Chapter 20

Warning

Warning

Shield strength low

Shield strength low

Medical attention needed...

There was a ringing in my ears that wouldn't stop. Pain seared throughout my body, like a never ending fire. The HUD of my helmet was flashing messages at me, shields low, warning, medical attention needed, and so on. Fear gripped my chest as I looked around, it made my breathing even harder.

I was in nothing but darkness.

Tight, damp, closed in darkness.

Mind reeling, I just couldn't figure out what had happened. Right now, I had to think about where the heck I was, not what had happened... Right?

There was something warm on my side, but when I tried to reach down I felt my arm was being pinned by something. Pain shot up my whole arm, so intense I bit my tongue to keep from crying out from it. Something has my arm pinned. I tried my right arm now, and was beyond relieved to find it was free. Of course I couldn't feel the warmth on my side through my armor gloves. But I could at least see if the armor was still even there.

My hand met with hard armor.

Thank god. I sighed, having feared that whatever had happened had torn my armor and left me with an exposed, bleeding side. I blinked my eyes again, finding a shred of light drifting down from above me. It was orange and flickered back and forth.

Not blind. I wasn't going to rule anything out at the moment.

Attempting to figure out what pinned my left arm, I rolled onto my side best I could and grappled at what might have been there. It was hard and cold, probably metal. I pushed and pulled on the smooth surface best I could, the pushing was easier then pulling, but found it wouldn't budge. I snorted, which only made my head dizzier and trailed my hand down to where my arm should have been. It took only a moment to realize what had happened to me.

Something had pierced my armor, had me pinned to the ground, and it was to heavy for me to get it off me when I'm like this.

I was stuck.

Shit...

I rolled back to lay flat, there was to much pressure the other way and this let my head rest. I kept my eyes keened on the flickering light above me, and tried to actually feel my surroundings. Which was really hard with the giant metal suit on my body. Shifting my feet around, I bumped something, metal, and then something else. It was soft, and squishy and a low pained groan came out from it.

Fear, and relief flooded my pained body. Whoever it was, was alive, but seriously injured. I thought for a moment, trying to repiece where everyone had been in the cargo hold. James was... Across from me, Becca on his left... Matthew on my right? At the bottom row of the seats maybe. John was on the left, next to Danny. Yeah, that's how it was... So who was this?

I pushed my toes against the body again, gaining another groan. It wasn't Becca, that was for sure. With a lot of effort, I moved my head just enough to see blue armor. Bright blue armor... "James...?" I croaked out, barely above a whisper. There was a long silence, and then he responded.

"Liz? You're alright?"

Thank god! "I'm not certain..." I coughed, "But I'm alive. So that's worth something right?" Another cough rose in my chest, which turned into a fit. There was something in the air here. Probably smoke or something, but it made my lungs burn. A sense of dread settled on me. I'm alive, but for how long?

"Liz... We can't be the only one's alive. They're out there, or in this wreckage." James began coughing, "But somebody's," he coughed again, "gonna come for us. I promise..." Pain filled his voice, like he was hurting just to speak. He probably was, but he was willing to be in more pain to reassure me that everything will be alright. I couldn't stop the feelings of gratitude and guilt fill me. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and the helmet HUD was still screaming at me to get medical attention.

"James..." I coughed, but somehow managed to get my voice a little louder. Pain seared in my body, my arms, my legs, my chest especially, and my head had a killer headache. But I had to understand him. "James, why do you think we'll survive? We're both-" I coughed in a fit again, wheezing and hacking for a minute or two before it stopped. "We're both stuck, bleeding, hurt, and lets face it, the others more than likely are too. We're lucky to be alive, what are the odds we'll survive this as well?"

There was a long silence before he laughed, and I imaged that smile crossing his face. "We're lucky to be alive, sure. But Liz. I trust the others, I trust the UNSC, and ONI and I trust you." There was a moment of pause before he continued, I felt my heart stop for a second. "We can't give up, we can't just quit. That's not a Spartan. And you and I are both Spartans. So if being a Spartan means lying here, stuck, bleeding and hurt, then for the sake of being a Spartan I will." He coughed at the end, and I could swear his voice was drifting. But I couldn't stop it, despite it all I couldn't stop what was happening, nor did I realize it was until it had.

I was smiling.

Stuck down here, under a pile of metal and scrap, with deep wounds, and little hope. And a few words, and I was smiling. Life's just crazy like that. I knew what I should have said, that he was crazy, an optimist who can't see the blatant truth. We were going to die down here. Slowly, painfully, and agonizingly. But we were going to die. There was no hope, we were lost. The others probably too! The words were on my lips, just waiting for me to say them. The depressing situation blocking out any hope I had ordinarily.

But I just couldn't say it.

So instead, I spoke with as much certainty and confidence as I could muster. After everything I had done to him, I wanted to, I had to, I needed to. I owed it to him to believe him, just once. "Ok James. I trust you." There was a small gasping sound from James. "If you think we're going to be saved, then I think we're going to be saved to."

He started laughing like a crazy man, but I couldn't help but smile.

I'm not certain how much time had passed since James and I had talked. He fell asleep, but the pain was too much for me to. The kind of pain that keeps you awake, it seriously sucks. My left arm had practically numbed itself and I'm not certain if that's a bad thing or not. Hopefully not. I didn't want to end up like Lilith. Humph, Lilith. How that annoying force called irony strikes once again. She looses her left arm, and I've lost my left arm. Both of us for now, but... The deep feeling that mine just might become more permanent was too strong to think otherwise of. I closed my eyes, trying desperately to push the dark thoughts away from my mind. Like James said, we gotta have hope. The thoughts were hard to avoid though, the kind like that always are. It was weird, I felt like I was fighting covenant, but instead of their alien forms, they were dark blobs of depressing thoughts. I'd turn and a swarm of them would come after me, tearing at the barriers I'd put up to keep me sane. I'd block out one, and then another would come up, only slightly different from the prior. But somehow that change was enough for it to slip by, and my mind would be racked with a million tiny depressing thoughts.

I groaned in frustration, "How do you do it!" I screamed, all I said aimed at James. He didn't react though, obviously still asleep. However he did that, I had no clue of. But his lack of reaction only made the frustration boil over even more. I screamed again, my throat burning as the wordless cry escaped my lips. It echoed off the metal, growing steadily louder until my ears rung with the noise. As it slowly faded into the silence, I heard something. It was like an echo, but deeper, newer, familiar. I screamed again, trying to get louder than last time, the effort making my voice scream at me personally. The moment I was finished, I listened as carefully as I could. The echos bounced around and around until finally they stopped. And then I heard it again, a little louder this time.

"James! Wake up!" I yelled, kicking him slightly with my reach. "WAKE! UP!" My voice croaked, breaking on the last few letters. Please... Wake up... There was a long silence, the new sound not resounding in the metal cage we were in. But still he didn't wake up. "Wake up James... please... please..." I was whispering, my throat to shot to do anything else. Just when I thought he might do something, there was a terrible, screeching, metallic sound. And then a bright light above me, cool air rushing against my body, a silhouetted figure, another figure and another, all coming towards me. Fear and hope welled inside me, but as they drew near...

I blacked out.

The sounds of muffled voices awoke me. Weird and distorted, they somehow roused me from another blackout. A headache worse then before took hold, making my forehead throb. "Ow..." I murmured, blinking against the stark light. "The fuck...?" I squinted, my visor only managing to dim some of the brightness. With a great effort I sat up from the ground, only to realize I wasn't on the dirt ground at all. Instead I was lying on some piece of the pelican long enough to rest my body on.

"Liz! You're awake!" A very familiar voice said, loudly. The headache grew worse and I recoiled, groaning at the sudden and sharp pain. "Sorry... You seem to be of the the worse ones. Makes sense with your prior injuries." I started to be able to place the voice, female... British... Gah what is her name! "Liz, it's me."

"Becca?" I turned towards her, holding my head in pain. She flashed a smile, her EVA issue helmet off and in her hands. "How did you... I mean... what happened?"

She laughed and then closed the few feet of distance between us. "Do you remember the crash Liz?" I nodded. "Good, Covenant shot us out of the sky, and we crashed in a couple different places. James and you were in the worst of it, the back door and seats were on top of the five layers of metal above you." With a jerk of her head, she motioned back towards a pile of metal I could see over her shoulder. A small fire raged where fuel had dripped onto the dark metal.

"What about the others?"

"Still looking for my brother," Her eyes flashed with worry, making me feel a pang of pity for her. But they quickly hardened again. "but John was found... Danny didn't make it. He'd bled out by the time we'd found him." I could see tears brimming on her eyes, and if it wasn't for the terrible pain in both my arms, I would have reached out and wiped them away.

"I'm sorry. The UNSC's lost a damn good spartan, and a damn good man." Was all I could manage to say.

"Yeah they have. And I've lost a damn good friend." Becca got up and turned away, and I'm pretty certain it was so I couldn't see her cry because soon soft sobs filled the air. I closed my eyes for maybe a minute to rest, and the next time I opened them Becca was gone, and it was completely dark.