"Hey Rookie." Tucker walked to where I had been sitting, "You wanna help me get this black stuff off my armor?"

"Um." I closed my book and looked up at him, "How about no."

"Come on." He pleaded.

"No." I turned to look at the red base and the remnants of our once M8O8 Main Battle Tank, "How's your luck been with reaching command?"

"Not so great." He sighed and sat next to me, "It's either they're ignoring us or a weak connection.

"Sounds like a tough time on your part." I opened my book once again and continued to read.

"What are you reading?" He actually seemed interested.

"Of Mice and Men. I haven't read it since my second year of high school. Thought I could take another gander." I finished reading the page as he seemed to watch me intently. Must be weird for him to see someone read with a helmet. It's probably weird for him to see anyone read at all, really, since Sim Soldiers were chosen out of the dumbest of students, "You know what." I closed the book and stood up, "I'll help you clean your armor."

"Finally."

"But, I'm not going anywhere near the cod piece."

"Fine." His voice seemed disappointed.

"Come in Blue Command. This is Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha. Do you read me?" Tucker made another attempt to call command.

"Alright. Your armor is clean." I said as I watched my reflection in his armor.

"Did you get all the black stuff off?"

"I believe so." I turned to face Caboose, who had just dropped his rag to the ground.

"Hello! Command! We need help." Tucker began to talk to Command. Oh, how I wish I knew how to use the radio, "I don't know what the technical military term is for it, but uh, we're pretty fucked up down here. We need men!"

"How long have you guys been down here." I laughed under my own breath, having forgotten that Tucker had been standing right in front of me.

Tucker turned to face me, but continued to talk to Command, "No, not like that. We need more men to help us." His tone seemed a lot different from the actual episode. It was more... concerned than embarrassed, "Yeah that got blown up too... Yeah, we know... Sixteen days!?" He turned to face his original direction, "That's almost two weeks!"

"Two weeks and two days." I sighed and sat down.

"I like the 'in an hour' one." Caboose pitched in.

"Yeah," Tucker turned and faced Caboose, "me too. Roger that Command, we prefer the quicker solution... Whoever he is, make sure he can fix a tank." He hung up and turned to face me. Even in his armor, he looked like he was about to say something.

"Well, how's this for a first day at Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha?" I spoke meagerly.

"What's a freelancer?" Caboose broke the tension. Thank God for that little idiot.

Tucker let out a sigh and faced the said idiot, "Freelancers are independent, they're not red or blue."

"They're just guns for hire, who'll fight for whoever has the most money." I stood up and rest my hand on Caboose's shoulder, "I'm gonna see if there's a med-kit or something inside. I'll be back in a bit." I turned around to find "ghost" Church waiting.

"Shh." He made his voice as quiet as possible, thinking I would scream. Actually, I think he was more surprised when I just walked by. Last thing I heard from our favorite Blood Gulch Trio was the famous, "Tucker. Tuuucker," that we all know and love.

I just walked around. Honestly, my shoulder isn't bothering me, and I just needed an excuse to get out of there. It's fun to watch them through a screen, it's a hinderance to stand next to them. I found the med-kit and meticulously removed my armor in order to change the bandages.

The wound wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I admit, it wasn't a beautiful sight, but it was at least bearable look at. It was a bullet wound about an inch deep that remained directly under the shoulder bone. I wrapped the wound in a new gauze and took a few pills of acetaminophen in order to dull the pain. Who ever the hell is running this army, they're doing a shitty job. Putting an injured soldier into war is probably one of the dumbest decisions for someone to make... unless I somehow begged them to go. I am stubborn, for my own good, and I wouldn't be surprised if I intentionally put myself in danger out of pure ambition.

"Whoa. Heterochromia." Tucker stood in front of me.

"Don't make fun of my genetics." I laughed, "What next? My hips? Or is it my strangely abnormal hair color?"

"Your hair seems like a normal color to me."

I scoffed, "Nah, man. It's red... well, more of a scarlet than the common red."

"No, it's brown." He tried to hold back some laughter.

"No..." I spoke slowly, "It's red."

"Look for yourself. It's brown." He watched as I started to pull my hair in front of my eyes, "You're not color blind, are you?"

"No. I was born with red hair." I fumbled around with my fingers.

"You do have that streak of red... I hope that's not all of your hair that you've ever seen."

I found the streak of red he had been talking about, "Maybe I just dyed it..." I sighed.

"How do you not even know that?" He sat down next to me, probably expecting a long story.

"Well, hopefully just a month or two has escaped my memory. Worse case scenario, a year... probably."

"Amnesia?"

"At least you can pronounce it right." I sighed.

"Why do you say that?"

"Caboose said anemia." I started to put my armor back on and tried to sound interested, "So, what did Church have to say?"

"You... left before he showed up." He became suspicious.

"W-well..." I tried to think of my verbal escape route, "Church appeared in front of me on my way inside. He told me to stay quiet, and I kept my orders." No lie needed.

"You know, he did tell us to keep an eye on you."

"Because if I do something bad, he'll send his girlfriend after me." I shuddered, "I don't want to be pummeled to a pulp this week."

"I don't know what you're going on about, but I'd really like it if you'd hurry up and explain before our Freelancer gets here."

"Well," I turned to face him, "You'll find out soon enough. What's the point of explaining?"

You know, I was freaking terrified of Allison while watching the episodes, but she's really not that bad in person. Yes, she's still hella scary, but not so bad.

"That's basically it, Sir." Tucker was talking to Tex as she shot at Caboose. Poor guy was pleading for help through his helmet. I feel really bad for not stopping her, "They have five guys over their, and a big jeep."

"And your flag." Tex and I spoke at the same time. This time, it was just coincidence, for I've honestly forgotten that line.

"What do you mean by 'your flag?'" Tucker seemed to be on the verge of yelling at me, "It's your flag too."

"Well sorry." I folded my arms and watched a bullet go right past Caboose's head, "I don't know why I'm here, but there's no way I came to this hell hole willingly."

"You never change." I caught Tex mumble as she threw a grenade... Wait... What? She knows me somehow? At least now I have a sorce more reliable than a well-known idiot.

"Uh, hey, Tex?" Tucker started, but I intervened.

"I don't know what it's been like at your other bases, but we try not to use other soldiers as target practice here." She seemed to have been caught off guard at this. What impression do I have on her? Does she see me as a potential serial killer?!

"I'm scared." Caboose muttered. Tex went to play with her weapon and I motioned for the poor guy to make his way over to us. I'm actually glad he complied, since I have no clue what Tex woulda done if he stayed put.

"You alright there?" I let Tucker and Tex talk as I examined Caboose, not ignoring the scratch across his helment from a bullet grazing him.

"Uh... Yeah." He spoke sheepishly.

"Caboose, if your hurt, you need to let me know or else I can't help."

"He's really scary." He whimpered.

"Oh yeah. Plenty scary." I laughed, remembering seasons nine and ten. Oh, how I would have preferred to be stuck there rather than Blood Gulch Outpost.

I sat back down as Tex ran over to Red Base and the boys watched. I turned to face the entrance of our own base to see Church with an infuriated look across his face (it could even be seen through his helmet somehow), and he was waiting for his moment to teach us a lesson. I stood up, making sure to be quiet, as I walked to the door way.

"Listen." I whispered, "I know what it looks like, but.-"

"What the hell were you guys thinking." He nearly hissed at me, "I told you not to let Tex get involved."

"I'm sorry, but we needed her help. You're currently incapable of anything and-"

"Wait a minute." He caught on, "How do you know Tex is a girl?"

"Ah, did I slip up?" I laughed hesitantly, "Well, it's not hard to miss these things. You have to be an idiot to-"

He made a slap like motion to my face, but his transparent hand went through my skull, "How do you know Tex is a chick?" He spoke a little louder, but quiet enough so that the living men could not hear him.

"You want the long version or the short?"

"The easy version." Couldn't help but laugh at that, "What's so funny?"

"No, nothing." I sighed, a smile clean across my face. Thank God for helmets.

"... I got my eye on you." He turned his attention to Tucker and Caboose.

"Be sure to give 'em Hell once we get the flag back." I laughed and sat back down, "I bet you twenty bucks that Sidewinder will be mentioned."

"..." he turned his attention back to me in a sideways glance, "I'll take you up on that. If it does get mentioned, I bet it'll be from Tucker."

"Nah, Caboose." I laughed under my breath, "I'd shake on it, but your hand would just go through mine."

"You don't have to rub it in."

"Aren't you glad you died for this army."

"You know what... I actually cannot believe I died for this army."

"Yeah. You'll probably wish you didn't get shot by that tank." I sighed, waiting.

"Yeah, I got to take care of this real quick." He walked towards the two idiots, "Blue Team, flag returned." He spoke in a deep voice.

Tucker jumped at the sound, "What the... who said that?"

Church cleared his throat, "Sorry, that was me. I uh, I guess I had something stuck in my throat. Your flag is back, by the way." I tried not to laugh.

"Hey. It's Church." Caboose practically cheered.

"Yeah, it's me. Hey Caboose." There goes his irritated tone.

"Hey Church, what're you up to?" Ah, sweet innocence. Innocence is bliss, right?

"Caboose, ah-huh-huh, I'm not really here to make small-talk, okay? How'd you guys manage to get your flag back?" Yeah, I kinda toned out a bit of the conversation. I know how it carries out, anyways, "What was the one thing I told you guys the last time I appeared?"

"That Sidewinder is cold?!" Bingo.

"Twenty bucks." I chimed as Church turned to face me.

"Sorry. I'm broke." He turned to face Caboose once more, "What was the other one thing I told you?"

"Not to let him get involved?" Tucker broke out.

"Right, and what did you do?"

"We let him get involved."

"And not just a little involved, but how involved?"

"Very, very involved." Caboose ducked his head down.

I stood up and acted as if I had been paying attention, "Looks like someone just got captured."

"Shit." Church sighed as he began to formulate his "brilliant" idea.