A/N: another chapter for you guys :)
This is the longer chapter i ever wrote
note that i'll post more chapters, i will be able to do so only on saturday and sunday cause i have to go to work and i have college at night.
The squad was hidden observing the town.
It has been three days that they were there waiting for an opportunity.
Kaze was watching it through the scope of his rifle.
There were 7 people who were chosen for the mission.
"Objectives: Find the immune specimen and bring her back to St. Mary's Hospital.
Neutralize the man who kidnaped her.
The use of any means necessary to complete the mission has been authorized.
Intel: The specimen is around 16 years old, female, red-brown hair color, has a scar above her right eyebrow and green eyes.
The man is around his fifties, has a dark hair and a beard and uses a broken watch at his left wrist.
Squad members:
Colonel "Wolf" Murphy
Function: Squad leader
Sargent "Kaze" Harold
Function: Marksman
Corporal "Lead" Gary
Function: Machine gunner
Private "Mother" Susan
Function: Medic
New squad members:
Private Thomas
Function: Rifleman
Private Charlie
Function: Rifleman
Private Andrew
Function: Rifleman
OBS: squad members are expendable"
Colonel was rereading the paper to reflect.
Private Andrew suggested to invade the town and kidnap the girl at night, but the he didn't want to do that, the last thing he needed is to make the girl think that they were bad guys.
With the file there was photos of the girl and the man, that were taken by security cameras of the hospital.
Colonel respected the man who kidnapped the girl, he was impressed with him. He killed a lot of men just to save his daughter, but the old man didn't care. Most of Fireflies soldiers were dumb.
The only thing that hurt him was the death of Marlene, his old friend.
"Colonel I saw the girl leaving the town, she's on a horse" He heard Kaze saying
"What direction she's heading?" he asked while hiding the paper inside his backpack
"Heading probably for sector 13, but its better check the others too"
"Alright, Kaze you check sector 14, I'll check sector 13 with Mother and Lead, Thomas, Charlie and Andrew go for sector 12. If you don't find her go back to the checkpoint and wait there for the others"
Sometime later….
Only Mother and Lead were on the checkpoint, Colonel was MIA since Hunters showed up and Kaze was probably still in sector 14.
Thomas group sent a message saying that they found a large pack of infected but the rest of the message was just static.
"Do you think the rest is OK?" Mother asked. She was in her thirties, short black hair
"Kaze and the Colonel? Yes, The rookies? I don't think so" Lead responded. He was black, bald and was the tallest and strongest man of the squad.
Lead scanned their perimeter with his Negev LMG, while Mother rested. She had a though day, and deserved some rest.
"Lead let me stay on guard, you must be tired…"
"Don't worry about me sister"
"But-"
"You always took care of everyone in the squad, let me return the favor"
"Okay"
They barely escaped the hunter ambush, running kilometers without stop made her feel exhausted. Mother closed her eyes.
Then she heard gunfire.
She quickly got up and ran to here Lead was.
"What the hell?" she asked
"Looks like hunters are fighting infected nearby, this place is not safe anymore"
They grabbed all their gear and started to move.
As they walked Lead turn on his radio
"Colonel this is Lead"
Static
"Colonel respond"
More static
"Kaze are you there?"
"Thomas?"
"Is anybody still breathing?"
All attempts to contact his squad mates were fruitless, they were out of range or a snowstorm could be interfering with the radio.
Sargent POV
He was walking in one of the corridors of the hospital, heading to his room so he could get some rest.
Suddenly the Colonel appeared
"She wants to see you"
"Who?" Kaze asked
"The girl. Room 210"
Kaze gave a sigh as he started to move towards the room.
He wasn't good at saying goodbye.
Once he reached room 210 he slowly opened the door, he saw that Ellie was lying on the bed using a hospital gown.
Her head was open and her brain was inside a pot.
Kaze quickly opened his eyes and looked around him; he was still at the farmhouse.
His heart was racing and his hands were shaking. That never happened before, he saw so many people dying in many gruesome ways, but he never felt anything for those people.
"Shit" He thought. That nightmare meant one thing: He was getting emotionally attached to her. But trying to break this attachment was hard.
As he tried to stand up he felt some resistance, it was like somebody…..
Ellie was at his left hugging him while her head was at his chest.
"What an awkward situation" he thought, as he gently grabbed her left hand to check her wound.
The stitches were still holding, no signs of infection, and just some blood on the bandage. He removed the old bandage and put a new one.
After taking care of her he gently got her off him and laid her on the sofa.
Kaze turn on his radio and talked:
"Colonel?"
Silence
"Colonel respond"
Nothing
"Lead, Mother, Thomas? Is anybody out there?"
No response
"Ouch, fuck!" It was Ellie waking up.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty" Kaze said joking.
"Morning, white snow" She replied while rubbing her eyes with her right hand.
"White snow…." he thought. Mother used to call him like that, until he brutally murdered 5 hunters who were trying to kill her.
"Why I'm feeling pain now?"
"The effect of morphine ran out" he talked as he passed some pain pills to Ellie.
After that they ate breakfast, Kaze stayed on guard.
He heard Ellie opening her backpack and grabbing something.
"Can you teach me how to use this thing?" She asked
Kaze looked: She was holding a M16, probably the A4 version, the same he was using.
"To use it just put on your shoulder, aim and fire" He said sarcastically.
"Ha ha, don't be a dick. It's because there are some buttons and other things I never seen"
"Where the hell did you get that?"
"It was inside Joel's backpack"
"Okay, pass the rifle to me"
Kaze hold it showing the right side of the rifle.
"This button ejects the mag" he pressed and the mag fell on his hand.
"This is the charging handle" he pulled the handle back and the ejection port lock open ejecting the cartridge that was inside. Kaze grabbed it and put inside the mag.
"The ejection port locks open when it fires the last round"
He passed the rifle to Ellie and the magazine
"Now put the mag back and push this button" he pointed
Ellie quickly reloaded and pushed the button. Clank. The bolt closed.
"See that lever?"
"Yeah"
"It has 3 positions: safety, full-auto and semi-auto. I recommend firing only at semi-auto"
"Understood everything?"
"Yep"
These were the basics, it took weeks to fully train somebody to use the M16.
"Thanks" she said
"Where your squad? I mean they should be here by now" Ellie suddenly asked
"I tried to contact them using the radio. They didn't respond"
"What now?"
"We keep waiting, only 1day passed."
"I'm going to end up dying of boredom"
"Well if you die I will kill you"
Ellie laughed
"How is that even possible?"
"Believe it is" Kaze said in a serious tone.
"How?"
"It's a long sto-"
He paused talking; he could hear people running towards the house front door.
Ellie immediately understood as she crouched behind the sofa while kaze pointed his rifle at the door.
The knob slowly turned and 3 a men entered pointing their M16 to random directions.
Sargent recognized them.
"Flash" Kaze said
The three man looked at him and lowered their weapons
"Thunder" one of the man whispered.
Kaze stand up.
"Ellie it's okay. Come out"
She slowly appeared out of hiding with her rifle lowered.
"Holy shit, you found her" Thomas said
"What? You didn't know I was here?"
"No"
"But I talked to the Colonel yesterday at 1415 hours"
"Before that time Lead and Mother said that the Colonel was MIA" Charlie said
"Wait, if you guys didn't knew than… Mother and Lead doesn't know that I found her"
"They are probably dead, let's grab the girl and get the fuck out of here!" Andrew said as he violently grabbed Ellie's left hand.
"Ouch, you are hurting me you fucker!" Ellie shouted as she struggled to break off his grip.
Sargent felt anger and wrath blinding his reason.
He quickly unsheathed his knife and stabbed Andrew at his neck, he released Ellie's hand and felt to the ground.
Kaze stabbed him again and again and again. Before the fifth stab somebody grabbed his hand.
"STOP! Please" It was Ellie's voice.
He stand up and sheathed his knife, there was fear and sadness in her eyes.
Charlie and Thomas stood there shocked with the gruesome scene that they have witnessed.
"You two, grab the body scavenge anything useful and bury him" Kaze ordered coldly.
The two soldiers quickly grabbed the body and went outside.
Ellie and Kaze sat one in a different sofa than the other.
After some time of silence Ellie asked:
"Why did you kill him?"
"Because he was going nuts, besides he wanted to leave my partners behind. And… He was hurting you"
"You scared me" she said
"Everyone have a good and a evil side, you saw my good side before. Now you saw the monster I am"
"You are not a monster…"
"Ellie I….. killed a lot of people, even the ones who surrendered or begged for their lives."
"Oh so I'm a monster too! Cause I had to kill too." She shouted
Ellie saw how these words hurt Kaze, so she tried to comfort him:
"Listen if you were really a monster then you would have leaved everyone behind, and you would have….. raped me" Kaze could see the pain in her eyes, the way she talked it almost sounded like she was almost raped in the past.
Ellie was right, what made people monsters weren't because they killed but because they enjoyed killing and raping without remorse. Monsters don't have empathy.
"Thanks Ellie"
Seeing that made him feel better Ellie smiled.
"Okay we need to lighten the mood"
"What are you planning?"
"I used to be addicted to soap. But I'm clean now"
Kaze laughed I little
"Where did you learn this shit?"
"From a joke book, wanna hear the rest?"
"NOPE"
"Okay"
While Charlie and Thomas were out there Kaze tried to contact the rest of his squad, but the only thing he could was static.
Some minutes later Kaze heard two gunshots
He and Ellie immediately raised their rifles.
He turned on his radio
"Thomas respond"
Static
"Charlie?"
More Static
"Shiiiittt" he muttered as he approached to check the window.
He could see that Thomas and Charlie were lying lifeless on the ground.
"They are dead" He said as he ran back to cover.
"What do we do?"
"We wait, we can't go out there. It's probably a sni-"
The front door opened violently
There stood a man around his fifties, he was using a white ghillie suit.
"Colonel?"
"Oh Kaze, sorry if I let you and the girl waiting" the Colonel said calmly as he lowered his rifle.
Sargent could feel that something was wrong.
Then he saw Joel, the crazy man entering the house.
"Colonel behind you!" he shouted as he pointed his rifle at Joel. At the same time Joel pointed his revolver at him.
"He's with me" Colonel said
"What the fuck!? Colonel why are you with this psycho?"
"He wants the same thing as me: the safety of Ellie"
Besides Colonel apparently going nuts, Joel was there and worse Charlie and Thomas were killed by the Colonel.
"What about the mission?!"
"It cannot be completed Sargent"
"Creating a cure will save everyone!" Kaze shouted, he couldn' believe that the old man betrayed him.
"No, it will only create more death and conflict"
"How do you know? You became a prophet or some shit like that?"
"The new leader of the Fireflies, Smith, he is going to use vaccine to attract people, recruit them and make an army. Besides if he gets his dirty hands on a vaccine he WILL make bioterrorist attacks by exploding bomb containing spores in many Quarantine Zones"
"Bullshit"
"Then listen to the conversation I had with him"
The colonel grabbed a recorder and pushed the play button
"So Smith I bet that you did not invited me to your room just to drink whiskey and remember the old times"
"You were always like that Colonel: straight to the point"
Smith gave a sigh
"Okay I got a extremely important mission for you"
"Which is?"
"Recover the girl that were kidnapped 2 years ago"
"Oh I see, you still hoping to create a vaccine?"
"Yes, I managed to recruit some brain surgeons and scientists and I got some better lab equipment"
"You know that a vaccine will not resolve all our problems"
"Of course it will"
"What makes you think it will?"
"The military has been kick our ass, but after the vaccine is ready we will strike"
"How exactly? We don't have enough weapons and man for that"
"I will use cordyceps against them"
Colonel laughed
"When did you got the magical powers to control the fungus?" He asked sarcastically
"I will use bombs filled with spores and sharp objects contaminated with infected blood"
"You are joking right?"
"No, I got some Fireflies infiltrated in most of QZs at the West cost. Once they receive the vaccine they will detonate them and chaos will spread"
"Let me guess, then you will announce that the Fireflies have a cure but will only give for those who fight for us?"
"Almost, I will only announce that I got the cure some time later. If I announce at the same time the attacks occur people will know we were involved"
"But you know that the military will put the blame on us"
"No they won't. I have created a false group called The Sons of God. Once the bombs explode a prerecorded message will say that the Sons of God were the responsible, and will say that they believe that the fungus is sacred holy thing"
"How much time you have been preparing this?"
"Three years, the only piece of the puzzle missing is the vaccine"
"I see… You can count me in"
"Good. Chose your best man for this, and I will give three of my must trustable man under your command: Charlie, Andrew and Thomas."
"But I don't know where the girl is Smith"
"My scouts suggested that they went to Jackson Country"
"It's a long walk. Well guess the sooner we start the sooner we end it"
Then the recorder stopped.
Kaze couldn't believe in what he heard, the Fireflies were his last hope. But now he knew that the military, the hunters and the Fireflies were the same shit.
He lowered his weapon and asked:
"Ellie after all you heard, you still want to go back?"
Ellie POV
Ellie was shocked, in the end the Fireflies were the bad guys too. What cruel and fucked up world; a vaccine would be a blessing but would also be a curse at the same time.
She wanted to sacrifice herself to create a vaccine but now she couldn't.
Then she made her mind
"Yes"
"Why? Didn't you hear what he said Ellie?" Joel asked
"I want to kill him" She said coldly
"Smith? I wouldn't worry about him" Colonel said
"What did you do old man?" Kaze asked
"I made some a delay-action bombs using a old method and placed them strategically"
"How much time?"
"Well with put the right springs they should have detonated 2 weeks after we went of our mission"
"You and your magic tricks" Kaze said
"But what about Mother and Lead?" Kaze asked
"They already know about this, they are waiting for us near Tommy's town"
"Wait did you and Joel talked to Tommy?" Ellie asked
"Yeah and he agreed to let me and my squad to live there"
"Who's Tommy?" Kaze asked confused
"The town leader, and he's Joel's brother" Ellie replied
"It's a normal town? Normal people?" Kaze asked
"Yep"
"I don't know Ellie"
"Comon Kaze, I really want you to live there."
He could see in Ellie's eyes that she deeply wanted him nearby.
"I'll go if you promise me one thing"
"What?
"No more jokes from that fucking book"
Ellie smiled
"I promise"
Before head to Tommy's town they buried Charlie, Andrew and Thomas.
"Lord please forgive these men for their sins and guide their souls with your light"
"Amen" As Kaze finished his pray he and the rest started to walk towards the town.
A/N: if sobody saw any gramatical error please tell me, because i want to improve my english
