… shadow… no wait that's stupid." Said Smith. We all nodded in agreement. "How about Sawdust?"

"Sounds good to me." Said Stinger.

"Better than mine." Replied Chatterbox.

"Seems good." I responded.

"What about you Joe? What's your callsign going to be?" Asked Sawdust.

"Hmm… I don't know to be honest. Let me sleep on that."

"Well while you sleep on that, anyone got any squad names?" Asked Chatterbox

"Nope." Replied Stinger

"Neither do I." Replied Sawdust

"Well someone's got to come up with something." Chatterbox said

"Tiger Squad." I said

"Tiger as in the Tiger of our now demolished high school?" Replied Chatterbox.

"Yes." I simply put.

"I can't think of a better or more fitting squad name than that." Spoke Sawdust.

"Same here." Replied Stinger.

"I'm liking it." Chatterbox replied.

"Okay, everyone's got a nickname but me and we have a squad name. Other matters that need to be discussed?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got one." replied Chatterbox who had stopped on top of a pile of rubble and was looking through his scope in the direction we were heading.

"And what's that?" I responded.

"Do we have any idea what we are going to do if we run across a battalion of Covenant troops and heavy armor?"

"No, not really why do you ask?"

"Because we just ran across one. Which just happens to be heading our way."

"Well crap…" I heard someone whisper, probably Sawdust.

"Everyone switch to comms and head for the office building to my left, stay spread out, stay low, and do NOT do anything that will make them notice us." I said. "I'm looking at you Chatterbox." I added.

"Ohh come on it's not always me."

"Yes it is." We all replied in union on the comm. Remembering all the times he ruined our stealth approaches in our games.

"Fine." He agreed.

I made it to the office door first and held it open for the rest of the squad while keeping an eye out for any other signs of our alien friends. Once everyone was inside I closed the door.

"Well what do we do?" Asked Sawdust.

"We can't take them head on, we don't have enough ordinance to take on even two wraiths much less a dozen." Replied Stinger.

"Well it's not like we are someone's stupid story where we do something ridiculously noob like while being cheesy and somehow come on top." Said Chatterbox.

"Or are we…" I said in a low tone.

"What do you mean?" Asked Stinger, apparently the only one who heard me.

"I mean, Chatterbox is right. We aren't someone's story, and we aren't going to do something noob-like and be cheesy."

"Okay, so Chatterbox is right for once, what's that have to do with anything?"

"It means I got a realistic solution to our problem." I replied while looking outside, eyeing the street.

"Ohh and what's that?" Spoke up Chatterbox.

"Stinger, we got four grenades right?"

"Right."

"And how many abandoned cars are outside right now?"

"I don't know at least a dozen or so… ohhh I get it." I could just imagine her smiling her typical evil grin behind her visor.

"Well some of us don't, so care to explain?" Asked Chatterbox.

Stinger and I both looked at each other, and I directed a shrug at her which signaled that she could explain it.

"Okay, so you know how the Covenant are approaching our position?"

"Ya."

"And how we don't have the weapons to take them all out, right?"

"Right."

"Odds are all those cars on the street have a decent amount of gasoline or hydrogen in them right?"

"Ya but what's that have to do with a BATTALION OF ADVANCED ALIEN TANKS AND TROOPS?!"

"What's my favorite thing to do?"

"Blow stuff up but that doesn't…" he paused finally getting it. "Ahhh I get it now, we'll wait until most of them are in the range of the cars, we each throw a grenade igniting the cars, and watch an alien barbecue. I like it."

"Well it's better than nothing." Replied Sawdust.

"Okay Sawdust, Chatterbox run across the street and take cover in the building directly across from us and take these grenades." I said as I handed them each a grenade. "And wait until I give the signal on the comm."

"Why do I have to go with him?" Sawdust said in a joking way while pointing at Chatterbox

"Hey I'm offended!" He responded, while putting his hand over his heart acting like he was actually hurt.

"Just get over there before they get here." And with that they left.

"So, just us now huh?" Said Stinger after turning off her comms.

"Yep" I replied while I too turned off my comms.

"Let's hope they don't blow themselves up."

"Haha yeah. Knowing Chatterbox he'll probably be juggling his grenade while he waits."

"Haha yeah probably."

"Hey Joe?"

"Yeah?"

"You like logic and math right?"

"Love it, why do you ask?"

"What are our odds?"

"Which odds?"

"The odds of us surviving."

"This battle or the war?"

"Both."

"War is not won by number, but rather skill."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means that you simply can not win a war with just numbers, it takes skill, morale, and hope to make an army win a war. The odds don't matter, but I do know ALL of us are going to see this war through one way or any other."

"Thanks."

"No problem, anytime. We are all here for each other." Just as we finished our conversation the Covenant reached our position.

"Speaking of time." said Stinger.

"It's showtime." I replied, I then went back to the comm channel. "You guys ready?"

"We were born ready." Replied Sawdust.

"Bet I get the most kills!" Answered Chatterbox.

"Okay on my mark then." I said while eyeing up the Covenant troops. "Five…" out of the corner of my eye I saw Stinger's fingers twitching on the grenade. "Four…" I heard Sawdust whisper something, probably a prayer. "Three…" I saw Chatterbox poke his rifle out of a window. "Two…" I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "One…" I opened my eyes and exhaled. "Mark!" And with that the grenades flew and there was blinding and deafening boom of a dozen cars and alien explosives all going off at once, last thing I saw was a blinding ball of blue and orange flying at me.

Authors Note: Cliffhanger! Man you guys are really liking the story, especially a certain dauntlesforthewin708 who said and I quote "yes! YES! YES! MORE PLEASE!" which made me laugh my head off. However lyndakey1 did bring 2 things to my attention. First thing is yes this is my very first time ever posting or writing a story, so I really would love it if you guys gave feedback because I'm not quite sure how good the story is or how far the story is going to go and I may need your guys help. Second thing is yes the dead ODST scene was a bit "confusing" but trust me on what I'm about to say... one day it will all make sense :)

~BattleFrontline signing off