TEAM FORTRESS 2 IS A VIDEO GAME BY VALVE
"Take that, you maggots! You bunch of bastards!"
He ran out of missiles, but that was absolutely not a problem. Soldier made his way through the mercenaries armed with his shovel, a not very deadly weapon in itself, but a lethal one in his hands: giving blows in every direction to everything and everyone in his way, he got to get rid of the enemy Heavy with a hit in his Adam's apple and stun other three BLUs who tried to stop him.
"Out of my way, pile of garbage!"
But his race stopped having barely uttered these words; he didn't notice the grenades rolling at his feet after he hit the Demoman.
A blinding light, like someone had put a flashlight in his face. That was all he remembered. After that, little by little, everything around him recovered its clarity and Soldier could see he was not in Granary, but a corn field which shone under the twilight like it was a golden sea, under cotton clouds.
Soldier was, as he could see when he turned around, standing at the porch of a wooden house, one of these rustic ones in the middle of nowhere, like the one he had grown up in, one of those with a bench to sit in to get some fresh air at night; and his own dog, who slept at the bottom of the stairs. Soldier recognized it instantly: it was Rex, the dog he had when he was seven. His grandmother told him it had ran away while he was at school but years later he was confessed that she had ran him over with the car coming back from the groceries. There he was, just like he remembered, so lazy that it didn't bother to raise his head when Soldier descended the stairs to caress it affectionally behind the ears and the back.
Now that he was there, he took a look at the facade: completely clean in spite of being in the middle of the country, and with a large and gorgeous American flag waving ostentiously in a pole near them. After surrendering to the impulse of saluting the sacred symbol of his motherland, he considered his situation.
There wasn't much to consider, really: he was dead. He had no idea how or when, but they took him down.
"Fuck dammit..."
"Watch that mouth, young man!"
It wasn't the first time he found himself in that place, and so the apparition of that old lady didn't surprise him at all. She walked out of the house cleaning her hands in her green apron, decorated with a white flower pattern, approaching taking little steps while she stared at him through bottle-lens glasses. Rex opened its eyes and finally rose its head when the door opened with a creak, but immediately kept on sleeping at Soldier's feet.
"Here again, Jane?" The old lady asked.
"Indeed." Soldier walked towards her and kissed her forehead. "Hi, Granny."
"I supposed you'd come over, so I started preparing your favorite dish..."
"Meat pie." Soldier nodded. "Yes, I can smell it from here." He deeply inhaled. Not only did the smell of the pie baking in the oven reach him, but also the vegetation and the humid soil. He loved that and showed it smiling from ear to ear, which made his grandmother smile too. "You shouldn't have, Granny. I'm just passing through."
"Again, huh? I thought so...When will you stay?"
"Well, I ain't got no hurry, you know?"
"With that job you got, I don't think it'll take much. Ah, you are still as reckless as you used to be when you were small and jumped into the river to fight the toadpoles." Sighing, the good woman approached him and caressed his cheek. He was like two heads taller than she was, Soldier made it easier to her crouching down a little. "How handsome you are..."
Soldier replied to the comment with a giggle.
"How are things going in here?"
"America's enemies have been defeated forever and peace reigns in the empire. Oh, and Rex pooped on the carpet again."
"Like always, then. Good."
"But enough chatter. Come on, get in, before it goes cold..."
Her words were interrupted when Soldier suddenly felt a beating in his ears which almost made him lose balance. The old lady turned towards him and looked at him sadly.
"Time to go back, I suppose...Goodbye, Janey. Good luck."
Before Soldier could reply, he felt the beat again, this time with more intensity. He felt nothing but everything around him became blurred and he noted how the sun shone with less intensity. He tried to speak but
he was standing at the Respawn Room. He stumbled a bit after feeling quite suddenly the weight of his rocket launcher on his shoulder and blinked for a second, dazed. Back to action.
"Mission ends in thirty seconds." Announced the boss through the speakers.
Thirty seconds? He had enough time to give those BLU a good ass-kicking.
THE END
