Rough Riders

Chapter 10

Meet the Enemy

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North of Colfax, New Mexico

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Mid-Day

"The South Shore High School flag tank has been knocked out of action! All participants stand down immediately!" echoed the voice of the NAAT official through the interior of the A7V. Liz relaxed substantially as she leaned back in her seat and let out a sigh of relief. Spinning around in her position, Liz stood up as much as physically possible in the claustrophobic crew compartment of the Great War Tank.

"Hey, Tyler. We should probably dress your wound now that the match is over" She called out to the vehicle's Commander as she clambered her way to where Tyler was sitting.

"Hey, Kat. Wake me up when we arrive back at the sheds" spoke Tyler. His words were barely audible over the sounds of the machinery. Only a few steps away, Liz watched in horror as her friend lost consciousness began to fall out of his elevated seat above the engine. Moving quickly, she rushed forward and managed to catch his head before in slammed into the metal floor of the tank. However, his right arm grazed the edge of the steel platform he was on. Like everyone else in the A7V, the sleaves of Tyler's uniform were rolled up because the engine produced a fair amount of heat which greatly warmed up the fighting compartment. With the sleaves up, there was nothing in between the cold steel and his arm. A sizable gash was scraped open and blood started to flow out of the new wound. The fall did seem to make Tyler regain consciousness.

"Ow…that hurt" the teen said as if it were an afterthought.

"Otto! Grab the first aid kit!" Lucy yelled out. The Austrian quickly grabbed the kit and rushed over to the wounded teen.

"Are you alright?" asked Liz. She tried to appear calm, but the slight hint of panic in her voice betrayed her.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine" Tyler brushed off her concern and attempted to sit up only to be push back down by his first aid kit wielding teammate. Looking down on his face, Liz could see that the bandage that had been applied to his head earlier in the match had turned red. There was a thin trail of crimson that ran down his face and onto his uniform, culminating in a reddish-brown splotch on his upper chest. Dark circles were also clearly visible below his eyes.

"Kat. Start moving us to the staging area" Lucy ordered the Driver as she assumed command of the tank. Looking over at the other side of the vehicle, she saw the extremely pale figure of Caleb.

"Caleb? Are you doing alright?" asked Lucy.

"I-I get a little queasy at the sight of blood" was the teen's nervous reply.

"Then go sit down were you can't see any. You look as if you're about to pass out as well" was the calm response from Otto. He was kneeling on the floor cleaning out the gash on Tyler's arm with a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in hand. As the liquid was poured over the wound, Tyler subconsciously flinched at the stinging sensation. With the blood, sweat, and overall grime washed off, the roughly four-inch long gash running down the length of Tyler's forearm was revealed.

"Good news is that it is not a deep cut" Otto stated as he started to wrap up the injury. Once done, he switched to the cut on Tyler's head and repeated the process. The cut was only a rough inch in length, but it was surrounded by a sizable purplish-blue bruise. After it was all cleaned and bandaged up, Liz continued to hold her friend's head as to prevent it from bouncing around during the bumpy ride back to the staging area. Looking around the tank revealed a few small spots of red here and there on Liz's uniform.

"Uh, Liz? Are you going to release my head at some point?" came a voice from Liz's lap. Snapping out of her thoughts, Liz looked down at her friend. Her face started to feel a little warm once she realized what Tyler had said.

Smack

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It wasn't a fun time. The first few minutes after his quick impromptu nap and being slapped by his best friend were full of being chastised by his crewmates for what had happened. And it only ceased after he promised them that he would go see the medical personnel at the staging area. As the Rough Riders were entering said area, Tyler immediately noticed that the South Shore team had already arrived. More importantly, there were a few individuals that appeared to be waiting specifically for Imperator to arrive.

Johnston stood tall and proud in his NAAT uniform. To his left was Scalis dressed in a button up shirt and slacks. Those two were easy to pick out and recognize from the group. Two of the people that they were talking to wore uniforms similar to what British tank crews had during the North Africa Campaign. These people were probably the team captain and co-captain for the Desert Rangers. The third person also wore the NAAT uniform, likely the instructor, while the last one was in business casual and must be their team manager.

Tyler looked down at his own appearance. Little splotches of reddish-brown. A bandaged right arm and forehead. Compared to the clean look of his opponent, he looked as if he had come off a real battlefield. At least his sleeve would cover the wound on his arm making him look slightly more presentable. The A7V came to a stop and Kat shut off the engine. As he waited for the other to exit the tank, Tyler watched as one of the recovery vehicles pulled up alongside them and dropped off the crews of the knocked-out tanks. He then climbed out of his tank and into the warm New Mexico sun.

"Alright big guy let us get you to the medical station" Liz stated.

"Hold on, not right now" Tyler argued.

"What do you mean 'hold on'? We need to get you injuries looked at by a professional."

"The other team captain is over there. It would be rude to not talk to her."

"He's right. It would be rude to ignore…" started Meghan as she came around the corner. However, upon seeing the bandage wrapped around Tyler's head, her train of thought was completely derailed, "What the hell happened to you?"

"You remember how we took a little nosedive into that ditch during the match? Well that made me faceplant into the metal plating" Tyler answered. Meghan opened her mouth to retort but Tyler cut her off before he was chastised more by his co-captain.

"I already promised my crew that I would go see the medic later. Now, it would be rude to keep someone waiting on us" he stated, leaving no room to argue.

"I suppose the quicker we get this done, the sooner we get you to the medical tent" Meghan conceded. Straightening his Doughboy helmet, the two team leaders moved around the A7V to greet the other team captain. As the two rounded the corner, the group that had been waiting turned to face them with smiles upon their faces. Smiles that were quickly replaced by shocked expressions.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Johnston asked.

"I am fine. I just hit my head on the inside of the tank during the match and got a small cut" Tyler attempted to calm the team's instructor down.

"You got blood on your face! And on your uniform!" responded Scalis, "You call that fine?"

"It took a little bit before I realized there was a cut."

"We aren't the cause of it, are we?" asked one of the girls from the South Shore team. Tyler shook his head.

"No. There was a minor accident during the match prior to when we engaged each other" he stated. The two girls visibly relaxed.

"Well, are you two going to introduce yourselves?" asked the South Shore team's instructor. The tone of her voice made it sound more akin to an order as opposed to a question. Her facial expression gave the impression that she was not in a jubilant mood at the moment.

"Right…uh…my name is Tyler" he introduced himself. He reached his hand out to the other team's leaders.

"And I'm Meghan."

"Hellen" one of the girls stated as she shook Tyler's hand, "and Tracy here is my second-in-command." The mentioned girl waved her hand. Both girls wore smiles on their faces, yet Tyler couldn't help but feel that they were not completely genuine.

"If you don't mind me asking, but what was this 'minor accident' that caused you to injure yourself?" questioned Tracy. Tyler figured that this was going to be asked at some point.

"Well, you see…" he started.

"His vehicle drove into a ditch" Meghan simply stated. The others began to chuckle at that.

"How did he not see a ditch. Was he asleep or just blind?" their team instructor asked in a humor-filled tone.

"There was a lot of bushes and shrubs around and I was looking at the map at the time" Tyler tried to defend himself. However, it seemed that he was being ignored in his attempt. The pain in his head started to resurface once again.

"Out of your entire team, are you sure he was the best pick for co-captain?" inquired the South Shore team manager. Tyler didn't know how to feel about being talked about and insulted as if he wasn't there. Being called a bad leader, incompetent, oblivious, and other tings on the Internet was one thing, that's just how the online world is, but to have it happen in person, that was something entirely different. Meghan's face had a confused expression. She was trying to wrap her head around the question she had been asked.

"Actually…Tyler is the team captain" Meghan said after a brief silence. The laughter stopped. Tyler had been so transfixed on his headache and his leadership being questioned that he didn't register that he was assumed to be the co-captain. And at this point, he did not care. The South Shore instructor pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Not only were we beaten by a team with mostly Great War tanks, but one lead by an idiotic boy who injured himself by driving into a ditch" the instructor quietly mumbled under her breath. It was obvious that no one was supposed to hear what she said. Her comment appeared to have slipped under the radar of the other three adults present, but the team leaders from both sides had heard the accidently voiced thought. Hellen winced slightly at the harshness of the comment. Meghan and Tracy turned their heads to face the instructor, the latter somewhat shocked at what she heard while the former's green eyes held a sharp glare. For Tyler, that was it.

"I should probably go to the medical tent before they close up" Tyler thought out loud. "I hope the rest of your day is as nice as it was to meet you. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Tyler turned around and walked back over to the A7V without waiting for a reply. Once he was out of sight, he saw the rest of hustling around as they prepped each of their vehicles for transport. Brushing off dirt and mud, repairing tracks, and sealing hatches. Kat was over assisting Dreadnought team in unloading the FCM 1A from the recovery vehicles. The rest of his own crew were in the process of unloading the ammunition. Lucy sat in the hatchway with a bag of ice on her bruised knee, quietly grabbing shells from Otto who was inside, and then passing the shells to Caleb and Liz who packed them away into fireproof boxes. The latter one stopped when she saw him and smiled.

"How'd the meeting go?"

"It…could have been better."

"So, why aren't you at the medical tent right now?" his best friend asked. Her smile had disappeared, understanding what was being implied.

"I left my water bottle in the tank" was Tyler's short reply. A few seconds had passed when Lucy reached over and handed the bottle to him. As he started walking away, Liz jogged up to his side.

"I'll go with you" Liz stated. There was little point in arguing whenever she has made up her mind. "Besides, I need to get some ice for my elbow anyway."

"I thought you were helping Caleb pack the shells?" Tyler questioned.

"He said that he's got it" she reassured. The two friends walked along in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"So, what exactly happened when you were talking with the other team?" Liz asked after a bit of walking. Tyler let out a sigh.

"Liz, please, it's fine. You don't need to worry about it" he said. Liz shot a quick unsure glance at him. Something happened in that meeting that was weighing her friend down. She didn't know what, and it pained her to see him in this mood. It pained her to see any of her friends in a mood like this.

"Fine. You can tell me tomorrow if you want" Liz said quietly.

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Happy late New Year everyone. I hope that you 2021 has been going good so far, as crazy as it has been. Guess what, I actually managed to keep my promise on when I was going to update the story, the world has truly gone mad hasn't it. Now that the school semester has started back up for me, y'all can expect to get more frequent uploads to the story. However, since the classes I am taking look to be more time consuming than the ones I had last semester, I have decided that the chapters will start to be shorter than the earlier ones unless that chapter is going to be one of the matches. This way I will be able to have enough time for my classes while still being able to write. In other news:

Starpottergeek: I think that I might go back and either edit or rewrite Chapter 9 at some point because I think that it wasn't as good as it could have been. Regardless of what I think about it, I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

michaelcisneros922: It pleases me to hear that you are enjoying the story. I hope that you continue to enjoy it as the story progresses. Thank you for the tank suggestions as well, it's always nice to have more stuff to research.

Havel the Hebel: I suppose heavy armor would pose a major threat to the team, but that's for the future Rough Riders to worry about. For now, they will get some rest.

I hope to have Chapter 11 up relatively soon for you all. Thank you for reading and as always, I hope you go on to have a wonderful rest of your day!