Chapter 10:

I felt as if I was falling. Twisting and tumbling through a black mist. I tried to find anything I could onto, but my flailing hands closed on nothing but air.

And then I felt the pain. Burning, searing agony rippled out from within my chest. Each racking breath sent a new wave shuddering through me. Each wave came faster than the last. I screamed into the dark void around me.

Then I opened my eyes.

My scream caught in my throat as I stared up at Mirai. She looked down at me with wide eyes. Part of my mind realized my head was in her lap, but most of it was preoccupied with the fire still burning inside my chest. My entire body jerked as another wave of pain surged through me. My fingers carved gouges into the earth as I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. Dried blood on my lips cracked as I blinked hard, trying to clear the tears welling there.

"Soldier!" Mirai's voice pierced through the cloud of pain. "Knight!" My eyes focused and her face became clear. "Tell us how to help you." She said. "How do we fix you?"

"Bag." I said through gritted teeth. My throat felt dry and my voice sounded hoarse. "Injector. Blue top."

I heard a zipper open and a few moments of shuffling through my pack. I just stared up at the sky as another wave of pain shuddered through me.

"This one?" Mirai held the injector in front of my face. It resembled a thick pen, brightly colored warning labels along its side. One end was capped with a blue top. I grabbed the injector out of her hands and jammed it into my thigh. I dimly felt the prick of the injectors needle and then a burning sting as the drug found its way into my veins. I closed my eyes and waited for the medication to take effect. The tingling sensation spread upward through my limbs until it reached my head. It felt as though ice water was dumped directly into my brain. It seemed like hours, be in reality it was only a few minutes. Slowly the burning fire inside me began to fade into the background. I opened my eyes and blinked up at Mirai. Serval was peering down at me over her shoulder.

I sat up and felt only a minor pang within my chest as I did so. Wild Dog and Brown Bear watched as I stood. I felt the fire inside me flare up, but it was dulled. I pushed it to the back of my mind and took a long, steadying breath. When the fire had died down to a smoldering ember, I turned to see the confused faces of the Friends and Mirai.

"Let's go." I said, my voice still hoarse. I saw my rifle had been carefully propped up against a rock. I reached down and lifted it, checking the chamber. I hefted the now familiar weight and rested it in the crook of my arm.

"No, no no no." Mirai put a hand on my shoulder. "You need to rest! You're hurt. What was in that injector?" She scooped up the spent injector from where I had dropped it and began scanning the labeling.

"An experimental medication." I told her. "It'll let me ignore the pain for a while. I still have a job to finish."

She looked up at me, eyes wide. "This is going to damage your heart…." She said, the empty injector falling from her fingers.

I looked away from her. "I have three days to get a detox."

"Or…?" Mirai took a step toward me.

"Or it kills me."

"You… idiot." Mirai hissed. She reached out and grabbed hold of my shoulder. "We could have taken you to get help! You didn't have to do this!"

"And what if another Cerulean attacks?!" I pulled out of her grip. "I'd just be dead weight! I'm not letting that happen. Not when we're so close." I glanced upward at the volcano looming over us.

"But you're still hurt. Internally. We need to get you to a doctor." The concern in Mirai's voice sent a pang of guilt through me.

"Internal injuries either kill you really quickly, or really slowly." I told her. "The fact that I woke up means we have time." I could tell from her face she wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"But-"

"What's done is done, Mirai!" I cut her off. "Arguing with me isn't going to change that. We're just wasting time."

She glowered at me, but said nothing.

"Let's go." I said again. I started up the path toward the summit of the volcano. The Friends had been watching our exchange silently and now I felt their eyes on my back as I climbed. The ember smoldered within my chest, but I did my best to ignore it. It wasn't long before Serval came up beside me.

"You-" She started.

"Don't." I said. Her ears drooped and I wished my tone hadn't been so harsh.

"You don't have to do everything by yourself, you know." She said.

I didn't reply and we walked in silence for a long moment. Bear and Wild Dog came up to walk on my left while Serval and Mirai stuck close to my right side. I saw each shoot glances at me out of the corner of their eyes. I decided to pretend to not notice.

The cool breeze that blew across the side of the volcano shifted direction then and Wild Dog jerked in surprise. She covered her nose with her hands.

"What is it?" Mirai asked her.

"Something dead." Wild Dog replied, her voice muffled by her hands. Bear and Serval wrinkled their noses a moment later.

"How far is it?" I asked Wild Dog.

"I'm not sure exactly, but its not far. Just over the next ridge I think." She shot me a worried glance. "It smells like the other body we found."

I felt an icy pit inside my stomach as I thought back to Jackson's corpse. Was I about to see the body of another member of my team? I forced these thoughts out of my head and lifted my rifle to my shoulder. I took point moving forward. Brown Bear kept just on my heels, summoning her staff to her hand. We crested the small ridge in front of us. The corpse was lying on his back, limbs splayed out around him. He wore a camouflaged uniform of green, brown and black, but a different pattern than mine. I swept my rifle across the small ridge looking for movement, but everything was still.

"Clear." I said over my shoulder. Mirai, Serval and Wild Dog climbed up beside us a moment later. They winced when they saw the body. As we approached it, I saw it was in the same condition as Jackson had been. Leathery, dry skin was stretched across a frame that looked as if every last drop of moisture had been drained from it. The face had been frozen in a silent scream. Flies buzzed around the body, one crawling out from inside its mouth. My neck burned in shame at the relief I felt when I saw the insignia of the JSDF on its shoulder. Beside the corpse was a large rifle. The weapon was enormous, the kind normally used to disable tanks. The arrow shaped muzzle brake at the end on of the barrel had a thin coating of carbon. It had been used recently and heavily. It rested on a bipod beneath the barrel. It was positioned to cover the path we had just used to ascend the side of the volcano. The scope was pointed downward, toward the cliffs that dropped off into the ocean far below us. I knelt beside the corpse and Mirai did likewise.

"Is this his name?" I pointed toward a string of Japanese characters that was sewn into his uniform.

Mirai nodded. "It says 'Kobayashi.'"

I looked down at the corpse's face and felt like I should say something. No words came to me at first. I reached out and closed his eyes.

"You… you did your duty soldier." I said after a moment. "Rest now, we'll take it from here." I checked to see if he was wearing dog tags, but was surprised to find only one remaining on the chain around his neck. Someone else had already taken the other tag. I glanced at the rifle beside us.

"Why was he so far inland?" I said aloud, more to myself to anyone else but Mirai answered.

"I don't know, I thought all the military had pulled back." She said. "Did they leave him behind?"

"They wouldn't have left that." I nodded toward the rifle. "We had been briefed that we would be the only unit operating in this section of the island." I said. "But this soldier's unit was here recently. And they were packing some serious firepower." I had a suspicion deep in my gut that something odd was going on. I shook my head to clear it. These questions would have to wait. I had other concerns at the moment.

"How much farther is the control station?" I asked Mirai.

She glanced upward at the volcano. "Not much further at all. We should be able to see it soon."

"Good." I said and turned away from the body. I started back up the path. The others followed a moment later, but I saw Serval shoot a look back at the corpse. She shivered.

We did not have to travel much further up the rocky expanse. Soon after we had left the corpse behind that a small doorway came into view, just as Mirai had said. The door appeared to be solid metal, set deep into the side of the rock face. Long shadows covered the entranceway, if we hadn't been looking for it I might have walked right past it. As we approached, I saw the door was slightly ajar. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise and I lifted my rifle to my shoulder. Alarms were going off inside my head as I approached the doorway. Something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what. The air felt increasingly heavier, as if the humidity was skyrocketing. I had reached the threshold when I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see Brown Bear, her expression grim.

"Human." She said, "I smell blood in there."