Chapter 2
Flag vs Teleporter vs Warthog Vs. Rock
Cate
I found myself once again in the engine of the tank. For one, I wanted to do a double check on the engine. The other… I was kind trying to avoid the conversation that was going on. It was girl's worst conversation: relationships. Well, mostly girls when Tucker talks about that. I was honestly amazed… I found myself listening.
"Yeah, I'll let you in on a little secret," Church started to say. "I've uh... I've actually got a girl back home."
"Oh, yeah?" Tucker question surprised. Honestly, so was I. Few minutes and knowing him, I knew, Church was an ass. Who liked him enough to be with him? "Oh yeah? Girlfriend or wife?" Tucker asked.
Church shook his head pretty fast. " No, man, she's just my girlfriend," He responded ya know?" We were gonna get married, but I got shipped out, and... ah, you know how it works."
"Hey, rookie," Tucker called.
"Crap," I thought. "Again Cate," I said.
"You got anyone back home?" he asked ignoring my statement.
"None of your damn business," I responded.
He chuckled. "Thought so."
"Shut up, Tucker," I responded.
Tucker then looked back to Church. " So, you gonna marry her when you get back?" he asked.
Before Church could answer, Caboose had stepped in. "I'm not gonna get married," he said. "My dad always said: 'Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?'"
I just raised my eyebrow under my helmet. "What?" I said a little annoyed.
Church slowly turned to Caboose slowly. " Hey rookie... did you just call my girlfriend a cow?" he said in almost annoyed and angry voice.
Tucker turned sound both amused and kind of shocked. "No, I think he called her a slut!"
Church kind of a little darkly. I just knew Caboose screwed himself of over. "I'll tell you what newb, I could sit out here and listen to you insult my girlfriend all day long, but as it turns out, I got a lot more important job for you to do."
Caboose sighed. "Great," he said sarcastically.
"See, we've got this General," Church explained.
"Right, the General guy," Tucker echoed.
"...who likes to come by and make random inspections of bases," Church continued to explain. "So, what I'm gonna have you do, is I'm gonna have you go in the base, and stand right next to the flag at attention, just in case he decides to come by."
"When is he coming by?" Caboose asked out of curiosity.
"We never know. Could be today, could be a week from now," Tucker said.
Caboose was quiet for a minute, and though he wore I helmet. I could just tell he was confused. "You want me to stand at attention for a week?"
"You know, you don't sound very grateful," Church quickly said. "This is the most important job at the whole base. You're gonna be right there with the flag."
"Wait," I interrupted. "We have a huge base to guard a flag?"
"Yeah, and?" Tucker questioned as he turned to me. I just shrugged a little annoyed.
"Yeah," Caboose added. "What's so important about the flag?"
Church then looked between the Caboose and me. "Oh, come on, don't they teach you guys anything in training?" he asked.
"Yeah, no," I answered. "They didn't tell us anything about a flag."
"Why is it so important?" Caboose asked.
"Because it's the flag, man, you know, it's the f... it's the flag, it's..." Church answered. Hell, even he didn't why the flag was so important. I was starting to wonder how in charge he was. He then quickly turned to Tucker. "Tucker, you tell him why the flag is so important."
"Well," Tucker started saying not so confident. it's... it's complicated. Wuh... It's blue, we're blue. "
"My armors green," I said deadpanned.
"And green," Tucker quickly added.
"It's just important," Church said quickly stepped in. "Okay, trust us. So, when the General comes by, the first thing he's gonna want to do is inspect the flag."
"Right," Tucker responded still not that confident.
"So just go in there, you know, far away from us, and wait for him," Church ordered.
Caboose hesitates but turned and ran to the but base but stopped half-way and turns back. "Uh how will I know when I see him?" he asked.
"There's only four of us out here, rookie. He's gonna be the guy that doesn't look like one of us," Tucker said. He then glanced at me. "Mostly likely not a girl."
"Tucker," I growled. "I swear."
"Now get in there, and don't come out!" Church yelled ignore our conversation. Caboose quickly ran into the base. Church then turned to Tucker. "Man, that guy is dumber than you are."
"You mean he's dumber than she is," Tucker said pointing to me.
"No," I started. "He's dumber than you two."
"Wow," Church said sarcastically. "that was a great come-back, you two."
Looked to see Caboose come out of the building. "Uh, mister Church? Sir?" Caboose called.
Church groaned, being pretty annoyed. "Oh my God, WHAT!?" he yelled. H then looked to Tucker. "Tucker, I swear, I'm gonna kill him!"
"Sorry about calling your girl a slut..." Caboose apologized.
Church quickly turned to Caboose. ROOKIE! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP," he yelled at the top of his lungs as Caboose quickly ran back inside the base. "YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY, GET IN THERE! "
Tucker turned back around and started laughing. Honestly, I couldn't help but silently laugh with him. "Are you two laughing at me?"
I just continued to snicker as I went back to checking the engine once again. Hey, they may be… strange but they're not boring exactly.
It took a few minutes, but I finished my check… again. "Alright," I said aloud. "The tank is still fine."
Tucker looked at me. "Why did you check it twice? Wait, do we pay you?"
I just frowned. "You know I can cut the breaks and you won't know till you're under an exploded tank. I could just blame it on you. So, any more questions you wanna ask?"
Tucker was quiet for a minute then turned to Church. "She says the tanks good," he said in an almost scared voice.
"Alright, enough gabbing out of us," Church said. "Let's take this bad boy out for a spin. Go ahead and hop in, Tucker."
"Me?" Tucker questioned. "I can't drive that thing."
"You're telling me you're not Armor Certified?" Church questioned as he looked to Tucker.
"I ca- I don't even know how to use the fucking sniper rifle," Tucker said. Tucker then looked at me. "You can drive a tank?"
"Well," I started. "I heard it's like driving a stick shift?"
"Can you drive a stick shift?" Tucker asked.
"Yes."
"So, you can drive the tank?" Church asked.
"No," I said. "Legal can't drive."
"Wait, you fix cars and tanks, but you can't drive any of them."
"Look, if you like the current body you have now, you won't let me drive anything," I stated as I then turned to Church. "Don't you know how to drive this thing?"
"No!" Church yelled in response. "Holy Crap! WHO IS RUNNING THIS ARMY!?"
Before any of us could answer, Caboose came out the base. "Hey!" Caboose called. "Just wanted to let you know, the General stopped by, and picked up the flag!"
"Yeah. Okay. Whatever moron!" Church yelled back not bothering to return. "Why would they give us a tank, if nobody here knows how to drive the damn thing?" Church said. As Tucker and I just looked at him. It then hit him. "Wait a second..." he said as turned to the base. "What did he just say?"
Neither us responded as we ran into the base.
All of us were standing on top of the base with Tucker and Church in front and me and Caboose behind, looking for our flag because… basically, Caboose screwed us over.
"Let me get this straight," Church said turning to Caboose. "You gave this guy our flag."
"Is that bad?" Caboose asked timidly.
"Bad?" Church started sarcastically. "Oh no, that's not bad. Next time he comes over, why don't you just help him blow up the whole God damn base?"
"You didn't say the general looked like neither of us? Well, he didn't look like any of us," I said, tauntingly.
Church then turned to me. "Shut it, Cate."
"Finally, my name!" I yelled. "Oh, and bite me," I responded.
"There," Tucker said as Church turned back to the front. "There, he is."
Church lifted his sniper rifle and looked through the eyepiece. "Oh, yeah, oh, I got him," he responded. "He's sneaking around back behind the cliffs."
"He must be one smart son of a bitch," Tucker said.
"Oh shit," Church exclaimed. "Hey Tucker, look at his armor. It's Red."
"Oh man," Tucker said. "That means it's their Sergeant."
"Well," Church responded still looking through the sniper rifle. "that makes sense. At least now we know how he got by our defenses."
"Uh," Caboose started. "Uh you know, he came in the back door where you guys were standing."
I could say nor would I ever but… he had a very good point. Tucker and Church probably thought the same thing because they did even bother to respond to Caboose's comment.
"Yeah, okay, well let's take him out then," Tucker said.
"Roger that," Church said in a confident tone. "Okay, say goodnight Sarge." Church then fired four shots and they all missed. "Aww, crap," Church responded less confident. He then looked at Tucker, who didn't say a word just stared at him. "What?" he asked still annoyed.
"You're really not very good with that thing, are you?" Tucker questioned.
I looked out to see the Red guy had stopped but was waving his flag at us. I groaned. "Yeah," I started. "I think he's taunting us," I then looked at Church and Tucker. "Does this happen a lot?"
Church, annoyed, threw sniper rifle to the ground and took out his assault rifle. "Alright, that's it, I've had it!" he yelled he then looked at me and Caboose. "Rookies, you stay here. Me and Tucker, we'll head through the teleporter, we'll cut him off at the pass," he ordered as he went to the teleporter.
"Right!" Caboose exclaimed.
"Tucker, you ready? Let's go," Church said as he and Tucker stood near the teleporter.
Tucker then looked from the teleporter to Church. "There is no way I'm going through that thing," Tucker responded.
"Tucker, we don't have time for this," Church said annoyed. "Why would they give us a teleporter if it doesn't work?"
"I don't know, why would they give us a tank that no one can drive?" Tucker replied.
"We already tested the teleporter, remember?"
"We threw rocks through it!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Yeah, and, so what? The rocks came out the other side, didn't they?"
"Yeah, but they were all hot, and covered with black stuff."
"Oh, so I guess that's what this is all about then, you're afraid of a little black stuff."
"Yes. I am. I am afraid of black stuff."
Church finally, having enough raised his assault rifle towards Tucker's face. "Tucker, I almost hate to do this to you."
"You wouldn't," Tucker countered though slightly worried.
"You know, I look at it this way: either A, we go through there, and get the flag back, or B, we stay here, and I get to kill you. Either way, I win," Church said.
"For the record, I want you to know, rocks aren't people."
"Duly noted," Church said he then gestured his rifle to the teleporter. "Now get in there."
Tucker sighed. "Crap." He then turned to the teleporter. "Alright. One, two..." Tucker than ran through the teleporter and disappeared from sight.
Church ran to the edge of the base to look the exit of the teleporter and Caboose and I followed. We waited for Tucker to appear on the other side. But after ten seconds…
"Huh. He didn't come out the other side…" Caboose finally said what we were thinking.
"Yeaaah," Church said. "I've uh… I've decided not to use the teleporter."
I turned to him. "What an ingenious plan," I said sarcastically.
Church glared at me for a little bit. "Okay, new plan! Blue rookie, you stay here. Green, you're with me," he said as he jumped off the base and turned back to us. "We'll get the flag back."
"Why the hell am I going?" I asked.
"Cause two is better the one," he said. "Also, you're not good at anything else."
"Screw you, Church," I said as jumped off the base and we then both started running.
We finally made it to the exit of the teleporter where the Red guy, who had our flag was and for some reason stayed in the same place. We both drew our assault rifle and aimed at him.
"Freeze!" Church said.
"Hey, why the hell are you shooting at me? You coulda hit me, dick!" the red guy countered.
''Hey, smartass," I started. "You took our flag our what do think we're going to do throw you a pride?"
"Took?" he asked confused.
"Can it!" Church yelled, honestly, I think at both us. "Don't try to play stupid with me, Sarge I know who ya are We've been spying on you for three weeks now."
"I just got here two hours ago. And I'm not a Sergeant, I'm a Private," the Red Guy argued.
"Wait a minute you're not the Sergeant!" Church said lowering his rifle a little.
"Yeah, that's what I just said," the Red guy said even more frustrated.
"Well, then how the hell did you manage to steal our flag?" Church asked confused.
"Steal? I have no idea what the hell you're talking about!" The red guy yelled even more frustrated.
Before either Church and I could process anything, a black suit guy appeared from the teleporter. "Three!" he yelled.
"Jesus!" Church cried out backing away a little.
"Hell!" I cried out doing the same thing.
"Holy shit!" the red guy yelled. "Who is this guy?"
"What the hell?!" Church said getting over his shock. Then gave the guy in the suit a quick look over. "Tucker? Is that you?"
I was shocked. "Tucker?" I questioned. "Wait, how the hell did he get a black suit?"
Tucker looked at Church just as confused as we were. "How did you get here ahead of me?" Tucker asked.
"And what's with that black shit on your armor?" the red guy asked.
Tucker seeming to finally notice the red guy he raise his towards him. "Hey! Freeze, Sarge!"
"Would you stop calling me a Sergeant?!" the red guy snapped. "I'm still just a Private!"
"The Sarge is still a Private?" Tucker asked still confused and sounding like he was processing things. "Oh. My. God. The teleporter sent me back in time."
It took me a minute to process the information Tucker had said. In result…
"By God that is stupid," I finally said.
Church scoffed. "Yeah, welcome to my world."
"Yeah, I want out."
"One-way trip, bitch."
"Ass."
R.C.
After several minutes of waiting for Donut to come back, I decided to make myself useful… semi-useful around here. I decided to upgrade the gun on the puma or Warthog or whatever it was called. With the ever-silent brown armor soldier, Lopez. Who was honestly was just staring at me and creeping me out…
"So," I started. "I just to let you know. I've made a small upgrade to the back gun. It has an extra kick and fires more rounds." He was quiet and just stared. "It's basically more powerful and more time shooting back rifle." He just continued to stare. "… Please saying something," I said quietly and a little nervous.
Before… well, nothing could continue. Grif and Simmons came running out of the base. "Hey, what's—" I asked but before I could finish I was forced into the passenger seat.
"Move rookie," Simmons ordered.
"I am. I did!" I said still confused. Before I knew it some upbeat polka-ish music started playing as Grif started the jeep. "Sorry, Lopez, we need the jeep."
"Wait a minute," I asked confused. "What for?"
I was ignored as Grif started driving off with Simmons in the back as a gunner. "Don't worry Lopez, I'll bring her back in one piece."
"From what?!" I asked.
I was once again ignored. "How do you turn off the fucking radio in this car?"
"How should I know?! I just got forced into a car, again!"
"Wait again?" Simmons asked from the back.
"That's what you heard?!"
Cate
I never liked to talk about time travel. One, it makes my head hurt. Two, because it's too complicated and stupid for its own good. I how do you think felt when Tucker was explaining…
"Look, I know you don't know me," Tucker continued to explain. "but you have to believe what I'm about to tell you. Sometime in your future, I get stationed here in Blood Gulch, and we meet. And this guy here, he gets promoted to Sergeant of the Red Army, and we spy on them. And they get this new jeep, and I'm like "There is no way you can pick up chicks in a tank!"
"Tucker? What the fuck are you babbling about?" Church finally asked pretty annoyed.
"I know all this sounds crazy, but he eventually becomes a Sergeant, and then one day we get a tank, and he comes and steals a flag while we're distracted," Tucker continued.
"Hey, genius," I started. "If you're from the future, how am I here?!" I asked hoping to end the conversation of time travel.
"Oh god," Tucker exclaimed in actually fear. "I created a time paradox!"
"By God," I groaned.
"Is this guy a retard?" the red guy asked."
Church looked to both me and the red guy. "You and Red, shut up," he said. He then turned to Tucker as I swear I started hearing Mexican music. "Tucker? Listen to me. Ya haven't gone back in time, okay? This is the guy who stole the flag, he's just not the Sergeant." The music started to get louder confirming I wasn't going crazy. "Turns out, he's just some dumb rookie, who happens to have the same color armor as him. He got in somehow, just g—" Church stopped and turned away from Tucker starting to hear the music. "for God's sakes, WHAT IS THAT MUSIC!?" He yelled.
Before we knew it, a jeep went soaring over the hill over us. "Wahoo!" I heard someone from the jeep yell.
"Holy shit!" Tucker yelled.
"Gad damnit!" I exclaimed.
"Son of a bitch! Run! Jesus! Run!" Church yelled, and we quickly followed his lead. Soon bullets from the back of the jeep started flying and so did the rust-colored armor guy started shooting from the passenger seat.
"The jeep followed me back in time!" Tucker exclaimed.
I wanted to reply but I was too freaked out to do it and we ran up a hill and we all hide behind a rock near the side of the canyon. I stayed crouched down as the bullets rapidly hit the rock behind us. It was pretty silent for a minute till Church finally said something.
"Well, we'll just wait here. That thing's gotta run outta bullets some time..."
I sighed. That was a jinx if ever I've heard one.