Hey there, guys. It's Tom here. Just to inform you all, I've been busy with school work since I'm nearing my high school graduation (Yahoo!). Things have been a bit stressful upon me really and it took me quite a while to make this one. I spent a week and a half after the last chapter doing some research on PMC's and urban warfare, which is pretty detailed. As of yesterday, I'm currently working on Chapter 11, which is Meth'd Up and I hope you like this one though. More relaxed, despite the lack of action in this chapter. So to those that wanted to see more I apologize, can't please all of you. This may be one of my most average chapters by far. Just leave a review or PM if you can. Thanks, Tom Tha Author!
Beach Bums
Outside of Gerald's Apartment Complex: Strawberry, Los Santos, 6:42 PM
"Thomas! Shit, he passed out! Dude took more rounds from the Professionals than we did. Those hitmen fucks messed with the wrong people. When I see those guys…" Sam said to Mikaela and Shizuka. At that point, they knew that time was of the essence for Thomas and themselves.
"I understand your anger, Sam. But right now, we have to get him and ourselves some medical attention after that messy firefight at that scrapyard. Come on, let's get out of here." Mikaela said in a calm manner.
Shizuka mentioned, "The nearest h-h-hospital is the C-Central L-L-Los Santos Hospital. The M-Mount Zonah hospital is too far from w-where we are."
Mikaela agreed with Shizuka's comment, saying, "Alright then, it's decided. We're going to CLS Hospital."
Sam picked up Thomas off the ground and placed him in the passenger seat of his black and purple Bravado Gauntlet, while Mikaela drove in her red and black Benefactor Schafter, while Shizuka took off in her Premier for the hospital.
7:00 PM, Central Los Santos Hospital, East Strawberry
Mikaela, Shizuka and Sam entered into the hospital looking for a nurse to help treat Thomas of his wounds before things could get worse by the minute. Nearby the receptionist's table across from them was a black nurse whose last name was Jenkins in her 40's, with a long-sleeve dark blue shirt with dark blue pants and a nurse's jacket. She approached them as the others were waiting in the middle of the waiting room.
Nurse Jenkins came nearby and said, "What happened to this young man and the rest of you guys?"
Sam answered, "We were victims of a Vagos shooting. Walked into a drug deal by accident and got shot up a couple times. Unfortunately, our friend here took most of the shots."
"Oh. You young souls. We'll treat you guys as best as we can. Why don't you all go into the emergency room and get ready?" The nurse said with a gleam of hope in her eyes.
Shizuka nodded with a smile and said "Thank y-you so much. W-W-We'll be on o-our way."
The nurse brought out a hospital bed for Thomas and was laid there by the nurse as the rest followed into the white and brown hallway where they could see some victims, mostly Black and Hispanic gang members from either Ballas, Families and Vagos affiliations in numerous hospital rooms either in casts, being treated of their wounds or laying in their beds with anesthesia flowing through their veins.
The nurse started to hook him up to medical equipment while the others watched. Shizuka asked the doctor in concern, "W-Will he m-m-make it, right?" Nurse Jenkins said, "Oh don't worry. I'm sure the good Lord is watching over him right now."
Shizuka was feeling pleased, but filled with some uncertainty over what could with Thomas, herself and the others. Nevertheless, she spoke to the nurse and said, "Thank you" to the nurse for the kind words she said to Shizuka in regards to Thomas. As they left the room for treatment, unbeknownst to them, Thomas was experiencing a flashback from his past while being in an unconscious state.
"Baghlan: Part One"
Flashback (Thomas): June 15th, 2011 (3:30 PM), Base Flying Eagle, outskirts of Kabal, Afghanistan
Thomas had recently finished dressing up into his Merryweather uniform with grey camo clothing, utility belt and various cargo pockets. From the debriefing he had heard today from his superiors, his squad had been assigned to assist forces to fight for control of the city of Baghlan. The city, despite not being the capital of Baghlan Province, was being sought for control by a terrorist group known as the Islamic Front of Afghanistan. They came into prominence two weeks after the Twin Tower attacks on Liberty City, terrorizing innocents, enforcing Sharia law and campaigning on ruling the entire country. The IFA was planning to invade, so the U.S government contracted Merryweather to fight them off. Since then, fighting on both sides have been heavy, leaving numerous casualties and some wounded including civilians.
Baghlan, a city in Baghlan Province was important since the city was well known for trading imports and exports of good, particularly sugar and cotton products. The government knew if they were to take control of it, they could use the profit of those products for their own funding and resources.
Thomas had been itching to go into warzone combat, for a while now since he had grown tired of protecting diplomats and ambassadors for whatever political deals they had to negotiate for the protection of America. Thomas was given command of his fireteam's operation and was excited for what was to come. He was walking to the armory nearby the living quartes, where he saw the rest of his squad getting ready to spill blood on their adversaries.
Thomas approached one of his longtime friends in Merryweather named Marshall. A Black male from Manchester and serving in Merryweather for the same amount of time Thomas had been in the private security, he shared a good friendship with the guy since he joined in 2007.
Thomas shook Marshall's hand and said, "Well, Marshie. You're getting ready to pump lead in those bastards?"
Marshall nodded his head and said, "Yeah, Thom. Ready as I've always been. Come on, let's go kill some damn ragheads."
"Oh! Enough with your prejudices against Arabs, Marshie! Just grow a pair of balls and stop calling them Ragheads." Shouted Paul, who had just finished cleaning his assault rifle. The Caucasian, blue-eyed and short brown-haired male was from Alderney City, raised since birth with his twin brother, Shawn. Both of them were raised in a suburban neighborhood with foster parents since their biological parents were both underage and weren't living up to raising their own kids. Both him and Shawn joined Merryweather since they didn't want to become military brats.
"He's pissed off because he thinks all Arabs are sensitive, religious freaks with a poor record of morality. Get off the Kool-Aid, man. Most people nowadays don't hold that type of fucked-up thinking anymore. It's the 2010's, not post-9/11 where everyone thought Muslims was the spawn of Satan. The Brits haven't been fully accepting of them for a while." Said Shawn as he finished fixing his carbine rifle. Shawn was similar to his brother in most respects, except that he was more known for his awareness of what was going on around him and being the oldest between himself and Paul.
"I think you two twats need to look at the crappy society those guys live in. Why the hell would anyone want to come from a place where they mistreat women and put them at second class, worship their so-called "Allah", and commit atrocious acts against the innocent for speaking against their God? Means complete fuckin' bollocks to me, my dear chaps." A pissed Marshall said to both Paul and Shawn.
Thomas with a bored expression on his face from the arguing said, "Look, all of you have made great points, but I look at it from both sides. They have a poor society, but thank God that there are people who want to change the way they live over there. Besides, enough with the arguing we have a city to retake. The rest shouted "Hell Yeah!" in cheers and walked out of the armory, ready to face the terrorists in Baghlan. Ten minutes later, Thomas and the rest departed from Flying Eagle to recapture Baghlan.
The convoy entered the southern portion of Baghlan which was the safe zone for Merryweather forces since the place had not been fully damaged and the fact that there was a local hospital nearby a couple blocks down made it easier on medical support. It was set up around a couple of neighborhood blocks whereas some places had been battle-worn as a result of artillery fire. Once Thomas and the rest got out of the Merryweather Mesa, they met with the commander of the operation, James Adams- a gruff, no-nonsense, blue-eyed 40-something year old man well known for his exploits in Merryweather despite some controversial calls and actions he's committed in the pasts such as calling in airstrikes when they're not needed, using illegal steroids and treating civilians like crap.
Adams spoke in a Southern drawl, as he smoked a cigar. "Welcome, Marston. I see you brought the dogs along with you. Anyway, let me cut to the damn chase. A contact of ours named Faheem had info regarding the Islamic Front's supply routes and a list of important figures running the show. Now from what we've gathered from IAA intel is that he's been held captive by IFA fighters somewhere in a large courtyard. Anyway, this is nothing but a search and rescue mission. So your team is being paired up with Fireteam Delta. They're somewhat fresh in the Circuit, so you're in command. Now go out there and damn them to hell."
Thomas with a salute and a nod, shouted "Sir, yes Sir!" Thomas went to Delta's position and noticed how young they were. They were racially mixed, ranging in ages 18 to 22 and ready to see some action. Thom approached one of the members, a young Asian-American male as he was talking to the rest of the members. "Hey you over there, I'm Thomas Marston. Adams said that my fireteam and yours is being paired up to take back a government building." The young male shook his hand and smiled, "That's awesome! I've heard about your exploits Thom, how you single-handedly took out a squad of drug cartel members in Brazil while almost all of your team died. The name's Han by the way."
Thomas was surprised by the comment, but responded in a positive tone, "Nah, that was nothing. I wanted to make sure all my men were alright." Han then introduced Thomas to the remaining three members. First one he met was a black Canadian named Deshawn aka "Dopeboy", since he was known for his usage of marijuana, then met Ricardo, who hailed from Miami and last, but not least got introduced to Jeremiah, a biracial male from Carcer City. After meeting the rest, he introduced them to Marshall, Shawn and Paul. After the camaraderie had ended, they set out to the government building to save the hostages and recapture the building from the terrorists.
(flashback ends)
Present Day: South Los Santos Hospital, Strawberry, 5:30 PM
Thomas woke up breathing heavily and experiencing symptoms of dizziness and nausea from the flashback that he had experienced and waking up from a short-term coma. Thomas with a sense of distress and melancholy thought to himself, "Oh man, I can't believe this is happening. The entire thing was fucked after we left the camp." He looked around the pale brown-white room and noticed that he was hooked to a few machines nearby him to check on his condition and still in medical garments. Thom looked at the clock at the far top of the wall to his right that it was 5:30 PM. By that time, Nurse Jenkins came in and had an expression of happiness on her face as she noticed Thom was awake. She said, "Mr. Marston glad to see your awake now. You've been in a coma for about two days now, experienced some blunt force trauma and lost no less than 30 percent of blood, but thank God your friends came here to make sure you recovered."
Thomas expressed happiness at what the nurse just told him, "Yeah. I am glad or else I would've gone to kingdom come. Hey, I'm feeling kind of dizzy and nauseous right now." Nurse Jenkins immediately wrote out a prescription for Thomas and gave it to him. "Give the prescription to the clerk of Smoke On The Water. The medicine will help you well." She later removed Thomas from the machines and gave him his car keys and the clothing he wore two days ago during the shootout. Once Thom changed into his clothing, he got his car keys and left the hospital. First thing he did was call Mikaela to let her know that he was out of the hospital.
"Hey, Mikaela. Guess who's still living right now?" Thomas said to Mikaela.
Mikaela shouted with glee, "Hell yeah, I knew you'd make it! So how are you doing, want me to come get you?"
Thomas replied, "Nope. I got my Gauntlet with me right now. I found out that I was in a coma for about two days. I mean holy crap! It felt like a day and a half to me, maybe that was the anesthesia affecting me. The nurse who treated me said that I would experience a couple headaches, so she gave me a prescription to some place known as 'Smoke on the Water'."
Mikaela said, "Yeah, it's at Vespucci Beach. Hey, you know what?! Let's celebrate your release from the hospital by going to the beach. I'll bring Sam and Shizuka, while you can bring the others. It will be fun."
Thomas chuckling, replied "Oh yeah! I haven't been to the beach in months and medical marijuana in Los Santos? This city does have some redeeming qualities after all. Give me thirty minutes and I'll be good. I'll see you later."
Mikaela said, "Okay Tom, I'll see you then." After that, the call ended. Thomas then went to the parking lot nearby the hospital, entered his Gauntlet and texted the others to come to the beach. "Good to be back", Thomas thought in excitement. He later tuned the radio to Vinewood Boulevard Radio and "Lucky" by Radiohead was playing. As Thom was driving out of Strawberry, he thought of going to Sub Urban at Del Perro to get some beach clothing since the only clothes he had in his possession were professional and urban.
(15 minutes later…)
Thomas arrived at the store and the time was 5:45 PM. Looking at the time on his phone, he entered the store in a rush not wanting to waste any more time. The clerk, who happens to be a young blonde, wearing a black cardigan with a floral shirt and jean shorts greeted Thomas as he walked to the back portion of the store. Thomas tried on a couple of beach clothing until he tried on a white tanktop, black flip-flops and bright orange shorts which he thought went well for the occasion. After purchasing and changing into the clothing, Thomas left for Vespucci Beach, ready to celebrate his return from the hospital. While driving there, he called Sam to let him know that he was on his way. "Hey Sam! I'm on my way to the beach dude, just give me some time to get there." Thomas said to Sam. Sam replied, "Alright. We'll meet you at the entrance of the Pier."
Thomas arrived at Vespucci Beach and parked at the parking lot nearby the underside of the Del Perro pier. Once he got to the entrance, he saw Mikaela, Shizuka, Samuel, Maddie and the rest in front of the pier wearing various beach clothing. Thom went up to shake hands with everyone that was there. Samuel wearing nothing but light blue shorts and sandals was the first to speak, "Finally, the man of the hour is here! All of us had to come and check up on you since the shootout."
"Thanks for checking me up while I was hooked to IV's and heart monitors. So what happened while I was away?" Thomas asked all of them. Shizuka wearing a black bikini top with pink beach shorts and sporting new short hair replied to Thomas's question, "Well since you w-were in the h-hospital, we had to t-take up some j-jobs from G-Gerald. As I r-recall, some of us had to b-break up a couple d-deals in Dutch London S-Street and the L-Los Santos River." Thomas nodded to Shizuka, "And I missed out on all the fun. As a matter of fact, aren't we supposed to do exactly just that?"
Austin wearing a blue tanktop with black shorts replied "Hell yeah! By the way, Jamila and Mikaela got two camper vans with some cool beach artwork, it's known as the Bravado Paradise. Performs pretty well for a camper van, really." Jamila wearing a red bikini raised her hands, a bit peeved, "Stop the yapping and let's go to the beach already. Us ladies need to bathe in the sun while you guys drink beer and stare at sunbathing women at the same damn time!"
Thomas, Madison, Austin and Miles drove in the Paradise van with an Octopus painting on the driver's side, while the others drove in the other van with a painting of an ocean wave. Once everyone arrived to the beach, they got out the beach chairs and various beach items to use for the celebration. Thomas went to get the cooler of drinks out and gave everyone a beer then shouted, "A toast to yours truly not dying in the hospital and knocking on Heaven's door, also another toast to Sam, Mikaela and Shizuka for taking me there when my ass was unconscious!" After Thomas proclaimed the toast everyone started to celebrate.
Miles grinned, placing a friendly arm on his right shoulder "Listen, Thomas. If you want ever in case you die, we'll send your remains to your family members or give your body to those Altruist creeps up in the mountain."
Thomas replied in a "weirded-out" manner by raising his hands in alarm, "Look, Miles I appreciate the honesty, but this young soul isn't dying anytime soon or is ready to face death at the hands of some insane nudist dicks who think all generations after them are fuck-ups."
Miles replied back, looking at him like he took his joke seriously, "Hey dude. Don't worry I was only joking about that. I was trying to uplift the mood some more. Ya know, Austin, Sam and I are making a bet on whoever is the last to chug down eight beers or less within five minutes or less will have to streak nude throughout the shorewalk." Thomas laughed after Miles told him this, "You know what, I could use some friendly competition for once. I still remember that time at Bahamas Mamas. We both were shit faced then, hope your stomach is ready." Miles smirked, "It's on, alright."
Thomas and Miles began to walk to the cooler at the back of the bus where Austin and Sam were and shook hands with them. Sam was speaking to Austin as they were coming, "Hey dude. I hope you don't pass out or something, you're already twenty one years old, I thought you didn't drink a lot with your moral code or whatever?" Austin answered, "Nah for me, it depends on the situation. I just find this pretty funny to do since we're celebrating Thomas's return from the hospital. Reminds me of that 'Douchebag' show with Dave-O, T-Bag, Lil' Midget and the others."
"Gentlemen, are y'all prepared to get shit-faced and potentially arrested for public indecency and intoxication?" Thomas asked them. Sam replied to Thomas's question, "Oh hell yeah! I've been in these kinds of drinking contests back in Liberty City." The rest immediately grabbed out the Pibwasser bottles and began to drink. Sam was drinking the fastest out of all of them with four down, Thomas and Miles were down with two bottles while Austin was just drinking just one bottle. Some minutes pass by and all of them are practically drunk at this point. Sam had downed four more bottles at this point, while the others could barely catch up to him. Austin was starting to feel sick after drinking five bottles.
"Aw shit, I feel like shit man! I should have never agreed to this damned contest!" Austin said to the others while slurring his words.
"Well, you're an awful son of a bitch, Austin. You and that soft-ass liver of yours. Only pussies complain when they can't handle their beer!" Sam shouted at Austin. At this point, he had just finished drinking his seventh bottle of Pibwasser. Thomas just finished downing his sixth bottle and said to Sam, "Hey f-f-fuck you! I-I'm ready to beat your poor ass right now, you think can beat me?! Watch and l-learn." Thomas opened his seventh and started drinking it midway until he threw up bile on the sand nearly falling onto the bile he had barfed up. Miles on the other hand quit during his fifth one, stating that he didn't want to become sick on the spot.
"Ha! I beat you fucking losers, seems to me Austin that you'll have to bare your naked losses now!"Sam shouted whilst looking at the sky. Austin still feeling drunk flipped him off as he was sitting down in front of the side door of the Octopus van, trying to sober up.
Just as he said that, the rest of the girls arrived with the rest of the gear, ready to leave. Madison approached Sam as he was taking off his clothing. "What the hell is going on here?" Madison asked Sam. Sam slurring his words said to Madison, "W-We were having a drinking c-contest *hiccups* earlier and these pathetic a-assholes made a b-bet saying that whoever could not reach eight bottles had to streak nude across the shorewalk." Jamila shaking her head in humor said, "Boys will be boys, girls. This is one example of it. Anyway Sam, I don't think Austin can partake in this crap you guys arranged, he looks like he's going to pass out soon."
Thomas stood up next to Austin and mentioned, "Hey can one of you guys be a sweet darling and show the lazy stoner at Smoke On the Water my prescription?" Thomas said to the rest in a drunken stupor as he held his doctor's note. Mikaela went up to him and took the prescription from his hands. Mikaela took his prescription and moaned "You owe me one for this, although I doubt you'll be able to remember this once you wake up." Thomas sighed, "Alright, alright. Just remind me when I see you again sometime soon."
After Mikaela got Thomas's marijuana meds, the girls had to pack up the beach items much to the chagrin of every single one of them. Once they finished up, everyone left Vespucci Beach satisfied in themselves having spent the day celebrating Thomas's release from the hospital. The only thing that had to be done was drop off all the guys off since they were intoxicated and still unable to move in an appropriate manner. Once the girls took care of them, they retired for the rest of the night.
(Chapter End)
Author's Note
1. The Circuit is the term for Private Military Companies when they do their business and stuff like that.
2. For those that aren't too familiar with GTA, Smoke On the Water is a medical marijuana shop on Vespucci Beach that has been shown in the game multiple times when you switch as Franklin.
3. One chapter will feature Dr. Friedlander and will reveal more on Thomas's flashback.
4. To the reviewer, Bag of Orphans, your OC, "Carla O'Dell" will be featured in the next chapter, but will be shown in a cameo or will be introduced in a cameo. I'd advise forming an official account so that way I can get more details and advice.
5. For a while now, I've been considering changing the name of this story due to how it has now revolved around Thomas and the main cast. I initially wanted to tell Thomas's story, but I'm thinking of giving it a different name so that the story won't just focus on him alone. I've accepted a lot of the review OC's and I want to give them as much attention as I do for the main character.
Edit (5/13/15): To Bag of Orphans, I just need to know some more info about Carla's life and how I can introduce her into the story.
