Chapter 14: Just another day of war...
Around an hour after Gabriel woke up, she, alongside her small squad of five other medical personnel, left to treat wounded at another part of the bay area, as planned yesterday. She took her mind off the distant sounds of gunfire by jamming her earphones in her head and playing her favourite game on her portable console, although it did little to distract her from her worries.
The short barrelled rifle propped between her legs turned and jostled as the convoy drove over some rubble in the streets. She glanced up and saw the rest of her crew busying themselves with tasks of their own: Eun was reading the bible, Mori was playing chess on his phone with Sakurai, Ross was on a phone call and Alvarez was sleeping with her arms crossed.
"Don't look so nervous Gabriel," Eun quipped, noticing the blonde girl looking around. "They don't shoot at medics, remember?"
"S-So we're actually heading into a warzone...?!," Gabriel thought, feeling her face turn white.
"Y-Yeah...! Yeah, I know that!," Gabriel stuttered, attempting to hide her anxiety. "I'm just...you know...doesn't stop us from dying or anything..."
"I guess so," he replied, flipping a page in his bible. "Doesn't stop a stray bullet hitting us. But we'll be there to patch you up."
Their heads bounced up and down as the convoy entered into rocky, dangerous terrain.
"W-W-What'cha reading there Eun...?," Gabriel inquired, taking deep breaths in and out to calm herself. She noticed the cross and the black cover, and thought no harm in conversing with the Korean man about something she was very familiar with.
"Huh? Oh, the good word of course! Have you heard?"
"Yup. Many times."
Gabriel laughed internally.
"Ah...that's good to hear. We need something to believe in, you know? During times like this..."
"Bull-shit!," Alvarez yelled, now awoken from her slumber. "What kind of fucked up God would let this happen?"
"Alvarez," Eun replied cooly. "Now's not the time."
"Gabriel!," she called, ignoring Eun who was nose deep in the book. She looked to Gabriel, as if she was asking for an explanation.
"I really don't know Alvarez," Gabriel laughed off. She tried to avoid talking to her by going back to her game, but she kept on yapping on and on.
"Pisses me off, that's all. What, world peace and a warm shower too much to ask for? The fuck is he doing up there anyway?"
"It's not meant to be taken that literally!," Gabriel half-yelled in annoyance.
The armoured truck they were sitting in quickly halted to a stop, and the back doors opened.
"Gas masks on! Everybody out!," Sakurai, the squad leader hollered. Gabriel put her gas mask on, racked her rifle and jumped out, squinting her eyes at the sudden change of brightness. The sounds of gunfire were much closer, and was complemented by an occasional explosion here and there.
"Gabriel!," Eun called. "This way!" They followed Sakurai across the rubble and gradually found themselves in a trench lined with sandbags. Their boots sloshed in ankle high water as they jogged in the trenches, like rats in a maze, the soldiers flattening their bodies across its walls to make way. Gabriel noticed flashes of red staining the sandbags but only for a second, before following the medic in front of her turning right into the makeshift infirmary.
She could've sworn she smelt blood and faeces, even through her heavy-duty gas mask, although it might be from simply looking at the infirmary. Lined across the room, as long and wide as the living room in Gabriel's apartment, were dirty beds stained with red from the almost never-ending number of wounded soldiers hobbling in. They were spaced too close together, presumably to accommodate the number of the wounded, and Gabriel made a mental note of administering medicine to avoid disease.
Mori and Ross ran in the room, dropping a crate of medical supplies at the team's feet.
The medics already stationed at the trenches handed Sakurai a clipboard which showed the conditions of all the soldiers in the infirmary. There were around a hundred names, in order of most injured to least.
"Alvarez! Bed 34! Bring plasma with you!," he yelled over the commotion. People were scurrying bed to bed tending to the injured.
"Roger!"
"White! Eun! Room 4! We've got rad sickness! Get on it!"
"Roger!," the two of them exclaimed, and they followed a medic to room 4, which was at the very far end of the network of tunnels. It was located far away due to it being designated to those who were exposed to ionizing radiation for too long, and didn't want to pass it on to others. The medic pointed at a heavy steel door before running back to help the others.
"Looks like it's up to us now Gab!," Eun said as Gabriel pushed open the door. They entered a decontamination room, where they quickly put on another layer of protective hazmat suits, and strapped an oxygen tank to their back.
For around three hours, Gabriel and Eun tended to severe third-degree radiation burns, cleaned up vomit, removed contaminated clothing, administered DTPA (Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid) as well as morphine shots to euthanize individuals who were too far gone. It was a horrible sight to see for the staff sergeant, who was looking in through the thick glass window.
Gabriel sighed as she slowly emptied the contents of the syringe into the man's arm.
"Thank you. You can rest now," Gabriel whispered to herself as the light left his eyes, and she felt someone shake her shoulder.
"Ok. Gabriel. They should be good for now," Eun said quietly. "Gab?"
Gabriel shook herself out of her moment of sadness and nodded. "Right. Let's go."
"How are they?," Sakurai asked as they took off their masks and suits, walking in the decontamination room.
"Shit. We had to kill half of them."
Sakurai was a bit taken aback by Gabriel's blunt attitude. She could've sworn she heard her growl a bit. Not towards her, obviously.
"Oh."
They walked in silence to main infirmary. To Gabriel's relief, it looked a lot better than what she saw three hours ago. There were tubes coming out of patient's arms and bandages wrapped around their limbs. Some of the patients even cracked jokes as the trio walked past.
"I've seen this before," Gabriel muttered to herself. "Hey. I'm gonna go change out their sheets. Know where the washing machines are?"
"You sure you're not hungry? We can do it together after-"
"It's fine, it's fine."
Sakurai nodded and pointed at a door. Gabriel slowly walked into the closet, leaned against the cold, tile wall, and began weeping quietly.
"...Vign...ette...," she sobbed as she punched a button on her phone.
...
"...pick up...you...dumb..."
"Gab! Gab you okay?"
Gabriel smiled warmly at the sound of her voice.
"Gab? Gab I can hear you sniffling...what's wrong...I'm here now."
"Just...keep talking Vin," Gabriel breathed, wiping her tears away with her forearm. She looked up at the closet ceiling with red eyes.
"O-Okay...umm...so something crazy happened. I wanted to wait until tonight but..."
"...what is it?"
"I got us a reservation."
"Reser-what, at the Roe's?"
"Yup! Looks like we're having your Yakiniku after all!"
Gabriel made noises of happiness, at both the sound of Vignette's cheer as well as the fact that she'll get to eat real meat.
"Holy crap. How'd you...?"
"Apparently you saved the owner's niece. Know anyone by the name of Roe or Ros?"
"Never heard of it outside the restaurant. But uh...we're still gonna have to pay right?"
"Hah. Of course. Hurry up and come back so we can have a nice evening together."
Gabriel sniffled. "Okay. Okay Vignette."
"Gabriel. I can hear it in your voice. What's wrong?"
"I just...I had to put down a lot of people today. ...don't know why I'm so upset. "
"I would think you'd be doing them a favour. I wouldn't wanna spend my last moments in agony."
"I know but...I don't know. I wish I could've saved them."
...
"Gab. You're doing good things. I'm proud of you."
"...really?"
"Always was. Keep your head up. Keep on fighting. Got it?"
"...I hear you."
"Good. Now...keep going. You better not leave me hanging on this dinner date, ya' hear?"
"...will do commander. I'll be back for that romantic dinner date before you even know it."
"N-Nothing romantic about it," Vignette stuttered nervously. "Just...two friends chilling. Eating tasty food."
"Ehh? You're not gonna ravish me after you wine and dine me?"
"G-G-Gab! I'm going to train now!"
"See ya Vin. And...thanks."
Gabriel lowered her head and sighed, now completely invigorated by her daily chat with the purple-haired girl. She kept that warm, bubbling feeling in her chest as she trudged on, removed a large tower of fabric out of a shelf and walked out of the closet to begin replacing blood-soaked sheets.
"Good work today Gabriel!," Eun chirped enthusiastically. He removed the blue face mask from his mouth and wiped his forehead clean of sweat. "Wonder what'll be for dinner...?"
"Don't get your hopes up," Gabriel droned. "We ain't gonna eat first."
"So long as everyone eats together I suppose?"
"If we eat at all."
Eun radioed in everyone to eat outside, on the roof of a building. They walked outside the infirmary and away from the trenches, to the base camp of the unfamiliar area. It was very small, nested between the remnants of destroyed buildings and shipping containers used as walls. Walking past other soldiers, she followed Eun up an abandoned two storey building and got up on the roof. Around five minutes later the rest of the group were also there, and had started a fire for their small, lacklustre dinner.
Gabriel nibbled on her bar of dry, tasteless oatmeal. She was grateful that Vignette had packed some dandelion leaves in her bag, which she used to make tea, albeit, very bitter tea.
"Ahh...," Mori sighed in relief as he sipped at the tea. "Send Miss Tsukinose our regards."
"I wonder what gunpowder tastes like...," Ross mumbled as he stared at a bullet.
"I wonder too Ross. At this rate we'll have to eat each other," Mori stated plainly.
"Not unless I kill you right now."
"Try me."
Gabriel leaned back on the wall, her hand supporting her neck. She had her earphones in to drown out the constant sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance. She was listening to ambient noises of crickets, owls hooting and other sounds of night-time. She closed her eyes and dreamt...
"Ahh crud...I missed the fortnightly X2 drop didn't I..."
"And I have that stupid calc test tomorrow...I guess I'll just get Vignette to teach me everything then..."
Gabriel moved her left fingers as if they were rested on the WASD of her keyboard while her right index finger clicked furiously on the non-existent mouse. A smile began to creep on her face as her teammates charged towards the raid boss, soaking up damage which she quickly healed. Their health was stable but near zero, and if she missed one click, they would be dead and would have to restart the entire raid. This was a four man after all. The monster's health was three quarters down. Just one more spell and...and-
"Gabriel?"
Her eyes jolted wide open and she snapped back to reality. She yanked her earphones out and looked at Eun.
"Eun? What is it?," she asked in slight annoyance.
"Here," he said, extending his arm out towards her. It was dark so she couldn't see what it was until she took it from his hands and used the light from her cigarette lighter to see what it was.
"Oh my God," she muttered in disbelief. Gabriel was holding a chocolate bar. An unopened chocolate bar, a relic from the pre-war era. "How did you-"
"I found it in a convenience store. What luck huh?"
"W-We should share. Six people, six pieces."
"I would have thought you wanted to enjoy it yourself but..."
"Eh? What makes you say that?"
Gabriel tiredly got up from the ground, gently feeling the chocolate bar in both hands. It was the same kind which Gabriel used to scoff down bar after bar in her gamer days.
"Well...you have been through a lot today," Eun reasoned.
"We've been through a lot today. Don't be selfish," Gabriel laughed as she unwrapped the piece of confectionary. "Yo! Eun found chocolate! Who wants some!"
"The fuck? Say what now?"
The four people sitting around the campfire stood up as Gabriel ran over to them with the bar sitting on both her open palms. They circled around it like it was some alien artefact.
"Okay," Sakurai began. "Six people. I'll cut the pieces as even as possible-"
"Why don't we have a contest for it?," Alvarez suggested strongly. "Fuck sharing. Winner takes it all!"
"Fuck off Alvarez. We share."
"Eehhh? You worked the least out of all of us Sakurai-san," Mori stated nonchalantly. "You should get the smallest piece."
"Why don't we sell it? We need supplies!"
While they were bickering, Eun saw Gabriel hand a now opened chocolate bar to him.
"Here," she said, as she was savouring the small piece of chocolate she nibbled on. "Your turn."
Eun nodded, and took the smallest of bites from the bar, before handing it to Sakurai.
"Oh what? You've ruined it! We can't sell it now," Ross moaned, somewhat disappointed.
"Shut up and eat," Mori sighed, handing him the bar.
Somehow, Alvarez, the last person, ended up with a bigger piece than everyone else because of the small bites everyone was taking, making her feel a bit guilty to throw it into her mouth. But, they all looked content, swirling the sweet goodness back and forth their tongues like they were trying to hold on to it forever.
"They look really dumb," Gabriel monotoned, having finished hers five minutes ago.
"They sure do," Eun replied happily. "I'm glad I found that chocolate."
"So...what. You just found a chocolate bar sitting on a shelf? Come on. You got it from a box or something. Tell us where the rest of it is."
"No no, really! I found it just by itself! It was...hidden! Under rubble!"
"How'd you find it then?"
"I saw the end of it poking out!"
Gabriel narrowed her eyes at the timid Korean man, but thought nothing of his blatant lie.
"Whatever. If you wanna hoard chocolate all to yourself, that's fine by me."
"I'm not. Promise to God."
"Whatever."
Gabriel felt her phone vibrate. It was Vignette time.
"Gotta take this Eun. Sorry."
"No problem."
She picked up the phone as she sat down on the edge of the building, watching the smoke from fires rise in the distance.
"Vignette!"
"Gaaab. Hurrrrry *hic!* up!"
"Ermm...Vignette?"
It sounded as if the phone was being rustled around for a second.
"Hi Gab-chan!," Raphiel exclaimed happily. "Sorry about that! Vignette's had a bit too much to drink!"
Gabriel could still hear Vignette bickering in the background over the phone.
"It's fine. It's quite a sight to see a drunk Vignette, isn't it?"
"Totally! But it's also quite a sight to see you drunk!"
"That's because it only takes one sip for me to get hammered. Anyways, how are you Raphie? How's Chibi? Is he eating well?"
(Chibi is the name of the stray kitten Raphie found on her way home and promptly adopted.)
"He's eating too much! He's the size of my forearm now!"
"Ehhh?! Why can't I be there to see..."
Raphiel giggled. "Sorry Gab. You're going to have to contribute a pet food fee if you wanna see him growing."
"Rats."
"Ermm...so...how are you? Drunk Vignette's rambling about how you're under lots of stress right now..."
"Yeah...she's not wrong. I...if only they didn't tell me their life story right before I put them out of their misery...maybe I wouldn't feel so bad."
"I see...well...as long as you listened. At least they had someone by their side as they went. Most people don't have that luxury."
"I know. I'm fine, trust me. I'm not getting shot at, at least."
"That's good to hear."
"What about you? What are you doing now?"
"Umm...Gab, can you hold for a minute- ow! Vignette! Gaaaabriel Tenma White! I just want to say...that I really...REALLY...aahh! I can't say this...this is too embarrassing...!"
Gabriel could practically see Vignette's flustered face right now. "Hey, Vignette. How're you holding up?"
"Terrible! Thanks. To. You! Come home right now...!"
"Relax Vin. I'm on my way."
"Hm~! By the way...I left some in...in...incindiary rounds in your bag too...! Jast in case!"
Gabriel laughed nervously. Usually she would be the confident and smug one but now its been reversed.
"Thanks? I mean...I won't be seeing combat anytime soon-"
"Bullshit! You always...*sniffle- you always...get into trouble..."
Vignette began sobbing uncontrollably on the phone, which resulted in Raphiel coaxing her into her bed, while Anna took the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Anna?"
"Gabriel! Nice to hear your voice again. It's been rather uneventful around here without you."
"Oh? No fights with Vignette?"
"No, no. We've made up. Turns out she really is into you. I mean seriously-"
"Yeah! Yeah, I know..."
Gabriel felt her face flush red.
"Look after her for me would ya'? Make sure she's eating right and sleeping and all that parental shit. And...and..."
"And?"
"Wha-are those..."
"GABRIEL!," Eun yelled, diving onto her. There was a short barrage of bullets which just missed their heads, and suddenly the rooftop lit up from the muzzle flashes of her teammates shooting at the sky.
"DRONES! DRONES! GET INSIDE NOW-"
The frantic yelling was cut short by an explosion on the roof.
She couldn't hear anything other than ringing, and her torso felt like gelatine.
"...loud...hurts...," Gabriel thought, clutching at her ears. She stumbled into the doorway with the help of Eun dragging her by her arm.
"...why...why now..."
She opened her eyes and it was chaotic. Sakurai had his lower half blown clean off, leaving Ross and Mori to desperately try and stop the blood loss. Their screams of frenzy were accompanied by Alvarez who was shooting up at the sky, popping in and out of the safety of the doorway.
"What in the actual fuck are those bastards doing? Don't they see the goddamn cross?!," she yelled as she let off five more shots.
Gabriel couldn't hear a thing. She never realized how loud war was. She couldn't even hear her own noises of trauma.
"GAB!," Eun yelled, throwing her earplugs. "WE NEED TO GO!"
"RIGHT BEHIND YOU!," she yelled back, now with earplugs in. "ROSS! MORI! "
Sakurai's eyes were foggy, and his face was colourless. "HE'S GONE! LET'S GO!"
They hesitated for a second, but came to their senses, running down the stairs behind Eun and Gabriel. It would be a complete shock for them, when they left the building and saw everything on fire.