"Oh shit, oh fuck… please god no…"
His breath was ragged in his chest as he ran, his Lancer dropped and long forgotten as blind panic of imminent death fuelled the boys' desperate flight through the forest. All he could hear was the hammering of his own heart and the loud footsteps reverberating off the trees, but the boy didn't know if they were his own or his pursuers'.
Something white flickered momentarily in his peripheral vision and he pushed himself to run faster, loudly cursing the heavy protective Gear armour he wore as it weighed him down. Gasping for breath Gareth ran for the Centaur that his sergeant had parked on the edge of the woods before their recon mission, hoping like fuck that he wouldn't trip and fall on any of the exposed roots.
The goddess of luck, it appeared, was smiling on him as he exited the woods at a dead run, heading for the open door of the Centaur. He slammed it shut behind him and, barely slowing, threw himself into the drivers' seat.
The controls were way too advanced for his panic-gripped mind, so he simply jammed the vehicle in reverse and slammed his foot down on the accelerator as hard as he could. The Centaur shot backwards, and Gareth wildly swung the wheel as he changed to a forward gear with an unpleasant grinding noise.
He drove as fast as he possibly could back towards Jacinto, panic making every bump and jolt into an enemy leaping onto the zippy little ATV. The road seemed a lot shorter than it had on the way up to the edge of the forest, where only a few hours ago his team had jokingly tried to spook each other with stories of ghosts that sucked blood and giant wolves that turned into men as they'd gone into the forest.
The following memory was too unpleasant and Gareth shook his head violently, making the Centaur careen wildly all over the place. Almost glad that he was alone in the vehicle so no one saw him do it, Gareth opened his eyes wide and thought about cute puppies as hard as he could.
Once he'd calmed down, Gareth stopped the Centaur and tried his radio. After a few minutes of complete silence there was a faint voice requesting his position. All decorum lost, Gareth just sobbed for a few seconds and shakily replied
"Private Gareth Johnson, reporting in… they're all dead!"
The radio operator, sounding louder now, asked
"What squad are you in, Private Johnson?"
He blinked for a second before it came to him.
"Beta-five."
He started the Centaur again and started driving for Jacinto as the radio operator told him
"The Chairman wants you to return to command and report. Do you require a pick-up?"
He shook his head before he remembered that the operator couldn't see him, and managed to scrape together
"No, I have a Centaur… Private Johnson, out."
He drove shakily the rest of the way back and passed the gate inspection with no trouble. All he wanted to do was go and find his mother for a hug and then go to bed, but he parked the Centaur and slid out of the vehicle to walk slowly towards command, dreading his report and the horrors that would be resurrected in it.
He'd paused on the way up to straighten his hair in a grimy window, and he stared at his reflection, trying to will some colour back into his pale cheeks.
"Private Johnson of Beta-five?"
He looked up and saw a young woman dressed in a neat grey uniform. She looked to be older than he was, but that wasn't uncommon; he was as young as they took in the Gears. He nodded, and she motioned to him to follow her. He was led down a long hallway to an office, where an older officer was seated behind a desk piled high with papers.
"Private…"
he waited until Gareth had saluted before nodding to a chair. He cleared his throat once the boy had sat down, and began.
"Young man, I understand that your squad was on a recon mission in the woods a few kilometres from the north perimeter. Tell me what happened."
Gareth nodded and swallowed, gathering his thoughts together before he began to speak.
"It seemed to be a routine recon. We made our way out to the designated spot… I can't remember who it was, but one of us started joking around about a friend of a friend seeing monsters in those woods. We thought it was ridiculous, but it was funny… we got to the red zone and found a building there, hidden from aerial sweeps by branches. We went inside…"
He shuddered.
"There were corpses hanging from hooks. Dozens of them; not just Gears, Locusts too. There was a trapdoor in the floor. We opened it up and went down it, leaving Elliot behind as a rearguard… the sergeant led the way down and he was the first to go."
He paused again and shut his eyes, fighting a wave of nausea.
"There was something… something in the dark. It got the sergeant before any of us realised something was happening, and by the time I got up the ladder the others were dead, and Elliot was no-where to be seen. I ran back to the Centaur as fast as I could and… well… here I am."
When he opened his eyes again the officer was writing, but he stopped and looked up at the boy.
"Can you give me some co-ordinates?"
Gareth shook his head, looking down at his hands.
"No sir, I'm sorry."
The officer got up and started pacing.
"Hidden from aerial sweeps… Beta-five was a less than excellent squad. I'm going to need you to try and stay focused for a little while longer while I hand this report to the Chairman and give my recommendation that Alpha-F handles this."
Gareth's stomach dropped when he heard 'Alpha-F'; immediately his mind conjured up a demon with flaming red hair that used to terrorise his nightmares. His eyes widened and the officer patted him on the shoulder-plate.
"You'll be alright son."
The older man poured him a glass of liquor and handed it to him, leaning down a little to say
"I'll get someone to bring you something to eat. Just stay calm, have a drink, and breathe slowly."
The older man picked up the papers he'd been writing on and walked out the door. Gareth took a sip of the liquor and almost spat it out, but managed to choke the mouthful down. The drink made him sleepy; he leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes for a only a moment…