Chapter 6: Breathe in and out...they'll get what's coming to them.

"GAB!," Vignette shrieked.

Gabriel tripped as she was climbing the rubble. She began coughing up blood and gasping for air as she clawed at her neck.

Vignette held her breath and dragged the medic up the rubble, holding her head as high up as possible so she could breathe.

"DON'T DIE! PLEASE!," Vignette screamed as she too felt the gas burn her exposed skin.

"Please God...please...anything but her...take me if you wish...but not her..."

"Vig...nette...," Gabriel sputtered painfully, letting blood drip down her chin. "...hu...rts..."

"Focus on your breathing Gab!," Vignette coughed, as she held Gabriel up even higher.

Gabriel's eyes widened, and she drew her handgun, a compact Glock 19. She took one-handed shots at the unfamiliar silhouettes in the smoke, and they leapt for cover.

"Oh God...," Gabriel thought desperately as she felt the adrenaline kick in. "If I'm gonna do this..."

"...Vignette!," Gabriel wheezed through her blood and mucus. She looked at the purple haired girl with a smile.

"I wouldn't mind the last thing I see being Vignette..."

"...I'm sorry...!," Gabriel managed to breathe, before holding her breath and suddenly freeing herself from Vignette's death grip. Her eyes began watering painfully as she tumbled down the rubble and into the smoke.

"NO! GAB!," she heard behind her.

"Just don't breathe...just don't breathe...!," Gabriel repeated to herself as she sped towards the silhouettes, her exoskeleton whirring as she ran.

"G-GAB?!"

Vignette began sobbing angrily as she scanned the smoke for her silhouette.

"YOU...YOU PROMISED! GABRIEL WHITE!," she yelled with what was left of her breath. She heard the cacophony of gunshots in the distance. Both handgun and rifle fire, muzzle flashes appearing in the smoke.

...

"...Gab?!," Vignette thought as she feared the worst. There was a period of brief silence, the alarm no longer blaring and almost everyone already assumed dead.

After what felt like an eternity, Vignette sputtered in relief when the reckless blonde came running towards her wearing a gas mask.

"Vignette! Catch!," Gabriel called, muffled by the mask. She coughed violently as she did her best to cover up any patches of exposed skin; tightening her hood around her head. Vignette quickly put her gas mask on, caring more about Gabriel than she did about herself. She noticed blood on Gabriel and slid down the rubble to check.

"GAB!," Vignette yelled as she hugged the girl. "A-Are you hurt?!"

Gabriel locked eyes with Vignette and they both looked down at her blood soaked hoodie. There was blood pouring out of Gabriel's thigh and bicep, although she didn't notice thanks to the exoskeleton taking the load off.

Vignette felt her anger rise.

"...why you...reckless-"

"VIGNETTE!," Gabriel yelled as loudly as she could. "THE PATIENTS...! MASKS!"

"They're already dead," the two heard a voice in the smoke. "We're on our own."

Gabriel lowered her stolen assault rifle, realizing that it was Raphiel limping over to them, clutching her arm.

"...w-what now then...?," Vignette asked as she checked the magazine of the second assault rifle Gabriel gave to her.

"Get to the supply sheds...get med-kits and masks and regroup with anyone that's left," Gabriel commanded confidently as she flipped her safety off. The two nodded and followed the medic as they waded through the smoke slowly, checking each nook and cranny, guns drawn for any hiding Ares soldiers.

"Delta one, this is private Tenma White do you copy, over?"

"Gabriel?," Raphiel asked in a low, hushed voice.

"Nothing," Gabriel said. "They must've came from the West side of the compound."

The trio crouched down at the sight of two silhouettes approaching them.

"PRIVATE TENMA WHITE! IDENTIFY YOURSELVES!," Gabriel yelled with a hoarse voice, sights trained on their chest.

"Private Kouhei and Akio!," they heard back, and they ran over to the pair. One of them was leaning on the other as he had a gunshot wound to the shin.

"White!," the soldier exclaimed as he set the injured man down. "Am I glad to see you!"

"Sorry. My kit's in the supply sheds..!," she said remorsefully as she looked down at her and Raphiel's wounds.

"Then get out of here...! There's...too many of them!"

"No! What if there's more people out there?!," Gabriel yelled back.

"They're all dead! Ares got to our masks before we did!," he weakly whimpered.

Gabriel stared at the man hatefully.

"Fuck. You," Gabriel snarled, pushing past the soldier as she marched forward. He said nothing as the trio hesitantly followed her in the direction he came from.

"Gabriel...," Vignette muttered, her rifle sights still scanning the smoke as they walked. "This is no time for heroics."

"I agree," Raphiel said as she did the same thing. "You heard him. Dead. Everyone but the enemy. We should go."

Gabriel said nothing as the trio wandered into the medical tent that her and Vignette left an hour ago. Gabriel lowered her weapon and slowly looked around.

"Gab...," Vignette shivered as her eyes widened in horror. "Don't...look..."

They walked in torment, past the rows of beds and the scorched patients in them. What was left of their already weak bodies had holes burned through them, the ghastly smoke instantly cauterizing the blood loss. Gabriel stopped as they were about to leave, at the bed of the mother and the kid.

They were dead. The mother's hands wrapped around her son's eyes, trying to protect him from watching the world around him burn alive.

"Yeah! I'm gonna be a healer person like you!," Gabriel heard echo through her traumatized mind.

"Thank you. Do great things one day, okay?"

"God...," Gabriel sneered to herself. "Why...? What kind of fucked up God would let this happen...?! Does my work mean nothing to you?! Does anything I do matter to you?!"

Vignette grabbed the shaken Gabriel under the armpit and dragged her away from the tent. She didn't want her to see more than she had to. She couldn't imagine working like her life depended on it, dragging twenty three people down a tall building, only for them to die off in the next hour.

Gabriel awoke from her traumatised state however, when she saw her enemies appear through the smoke. They were about twenty metres away, but she could see them clearly standing out amongst the white smoke.

They looked like...plague doctors without the beak. They wore an all-black uniform with orange accents on their collars and wrists. You could hear the ghastly inhales and exhales of their masks hooked up to the oxygen tanks they wore on their backs, calm and collected, like it was just another day for them. Gabriel could've sworn that she heard a laugh as their buddies cracked a joke.

They locked eyes as one of them turned their head, and they pointed their rifles at the trio.