Hell On Tracks
Part 48
I awoke to the sound of someone pounding on my door. With energy I wasn't expecting, I nearly jumped out of bed on my way to get the door, my Hellcat plushy tucked safely away under one arm. "Coming!"
The pounding stopped at my call, and I opened the door to greet Arisa and Hannah, though Arisa still looked like her usual dead-to-the-world pre-coffee self. "Good morning, Tally! Kay sent out texts last night saying she wanted everyone to come in early for some last minute planning."
"Thanks for letting me know." I said with a nod. "You heading over right away?"
"Yeah. That way we can at least get something done while sleepyhead here wakes up." Hannah jerked her thumb over to Arisa.
I chuckled. "Don't wait for me, then. I still need to clean up."
"Will do!" Hannah flashed me a thumbs up. "We'll see you at the meeting."
Hannah started to lead Arisa away when the zombie-like girl tripped over something, and was only kept upright by both Hannah and my own quick reactions. Once Arisa was steady on her feet, I picked up the item that she had tripped over.
"To Tally, from a friend…" I read the note attached to the package in plain brown wrapping paper.
"What do you think it is?"
"I honestly have no idea." I said with a shrug, before carefully opening up one end of the package and pulling the small cardboard package out of its wrapping. It wasn't sealed tight, and I managed to pry it open right there.
My cellphone fell out of the cardboard box and into my waiting hand.
"Oh my gosh yes!" I said. Or at least, that's what I tried to say. I'm pretty sure it came off as loud but inarticulate squealing that might have ranged up into octaves only dogs can hear.
Hannah was just as excited, and I think my sheer loudness managed to break through Arisa's dazedness, and she looked vaguely aware of the world for a moment.
"I, uh, let Kay know I found my phone, and that I'll probably be a little late." I murmured, rather conscious of how loud I had been and how early it was.
"Will do!" Hannah flashed me a salute before leading Arisa away.
I just stood there in the door for a moment before I picked my plushy up from where it had fallen and slipped back into my room, gently closing the door behind me. I managed to hold my composure for all of two seconds before devolving into a mess of cheerful giggles. I had my phone back! I don't know where it went or who returned it to me, but I had my phone back!
With a deft touch I unlocked it, and scrolled through the numerous worried text messages and missed phone calls from my family. I typed out a quick reply to Mom and Dad, and then took a moment to check time zones. It should be after class for Rach, so a phone call is safe.
Rach picked up on the third ring. "Ohaiiiii-eeey Tally." She answered sleepily.
"Hey Rach." I said with a bit of a smile, before I held the phone well away from my ear. It was the prudent decision.
"Tally!" Rach half-squee'd, half-shouted, loud enough that the speakers on my cellphone rattled their displeasure and her voice echoed off my door. "I thought you lost your phone!"
"I did. Found it sitting outside of my dorm room this morning. Someone must have found it and wrapped it up all nice and prettily for me."
"That's great!" Rach said, still incredibly loud by anybody's standard but hers. She didn't have an indoor voice except when absolutely necessary. "How have you been?
I considered everything that had been thrown my way over the past week. The lottery, getting added to the leadership team, the weekend's tournament and how awful I'd felt during it, and then the crash with Sergeant Oddball yesterday. "It's been busy. Some good, some bad."
Instantly, Rach's voice lost its usual exuberance. "Do you want to talk about it?"
I let out a heavy sigh, and turned on my electric kettle to prep some tea. I was gonna need it. "Yeah. I'm in a bit of a tricky place on Saunders' team right now. My crew has been problematic, basically since I joined them, but it's been worse these past few days, and there aren't any open TC's slots for me to join to get away from them. Kay's offered to swap me out, but it would either be as a radio operator, a loader, or a general purpose substitute for if someone's out sick or something."
"So why not take those options?" Rach asked. "You did that stint as a loader, so you know how to do it, and American TCs usually handle the radios. Learning the new role wouldn't be hard."
"Because then I wouldn't be a TC. I felt almost useless as a loader in the M6, and-"
Rach cut me off. "Tally. You can't keep doing this to yourself."
"Doing what to myself?"
"We're worried about you, and from the sounds of things, you aren't taking good care of yourself. Kay has given you multiple chances to get yourself away from a crew that's clearly bothering you, and you haven't taken them. All because you want to stay a TC?" Rach said, and I could hear the frown in her voice.
I paused, as the weight of my screw-up sank in. "Yeah…"
"Do you know why a tank has a crew?"
"Because one person can't do everything alone unless they're in an S-Tank."
"Metaphor." Rach deadpanned, before perking back up. "But yeah, you can't do everything alone. You're always so self-sacrificing, and it's actually hurting you this time. Let someone help you. Go to Kay, or Naomi, or Arisa. Heck, you've got Jane and April there to help you, too."
"I know, I know. It's just…" I trailed off.
"It's hard sharing your problems with other people, I know. It took you how long to open up to me?" Rach asked.
"Years, easily."
"Unfortunately, I'm not at Saunders to help you. So please, try to open up to at least one of them, for your own good."
"If it's any consolation, I do have a plan for getting away from my crew. Kay even approved it, though I still need to ask Jane and April." I said, trying to cheer myself back up.
"Oh?"
"I spent the weekend fixing up one of the Stuarts, and if Jane and April say yes, they'll be my crewmates in it."
"Nice!" Rach cheered, and this time I wasn't prepared for her rapid shift in volume. "Is there anything else bothering you?"
"A little. Someone ran into me at a dead sprint yesterday, and I had a bit of a freakout over that." I explained.
"Ouch." I heard Rach wince. "You okay after that?"
"Yeah. It was an accident, so once I calmed down, I was good to go. Getting to take the Stuart for a test drive afterwards certainly helped in that regard."
"I'd still give you a hug if I were over there."
"Thanks. How have you been?" I asked, eager to change the subject away from my problems. And I'd woken up in such a good mood, too!
"Oh, I've been alright. School is, well, school. Had a few tight spots here and there, but I made a few friends along the way! I'll have to introduce you to the munchkins sometime."
"Munchkins?"
"Freshmen. They're surprisingly adorable."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course you would say that."
"I am what I am."
Before I could respond, my kettle dinged, indicating the water was ready. "Well, I've gotta go. Secret leadership meeting before classes start. The match will be after school, but late enough I think you should be asleep. Or you ought to be, if Tasha isn't keeping you up."
"Livestreamed?"
"Probably."
"I'll watch it, then. Take care of yourself, Tally."
"You too, Rach. See you around." I said, before hanging up.
I prepped my tea, and quickly got dressed. The conversation with Rach lingered in the back of my mind as I hurried over to the Sensha-do garage.
"Good morning Tally!" Kay said cheerfully as I slipped into the map room. Everyone else was already clustered around the map, which already had markers and tokens spread across it.
"Morning!" I replied cheerfully, putting my worries into the back of my mind. Now was not the time for worries, it was the time for tanks! Haha, tanks!
"You're in a good mood." Naomi commented.
"I got my cellphone back this morning, and I had a good chat with Rach." I replied, slinging my bag into a chair in the corner and joining the group at the map. "When did you get back?"
"Late last night."
"Gotcha." I gave her a thumbs up, then scanned the map, trying to make heads or tails of what was on it.
"Okay, quick recap for Tally's sake." Kay began. "There's a decently thick forest between the two starting locations, which widens as you get closer to the middle of the map before the whole area opens up into scattered thickets and rolling hills. We're thinking that an early push through the forest could put Ooarai enough off-balance that we can get a few early KOs. If we can push the advantage there, we will, but otherwise we fall back and regroup."
"Meanwhile, Naomi's platoon will cover my advance into the main area of the map before circling around to try and maybe catch the enemy in an encirclement."
"Aren't you going to be awfully exposed?" I asked.
"Probably, but we recently installed extra radio equipment into my turret, and it's reducing our combat capability. Ready rack got shrunk a fair bit." Arisa explained. Hannah just grumbled about being underappreciated and having to work harder. "This time, I'll be your eye in the sky, coordinating the battle from the back, instead of just being support."
"Makes sense." I said with a nod. "What comes after the push through the forest?"
"We either keep up the pressure and have Naomi come in from the back, or we regroup and do a sweeping patrol through the hills in threes. There are a few crossroads scattered about that look like good ambush points, so we'll have to see about setting traps there if the opportunity arises." Kay explained.
"Sounds like a good plan." I said, before considering the map. "What if we don't run into Ooarai in the forest? If Arisa and Naomi are making a sprint into the middle, Ooarai can probably do the same."
The group considered my question for a moment. Arisa tried mapping out something just with her hands, but I wasn't sure what she was trying to figure out.
"Arisa should divert north to this thicket instead of the first one we picked out. It's further north, and more likely to be well away from our engagement, but if she does get attacked, chances of us getting there and catching her attackers are much slimmer." Naomi said, circling the thicket she wanted in red wet-erase marker.
"And we'll push through the forest en masse, and give chase to Ooarai's forces as best we can. Naomi will come either from the front or the side, and we'll hammer and anvil them." Kay said, following up on the plan. "One more thing before we get to codenames. Tally, do you want to command third platoon?"
I froze like a deer in headlights. I know I'm on the leadership team, but I'm not cut out for that kind of leadership!
"Alright, I'll take that as a no." Kay said with a knowing nod. "Anyways, codenames..."
The difference between Saunders' staging ground and Ooarai's was stark. While our camp had our ten tanks neatly lined up, all of Saunders' famous catering, support crews to help out where they were needed, and utility trucks, Ooarai's was bare except for five tanks and their maintenance supplies. Only five tanks, no hidden Tigers or Panthers. No surprises whatsoever.
The first round was a ten v ten, escalating to twenty v twenty in the finals, and Ooarai couldn't even field a full team in the first round. If this were annihilation rules, it would be pitifully easy to win this. Even with flag tank rules, we had double their forces.
I was sitting at one of the picnic tables we had laid out, idly browsing through my phone. All of our tanks had been maintained before we drove them out here, and any problems that arose during that drive were fixed up once we were here. Now, I was just trying to keep my distance from the Bandits while I still could, since they all seemed to be in an extra bad mood.
"You look lonely." A familiar voice said, and I looked up to see Haruna approach and take the seat next to mine.
"Crew problems." I said simply, nodding towards Haru.
"I see."
"I know we worked together on Saturday, but it feels like we haven't just hung out as friends in forever."
"We've both been busy." Haruna shrugged. "I've been working hard to get my crew up to Combat Company level, and add in classes and the loads of homework they pile on. And you've…"
"Yeah." I nodded, not wanting to delve back into that mess. "At least we're in the same platoon."
"Yeah! Tally and Haruna, kicking butt side by side!"
Haruna held a pose for about half a second before we both broke into laughter.
Whatever conversation we were going to have was interrupted by Kay's loud shout. "Hey, Angie!"
Haru and I both turned to see what the commotion was about, and I had to double take when I saw the white seifukus of Ooarai mixing in among the gray blazers and olive tanker jackets of our team.
While we weren't quite close enough to hear what was going on, Kay walked over to the figure I recognized from last night as Anzu, Ooarai's student council president. They chatted for a bit before Anzu said something that had Kay doubling over with laughter.
"Hey, Sergeant Oddball!" Kay called out, once more grabbing everyone's attention.
"She sure is being friendly today." Haruna murmured to me.
"She always is." I returned.
"Did you get home okay?" Kay asked the clearly shy girl. When Oddball nodded, Kay smiled. "Good! Come over to hang out any time, we're always open!"
And then Kay just walked away. Haru and I both blinked a few times at the scene, and it took me a moment to notice Kay approaching the two of us, though much more sedately and quietly than she had with the Ooarai girls who were getting into the lunch lines.
"Hey Tally, you doing alright?" Kay asked, sitting on my other side.
"Yeah. Today's been a pretty good day so far." I said with a nod.
"You have anything to eat out here?" Kay asked. I shook my head negative, which Kay took exception to. She rapidly waved someone over, with a call of "Trips!"
"Faye Faith, can you get Tally a burger please?" Kay asked the newly approached blonde. She had a brown apron slung in front of her white uniform shirt, and her hair was tied up in a neat ponytail.
"What do you like on them?" The now named Faye asked me.
"I, uh, I don't." I answered. Which was apparently the wrong thing to say, because three sets of eyes stared at me with disbelief.
"Okay, ignore her, she doesn't know what she's talking about." Kay said once she broke from her shock. "Cheese, lettuce, tomato, oni- no onion." Kay quickly amended as I shook my head no at the onions. "Sauces?"
"No mustard." I said quietly, well aware that I wasn't getting out of this.
"Ketchup and mayo then. If you can, make it low grease. Oh, and throw in an elephant ear on the side."
Faye gave Kay a salute and hurried off to one of the food trucks.
"How can you not like burgers?" Haruna asked as soon as Faye was gone.
"I just don't. I'll eat them if there's nothing else available, but I don't like hamburgers."
Kay just shook her head. "Well, Faye Faith will get that sorted soon enough. You can not like them if you don't like them, but you should still know what you prefer on them. Sometimes options will be limited."
"Alright. Why are you calling her Faye Faith?" I asked, confused by the double name.
"It's just what she goes by. Her nickname is Trips because her initials are a triple F."
"Ah." I ah'd.
The three of us chatted for a bit, the three TCs of Platoon One, talking about anything but tanks. Kay and Haru didn't have much in common beyond tanks and an apparent love of dancing, but they got along well enough anyways.
Faye Faith returned fairly quickly with a large burger, loaded up with all of the extras Kay had listed out. Even with my general dislike of burgers, it looked delicious. And on a side plate was a small tortilla baked in oil and covered with cinnamon sugar which just looked like unnecessary carbs.
"Thank you, Faye Faith." Kay said, as the blonde put the food down in front of me. I stared down the burger for a long minute before Kay urged me to pick it up and dig in.
I'd never been fond of burgers, even the supposedly legendary ones that Sally's dad made back home, but this burger was the exception. The burger was simply divine, and no other burger would ever be able to live up to it. It was greasy, fatty, probably horrible for my carefully maintained figure, and absolutely, jaw-droppingly, mouth-wateringly delicious.
"You like it?" Faye Faith asked. I nodded enthusiastically as I took another bite. "Good. That there's the best darned burger you've ever eaten, or my name isn't Faye Faith Fletcher. Come by stall 445 if you ever want another."
Faye Faith went back to working her burger stand, and I sat there, slowly eating the burger and thoroughly enjoying every mouthful. I would have to work off all of those extra calories tonight or tomorrow, but the wonderful thing about tanks is that everything is heavy.
Once I was done with the burger, Kay gestured to the empty carbs that was the elephant ear.
"No thanks." I waved her down. "This burger is my splurging for this week. You can have it."
"Alright." Kay shrugged, grabbed the treat, and tore a chunk out of it with her teeth, shaking loose cinnamon sugar all over her clothes.
"That's not very ladylike of you…" Haru commented, but Kay just laughed it off.
"Attention all Sensha-do crew members!" Arisa came over a loudspeaker, interrupting our conversation. "Roll call at your tanks is in ten minutes!"
The three of us shared a look.
"Well, duty calls. See you guys on the field." I said, standing up and wiping my hands on a napkin.
"See you there!" Kay and Haru said in unison.