Brandon

"Wait here a minute will you?" I asked and Mathew nodded.

I walked around to the front entrance and stepped inside. I took the elevator to the same floor that we engaged Kyle and his squad. Nobody else was in the building so my M9 just sat there in its holster on my belt. I noticed that I had never taken off my kit. My helmet was still on my head and my black kit gloves were still on my hands. I guess that I had gotten so used to wearing everything that I forgot about it.

I walked casually down the hallway that just a short time ago, I was shooting down. The walls were riddled with bullet holes and arrows littered the floor. I had considered setting the place ablaze, destroy all the evidence. The majority of the structure was mostly concrete and brick but everything on the inside was totally flammable.

I picked up Big Luke's plate carrier and fished out the duffel bag that he kept in the utility pouch on his left side. I unfolded the bag and placed everything that was his in the bag. I folded what was left of his BDU shirt and laid it neatly in the bag. The rifle, gloves and plate carrier were next and then his holster for his 1911 after that. This reminded me that the handgun was still on the roof.

I walked back over to the elevator and took it all the way to the twentieth floor. Then I took the same stairs that David and I had carried Big Luke out on the stretcher on. I picked up the 1911 and checked the magazine, he still had three rounds left. Big Luke was born a demigod, but he was a Marine first and foremost. He wasn't going to die with a fully loaded gun laying on the ground next to him.

I carried the pistol in my hand as I walked back down to the elevator which I took down to the bottom floor. When I made it to the lobby, I made a big pile of papers on the floor. Some at first were crumpled into balls till I got lazy and just started laying paper on top of the mound that was forming. I switched my right kit glove for my brown leather work glove. I touched in several parts on the pile with the glove hot enough to light it all on fire. I stepped back a few steps to admire my work as I changed my gloves again.

After the fire started to catch on the drywall and the front desk, I calmly walked out and headed back towards KATE and Mathew. Not bad for my first arson job, I thought as KATE opened her door and I stepped back into the driver seat.

I pretty much drove the speed limit. I wanted to get back but I still thought that Mathew needed a little bit more time.

"You get everything he had?" asked Mathew.

"Yeah, it's all in the trunk."

"So, what do we do if he turns out to be a vegetable for his remaining years?"

I just shook my head, Mathew had made me think about too much. "We'll cross that bridge if we get to it."

"What do you think is going through his head right now?"

"I'm hoping they're giving him plenty of oxygen but if I had to guess, he's probably thinking of his mom," I guessed. "Either that or he's thinking about your sister."

"Why would he be thinking about her?"

"Don't tell your sister and he would never admit it but I think Big Luke has always kind of had a thing for her. He just couldn't handle losing her if something were to happen during the war. I mean, he let her drag him along to go dancing and made him buy her a dress. They just really hit it off these last few summers," I explained.

Mathew and I continued to talk until I stopped the car a little ways from camp on the country road. I told KATE to drive back to the Kill House and hang out. Mathew and I walked the remaining quarter mile to the front steps of the Big House. Brittany and David were gone and I figured that Big Luke had finished up in surgery. What came next was unpredictable. Either Big Luke was alive or dead.

"Mathew, do me a favor and go check in your cabin and see if your sister is in there," I asked of Mathew.

He nodded and started walking towards the cabins and I walked into the Big House. I made my way into the infirmary where I found Brittany by herself at Big Luke's side. She was crying quietly again on his chest and I kind of figured why.

When I walked up next to her and saw Big Luke, I got a bittersweet taste in my mouth. For one, he was hooked up to all these machines that read his pulse which was feint and helped his breathing. They had bandaged up around his stomach and replaced the bandages on his shoulder. His skin had lost some of its color and he was wearing an oxygen mask. I guess he was still alive and his surgery was a success but he was left in a coma like David had predicted.

David walked in behind us and we bumped fists. A normal gesture among us but it still felt out of place in the current situation.

"Well, they were able to save his life but they said that they had to restart his heart another two times. The big guy is fighting in there somewhere," he informed us.

"Either that or he's giving up," I whispered to him.

David just shrugged as another guy from the Apollo cabin walked in. He was tall and thin with black hair; probably in his late twenties. He had a pair of glasses with black frames. He was wearing a white lab coat over a black t-shirt and black basketball shorts. What I could only guess was Big Luke's blood rimmed around the cuffs of the coat. He walked to the other side of the bed and grasped his hands around his back.

"You know, I don't care what anybody says, your boyfriend's a hero. He got shot once and stabbed twice in the same day just to save someone else. You're a lucky lady to have him," he told Brittany. David and I were shaking our heads and wagging our hands in front of our necks to signal to the guy not to go there.

"He's not my boyfriend," she told the guy between sobs.

"Well, he must feel something for you," said the Apollo doctor. We shook our heads and waved our fingers faster and faster but he wasn't looking at us. "From what I understand, he took that bullet for you, and only you."

He started to walk out and David and I followed him out, one of us on either side of him.

"Look, Doc, if you could just keep all this on the down-low. We really can't have the whole camp knowing about all this," I told him referring to the Strike Team.

"And don't worry about telling Chiron when he makes it back," David put in. "We can take care of that, too."

"Your guys' secret is safe with me," he replied and we let him leave.

We started to walk back towards the infirmary where Big Luke and Brittany were. Through the windows we could see that it was getting dark. David was still wearing his whole kit too, minus my 416 which was in KATE's cockpit. He still had his MP7 on his leg and his helmet on his head.

"You did good today," I told him.

"I guess I did alright," he replied. "Wouldn't have been able to unless you hadn't come up with that door idea."

We stepped back into the infirmary and took a seat near Big Luke's bed. We both took our helmets and gloves off and put them under each chair. I sat there and ran my hands through my hair, thinking about what to do next.

"Brandon, I'm sorry for getting angry at you. This whole thing has really been hard on me," said Brittany, briefly looking up at me.

"I understand. Just forget about it," I replied.

"That doesn't make it OK," Brittany mumbled to herself. Then she paused for a second. "Thank you guys for saving my life. I just wish Jon Luke was awake to hear that."

David just shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, Brittany. We were just doing our job," I replied.

"Fucking damn it, Brandon!" she yelled at me and went right on back to crying again.

"Way to go, Bro," David mumbled to me.

"Son of a bitch!" I tried to rub my frustrations out of my eyes.