Episode 9: Walking Wounded

An Iron Blood girl limped away from the shack where the Dutch girl remained unconscious.

"How did the sirens find us?" The girl thought as she moved due east from the shack, "We were in the middle of nowhere."

As the girl moved east, she thought about what she would tell Lucia when they met up in Cologne. She had seen and heard so many things from the Dutch girl with the siren arm to the group of kansen who operated out of Gibraltar. The girl smiled as she continued toward Cologne, hoping that Lucia had an equally exciting fifteen days.

"How is she?" The voice in the darkness asked.

"I don't know Clarence. She's been the same for the last four days, so I guess that means she's fine." A second, weary sounding voice replied.

"But will she recover?" A third voice asked.

"We can only hope Buck, we can only hope." The second voice again.

Lucia stirred from the land of confusion known as her unconscious mind. Groaning, she turned toward the voices and blinked open her eyes, the human shapes a little fuzzy.

"Hey, your finnally awake."

Lucia turned her head in the direction of the speaker.

"Clarence?" Lucia asked her mind still very foggy.

"Yeah. Its me Clarence. What happened to you out there?"

Lucia coughed and slowly sat up, wincing as she did so. Looking around through her incredibly blurred vision, she noticed a figure moving toward her and instinctively reached out to hug them.

"Hey, it's okay. You'll be fine. Just take it easy." Clarence whispered to Lucia.

"I can barely see. How will I fine?" Lucia said, holding back tears.

"Just take it easy. Some of our guys went through the same thing. You'll be fine, just give it time." Clarence told her as Lucia loosened her grip on him.

"I don't have time! I need to be in Cologne in two days!" Lucia said, beginning to panic.

"Why two days? Surely you can wait long enough so you can see somewhat clearly?" Clarence asked her.

"I'm meeting my friend. We meet up twice a month there unless we inform the other otherwise. I need to be there. Last time she heard something about a group of Kansen operating out of Gibralter. I need to be there." Lucia told Clarence, moving to stand.

Lucia shakily stood, one hand on Clarence's shoulder for support. When she was sure of herself, Lucia tried to take a step forward.

"Eep!"

Lucia almost fell, but Clarence caught her.

"Easy there, lean on me for now."

"I want to go see everyone. They need to know I'm fine." Lucia told Clarence, who simply nodded.

"Let's go."

Clarence steadied Lucia as she wobbled outside. With each step she took, Lucia became more and more sure of herself.

"There she is!"

"That's our girl!"

"Show the sirens that not even they can break the Iron Blood spirit!"

Lucia gazed around at the assortment of GIs and tankers alike, all cheering for her. The outpouring of support for her, a former enemy, was incredible. Glancing over to Clarence, she saw him smiling back at her. Encouraged, Lucia released Clarence and took a tentative step forward.

"You can do it Lucia!" A tanker called out to her.

Lucia smiled at the support, her first true smile in months.

Two days later…

"I'm going and thats final"

Lucia stood facing the medic, hands on her hips defiantly.

"Look. You are still having problems seeing, given the fact you are staring just to the right of me. You also still need support when you are standing for longer periods of time. Not to mention that your wounds still need to have the bandages on, and strenious activity could cause the wounds to reopen." The medic told Lucia, getting slightly more exasperated at having to tell her this for the sixth time in the last two days.

"I'm fine. These last two days have been rest enough. I need to back out there. Besides, Carina will be wondering where I am."

The medic stared at Lucia, trying to figure out a way to talk this crazy Iron Blood girl out of her plans. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any way to do that.

"Fine. Go meet this 'Carina'. Just, take it easy will you?"

"I'll try." Lucia said, smirking at the medic, who simply shook his head.

Lucia walked out of the med tent and in the direction of the tanks. Occasionally she would stumble or momentarily have her vision be completely blurred, but she managed to stagger over to where Clarence stood talking to Captain Earley.

"So, you're seriously going? Clarence asked Lucia as she walked up to him.

"And you're coming with me. You said so yourself." Lucia responded.

"So I did. Earley, I told Lucia that I'd go with her to Cologne. Mostly to keep an eye on he and make sure she dosen't get any worse."

"Fine by me. Just, get back in one piece. Both of you." Earley said, mostly to Clarence, but flashed a glance toward Lucia.

"Yeah yeah. We'll be fine." Lucia said to Captain Earley before turning to face Clarence, "Let's go."

Later that same day, around 12:27

"There she is."

Lucia pointed out a girl standing with a group of Eagle Union infantry. These, however, looked different than the ones from A company. These had baggy pants with a questionable number of pockets. The insignia on their jackets were also different; an eagle with its beak open in a threatening manner.

"Wonder where she found the Eagles. Last I heard they were around Berchtesgaden. That's a long way from here."

"Carina told me last meeting that she'd heard rumors of a group of hard-nosed Eagle Union infantry moving throughout the area. Seems she found them." Lucia responded.

As the two walked closer to the group, they heard what sounded like a gunshot issuing from the group up ahead. Glancing at Clarence, Lucia picked up the pace, though making sure not to go too fast as to fall to the ground. Moving up to the edge of the group, Lucia gasped at what she saw.

A Dutch girl was crouched over a one-armed siren. As the Dutch girl stood with the siren in her arms, Lucia noticed that the girl's left arm wasn't her own.

"How the hell?" Lucia thought to herself. Seeing that the Dutch girl's left arm was a siren's.

"Stay here." Lucia said to Clarence.

"Wait…" Clarence started, but Lucia didn't stick around to hear the rest.

"Wat nu!? Ik ben een drukke vrouw!" The Dutch girl called out, standing in the driver's spot on a completely new looking tank that was definitely Eagle Union.

"Stop!" Lucia called to the Dutch girl as she pushed her way through the crowd, "Please... Join us! I apologize for the soldiers! They're...-" Lucia began to call out, but all the activity in such a short amount of time caught up to her.

Lucia started falling to the ground. Her vision nothing but squares dancing in the darkness. Before she could hut the ground, Lucia had the faint notion that someone was holding her up. Behind her, the Dutch girl gently kept her standing.

"Fine... Just because you're cute... And because you look like shit." Was the last thing Lucia heard before she slipped back to the world of unconsciousness.