Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
As the locomotive exited the green tunnel of trees onto the flatter farmland of the Grey Mountain area Ruby finally woke up. It had been a mere three hours since they left but the rocking of the train and the peaceful view outside somehow caused her to drift off. Sitting back up she found Daria still writing, so Immersed in her craft she didn't even glance at Ruby as she stood up and stretched her limbs.
Now that she noticed it was getting kinda late; the sky slowly turning orange and all that. She felt her stomach rumble, She'd have to ask about food since the cart hadn't come around yet; perhaps she'd missed it?
"Hey Daria, has the food cart come round yet?" asked Ruby
"You do know this is a cargo train right? I do doubt they actually have food for us although you could check" replied Daria as she kept writing "Now that I think about it I am kinda hungry as well… If they have anything could you get me some too?"
"Sure, I've got no idea where they may have food though…"
"Just go up front to the crew compartment, they may have something"
"Erm…" hesitated Ruby "Are we allowed?"
"Of course, just go down the middle; make sure to close the doors after yourself"
Following her instructions Ruby opened the little door they had at the front which lead to one of the cargo carriages, the sound hit her and she gulped as she passed through when she looked down to see a literal blur of tracks and the wobbling of the coupling. She passed through a few more before reaching a somewhat nicer-looking door.
She knocked twice and heard the bumble of someone saying something inside, assuming it was an OK she opened the door and stepped in.
She was met with a pleasant smell as some kind of tea wafted to her nose while the single occupant of the small compartment asked "Ye', what is it?"
"I was just wondering if you had any food we could have?"
"Food? Aren't you meant to bring that yourself?"
"Sorry, I didn't realise we had to bring our own. Is there anything you can spare?"
The crewman sighed and walked over to the cupboard by the kettle and sink on one side of the room, opening the wooden doors he looked through for a while before selecting a plastic package and handing it to Ruby "This one's about to expire anyway, you may as well have it"
Thanking the man and walking back through the cargo compartment she took a second to look at the cargo itself; It was mostly crates with labels ranging from 'Fresh Potatoes' to '9.23mm Rifle' along with a few bigger things which she assumed were vehicle parts. 'There's even a full on quadbike over there!' she noted as she walked through to their compartment.
"Hey Daria! They gave me some stuff; I'm saved!" Exclaimed Ruby before realising that Daria wasn't actually in her seat "Daria?"
"Yeah, over here. You got something?" Replied Daria as she exited the tiny kitchenette in the cabin holding a steaming mug of something
"Well one of the crew gave me this" she pointed to the plastic in her hands "I'm not too sure what it is to be honest"
Daria took the package and gestured for Ruby to sit down. Taking a bayonet out of her pack she cut a slit in the package and emptied it on the table between their seats "This here is what we call an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), It's basically premade food that lasts a long time. Have a look"
Ruby poked one of the packages; it looked and felt like one of those packages of expensive dog food they'd bought Zwei for his birthday (But he refused to eat them). Anyways, she opned the package and found herself met with a smell which was… Unusual? She couldn't really describe it but apparently these were meant to be meatballs in sauce.
"Oh you got that one" noted Daria "It's not the best but it ain't too bad either, there should be another package like that in there with pasta"
Sure enough there it was, another cat-food-tray of soft pasta. Luckily there was a microwave in the kitchenette so they were able to empty the two onto a plate and warm it up that way "There seems to be some other stuff here too" noted Ruby
"Yeah, they usually put crackers and some sort of spread in there as well as some kind of drink mix"
Sure enough there was a can of… Cheese? Yep, as much as she wanted to believe such a thing could never exist it stood before her in its pale yellow glory by a package of about ten crackers and a plastic knife and fork along with a single teabag. She prodded it once… it felt cold and sticky. She shuddered back and asked "Hey, do you want any? I think I'm gonna skip on the cheese…"
"Yeah, love that stuff" replied Daria as she went for one of the crackers and a knife "You should give it a go"
"Nah, I'm good" replied Ruby as she tried not to vomit "I'll go make this teabag" she stood up and with massive strides appeared at the kitchenette in an instant.
The tea and Meatballs were good enough and as the sun set outside Ruby went back to reading with a full belly.
Arriving at the station Ruby and Daria were directed to a staff car while their luggage was tossed in with the supplies as they were loaded into trucks.
The oily smell of the railyard permeated the air as they were shown to the car, obviously a nice make since as soon as they entered the smell dissipated entirely and as the two sat flown they could feel the high quality leather below them. "Overseers, pleasure to meet you, I'll be driving you up to the base once you're ready. Shall we go?" said the capped driver who more a grey variant of the standard MAF uniform
"Yep, were good" Replied Ruby as she looked around; She noticed that their train was now being loaded once again with some kind of rocks 'perhaps this place is a mining town or something?' wondered she as the car rumbled to life and began to climb the lightly steep hill the base was on.
The base itself was apparently not actually located on the mountains since the cliffs were too steep for it, hence the base was located on a somewhat flatter hill about two kilometres away from the town. As the car climbed further up she was able to see down into the valley as it went both down and up as well as where the green grass turned to grey stone roughly halfway up the mountain's side.
They drove in silence for a short while further before they actually saw the camp. It wasn't actually as big as she'd expected, just a few buildings and vehicles protected by walls of sandbags and piled rocks. Yet she noticed as they were let past the checkpoint that there seemed to be way more soldiers here than buildings 'perhaps they live back in the village or something?' Wondered she as the door was finally opened for them.
Stepping onto the gravel of the mountain her boots crackled and she stood up breathing the clean mountain air.
"Overseers Rose and Szary? Pleasure to meet you, I trust you had a nice trip?"
"Yes, you must be General Magen?"
"Yeah that's me" replied the young man "I was just taking my evening walk when you drove in" He paused for a moment before remembering "Ah yes, I'd better brief you on what's going to happen tomorrow! Come, walk with me"
They followed the uniformed man as he showed them the outside buildings they realised that the hillside beside the base had actually been hollowed out to act as a sort of bomb shelter, hence most buildings such as the barracks and HQ were located beneath the rock; offering the occupants a level of security matched only by the Overseer Order's own 'Bunker'.
They passed through the gate with a salute in their direction from two soldiers who stood on duty and entered the slightly warmer corridor, the wind finally no longer howling over her ears.
"This door here leads to the Barracks, the guest rooms are at the back. Once I show you the rest of the base you'll be staying in there"
"Erm… Sir? When are the Cadets going to arrive?" asked Ruby as she took off her coat "Apparently it's tomorrow"
"Yes, they should be arriving tomorrow. I'm just a little worried though, you saw how the wind's been picking up right?"
Now that she thought about it, yeah, when she first got in at the supply base the wind had been somewhat calm but as the train rolled in she could feel the carriage lightly moving side to side "Yeah, what about it?" asked Daria in her usual nonchalant voice "These are mountains, isn't this the norm?"
"Yeah we have winds but rarely this scale, we've even had to recall all patrols and resort purely on mounted cameras… I don't like it, thank god we have no snow yet or even cameras wouldn't be able to see a thing"
"So…" hesitated Ruby as they walked on "What kinda stuff do you do around here? We have some time to kill now"
"Well I need to get back to the HQ soon so I'd recommend going outside to the small pub we have there; it's mostly protected by the walls so you won't get blown away and all" he suddenly put a hand to his ear and spoke "What? Alright I'll be right over" he turned "A concerned look on his face, "Just look after yourselves for now Overseers, there's an issue I need to deal with…"
As they were left to their own devices they headed out for the 'pub' the Officer had mentioned, just as they were about to enter the main corridor they heard a crack from behind them.
The echo didn't help muffle the sound of the usually quiet handgun and Ruby turned to Daria "You heard that, right? That was a gunshot!"
"Yes" noted Daria as she drew her sword "Arm up, we're going to see whatever just happened"
Evidently, they weren't the only ones who suspected something, they were joined by two others; the guards that had just been standing at the door. They ran in silence for a minute before the dim corridor before them was broken by a single streak of light, the officer they had talked to only moments before lying at an awkward angle; propped up against the stone wall with several red holes slowly dripping onto the floor.
"Rob!" Yelled one of the guards before mindlessly running at the corpse, his fellow failing to hold him back. The soldier kneeled beside his officer and shook him "ROB!" The man's yell bouncing off the walls in an echo before being amplified by yet another gunshot which sent the soldier falling on his former officer clutching his chest.
"Shit!" yelled the remaining man "Overseers, please you have to do something!"
Daria sprinted forth, Ruby to her side drawing her pistol and aiming at the door. They reached the light at the same time and were momentarily blinded as another shot went off and bounced off Ruby's Aura and her eyes adjusted to the light.
A man stood on the other side, dressed in Officer's uniform and with the bodies of several others; some in chairs with their headsets still on while others lay on the floor with a hand on their holsters. Yet the most striking feature about this Officer was his eyes; where there was once a pupil there was a black dot, the red veins behind his glasses now orange.
"HANDS UP!" Ordered Ruby, her Hunter training kicking in. But the man laughed once more and shot another bullet right by her, straight into the chest of Daria, sending her stumbling back into a wall as she dropped her sword.
"The White Witch loves me!" screeched the man "She lives in my veins, feel her POWER!"
Ruby could not handle it much longer 'fuck it, just fuck it' she thought as the finger of her right hand compressed, pulling the trigger and sending twelve metal ball bearings right into the chest of the white-eyed madman.
Thrown back against the desk behind him the madman stated shaking in… Laughter? "The pain I feel is as pleasure when she lives in me!" he guffawed as blood came with his mad cackles.
To her surprise Ruby was pushed to the side as a black sword and Daria's arm pointed past her at the man's throat "Why are you here! You were supposed to have died long ago!" screamed Daria back as the blade drew closer to his head "I made sure you were dead god damn it!"
With all the yelling no one noticed the soldier they'd left behind them stand up from his friend's corpse and quietly withdraw his pistol, his boots made no sound as his aura alone made the room silent as all present turned to him. Bang… Bang… Bang… the handgun cracked, the tempo increasing until all twelve bullets had left. The man's face exploding into a fit of fury "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU, HE WAS MY BROTHER GOD DAMN IT!" now he was coming to his hip and drawing a standard bayonet from his belt "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!?" He jumped on the man, snapping the table down the middle and plunging the blade into the dead man's still smiling skull. He just kept coming; up down up down up down updownupdownupdown….
The soldier finally stood up from the wrecked remains of the body and stepped back, his bloody face shining with the clear water of tears, falling on Ruby's shoulder and weeping.
