The Morning the War Ended
I don't like early morning. There is little difference between early morning and late night and afternoon or whatever under the barriers, so I probably shouldn't give a damn. For some reason though, mornings suck. Especially those after I was out on a patrol late the night before. Course, it's hard to sleep when someone's trying to shake you awake.
"C'mon, Lady Jane, less you wanna get talked to."
Sierra. Go away. Too fucking tired. And don't call me that. Who the hell started that stupid name, anyway? Oh well, at least I'm not the merry type. Just keep my mouth shut and not give em any ideas.
I heard her talking to someone, and whoever it was reply. A man. In the woman's barracks. At... I lifted my head to see the clock. At four AM. Couldn't be bothered. I buried my head back into the pillow.
"Corporal Proudfoot," the guy said, too loudly for sensitive ears, "Is there a problem?"
"No, sir," I said loud enough to be heard through the pillow, "No problems here."
"Good, time to get up."
Fucking hell. What in the world was I wanted for at four AM? I curled the blanket over my head, whatever they wanted could wait, or they could boot me. I didn't care, I hadn't slept well in weeks, and I just wanted a nice long nap.
The man deprived me of my blanket. The cold made me wake up fully and I turned my head so I could look at my tormentors. NCO in uniform... Goddamn.
I pushed myself up quickly as I could and looked around for my pants. Sierra and he moved on to the next poor woman that hadn't woken up and they repeated the procedure. I finally found my pants under the cot and pulled them on. I joined the group of women already awake and waited with them until the whole room was up. Then the man introduced himself and gave us brief instructions.
"I'm Sergeant Ryan Whittaker," he started. Well, Sergeant Whittaker, you just made an enemy. "You ladies are to go outside and assemble down by the Field. There are a lot of people already there, I trust there are no problems?"
There were a variety of mumbles. Some, like mine, were rather colorful, but there were no problems.
"Good, see all of you there then," he said cheerily. Bastard. Who can be that... cheery this early in the morning? The man must work nights.
"See you later, Si," he said, giving our barracks's resident staff sergeant a kiss. A deep kiss, I might add... So this was Sierra's man... huh. He left and I looked to Sierra.
"I'd like to make a report ma'am," I said.
"What would that be, corporal?" she asked.
"I'd like to report a sergeant allowing her boyfriend into barracks past hours," I said. She smirked and I got a couple of laughs, some shaken heads, and a few groans from the rest of the women. Not quite the effect I was looking for, but it was too early to care.
Outside was cold, and it looked like the whole damn Military was out in the Field. Cold was immediately forgotten, however, as we gradually noticed what we must have been the reason we were out there.
The barrier was gone. Something that must have been rain, or maybe snow was more like it, was falling from the clear sky. Towards the north something weird happened to the sky, like someone had cut it or drew a line through it or something.
There was nothing really notable while we waited. Hushed conversations and a few speculations could be heard, but most people were too shocked to do much. Some of the men from the group by ours were roughhousing, and a few of them were giving the members of my barracks looks over.
I glared at each of them in turn, staring each down and making one or two of them turn red. They didn't look in our direction again. The last got the better of me, he made a face that took me a minute to figure out he was trying to match my glare. When I realized this I couldn't help but snort in amusement. I swear... this guy had the lightest eyes I'd ever seen, even around here. He grinned, but our attention was called to the announcer at the center of the field.
"Attention ladies and gentlemen," I couldn't see the guy from where I was because there were too many soldiers between us and the center of the large park.
"As some of you may have noticed, the barrier has been removed. Proud people of the United States Military Force, the war is over. We won. The Phantoms have been destroyed, each and every one of them."
We stood there, not sure what to think of the statement. Whispers started circulating through the crowd. Someone started cheering, and the cheer soon it swept through the field like wildfire. Whatever wildfire is... A person to my left started an old Jody Call, which quickly replaced the cheer. Can't say I didn't add my voice to it, I sang as loudly as anyone did.
Only when the sunlight started to creep over the horizon, and into the city for the first time in twenty-five years, did they let us go. They wanted us to see the first sunrise of the free world. While we hung around in our groups and milled about in an attempt to either look good or get somewhere. I was hoping desperately that we were gonna go back to the barracks. I felt like I'd fall asleep on my feet if I didn't get back to bed soon.
I caught the same guy staring at me again. When he saw he'd gotten my attention, he winked at me. All right, Bright Eyes... you're cute, but don't push your luck. I shook my head slowly and turned my attention elsewhere. It's too early.
Sierra rounded us up and we got to go back home. I dropped onto my bunk without worrying about my clothes, or much else for that matter. I just wanted a couple of hours of sleep, war or no.
The alarm clock went off within minutes, and I heard a few groans from the others. Fuck... Maybe an on duty nap, just to replace lost hours... Yeah right, maybe tomorrow night.
The End
Working Title: The Morning the War Ended
Inspiration: Probably a viewing... Don't recall for sure.
Noteworthy: Sierra's first appearance. She wasn't supposed to be anything important at the time, but I brought her into the Penumbra sphere of things when I needed a like character, personality-wise.
Disambiguation: ... something that might've happened if things were far different, the Barrier didn't fall, and the Deep Eyes weren't. Also, if you glance, you might see Neil.
Derivative work of material © Square Pictures, Squaresoft. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typo.