Promise

Halvo Bay was a dump worsening by the day. Baird remembered the port town from childhood as bright and bustling with quaint diners and expensive jewelry stores. E-Day changed all that. As he made his way through the streets with Kilo Squad, he realized what an ugly shell it had become.

It wasn't the only one. Cities all over Sera had been attacked, decimated in the initial attack from the Locust. It had been sixty days since E-Day and they were still appearing. Baird wondered if there would ever be an explanation.

He kicked idly at a piece of rubble as he walked. Lancer loose in his grip, ears trained to hear past the stomp of boots, the hair on the back of his neck prickled until a shiver chased down his spine. It felt like a ghost town. Evac crews had already swept the major cities, pulling bodies alive or dead from the destruction of sunken roads and buildings.

Then why did it still feel like a mass grave? How many more bodies were undiscovered? Would they ever be recovered?

Baird shook his head. He couldn't dwell on it. Death was nothing new to him; his parents didn't shelter him, when they actually engaged with him, anyway. He lived through the final years of the Pendulum Wars, but that had happened overseas. He didn't think about it. Now that the war was on his front step, now that he was experiencing it firsthand, it was shocking. He never thought of the dead civilians in Ostri. He never thought about the homeless in Maranday.

And he wasn't going to think about it now.

One job, he thought sharply. Get to Hunter-Two alive.

The Centaur team was Kilo's key to extraction. While the four-man squad had worked along the alleyways and streets, the tanks had cleaned up any remaining threats on the outside perimeter. The inbound Ravens were making one stop, to pick up the tanks. If Kilo wasn't there, they would have to find their own way back to base.

The ground rumbled and a moment later a faint explosion followed. Baird hadn't been on the field very long—he hadn't finished officer training when he became front line—but he knew a Centaur's main gun when he heard it. He just didn't know if it was a straggler or real trouble. He didn't have to wait long. Before he could raise his hand to his radio, Sofia was a step ahead. Another explosion sounded.

"Hunter-Two, this is Kilo. Is that your fire?"

"Hunter-Two here. We had a small bogey try to come up but we got it."

"Let us know if there's anything we can do. ETA to your position is thirty minutes."

"Roger that. We'll sit on our hands and keep an eye out. Hunter-Two out."

Baird glared at the small red head. Onyx Guard cadet or not, Kilo was his squad. "Next time let me handle radio procedures, Cadet," he spat.

"I thought you were sleepwalking over there," she replied, chin up and defiant. "They got off two shots before you said anything. They could've been ambushed."

He hadn't served with Sofia for very long but he made sure she knew he disapproved of her being on the squad. A battlefield was no place for a woman, even if she had more combat experience and almost outranked him.

"They would radio if there was a problem. This is my squad. You're a cadet, not a true Onyx Guard. Keep trying to command my position and I'll have your ass thrown off this squad so fast—"

A scream stopped them in their tracks. It echoed wildly through the empty streets and sent a spike of dread through the squad. Baird searched the buildings, waited for grubs to appear. There was a tense moment of silence until Cole exhaled.

"Did ya'll hear that or was it just me?"

"Was it a Locust?" Sofia asked. Her eyes were wide.

Baird had never heard of Locust imitating a human cry before. Then again, intel was uncovering new information every day. There were cadavers in some top secret base where they broke down skin, bones, and organs to learn something, anything. It was gory and in the name of science—and Baird wanted to be there. He was a man of science, not a grunt.

The scream echoed again. Sofia gripped her rifle. He had never seen her so upset.

"Are we going to check it out?" Cole asked. Baird knew him. He knew the big guy was squirming through his morals—he had a job to do but someone needed his help. If his lieutenant made the call, could he live with walking away?

Damn it. Baird hated these decisions.

"We took an oath," Sofia pushed. "We have to try."

If he agreed now it would look like she ordered him to do it. Ah, screw it. He could play the hero for once. And if it was a trap, well, they could put on his tombstone that he did it in the name of science.

When there was another very human cry for help, he nodded. Sofia sprinted down the street to a crumbling building nearly crushed by the one beside it. She must have pinpointed the noise already. It took some trust, but he followed after her.

In its past life, the building must have been an office. The Neo-Tyran architecture still standing spoke of generations. Desks were tipped, torn papers littered the floor. Baird spotted a soggy flier for an office party. He'd been to one of those before. For a brief moment, it was surreal. Just days ago everything was normal.

What was normal?

Sofia appeared in the lobby from a far doorway. "The stairs have collapsed. I can hear them somewhere upstairs but I can't find a way up."

"Hello? Is someone there?"

It was a small voice. Shit. A little girl. Baird's heart thundered around his ribs.

"We're here!" Sofia shouted. "Where are you? Can you get down somewhere?"

"My sister's trapped on the third floor. You have to help her, please!"

"Okay, sweetie. Okay." Sofia paced, watching the sagging ceiling. "We're here to help. We're Gears. You know what that means, right? We'll come get you and your sister."

Bare feet padded against loose wooden planks. Through the slats Baird could see a shadow—small, slim—and nothing else.

"I don't know if there's a way up," the girl whined.

Paduk was a step ahead. He was old but agile; a sniper always searching for a better vantage point. He caught Baird's eyes and led him to a part of the ceiling where the cement and wood had fallen staggered.

"We can use those desks, stack a few right here," he said, indicating a starting point.

Sofia saw this. "Okay, sweetie, we're coming up. Just stay calm; we're here now. Talk to us, okay? What's your sister's name? What were you doing here?"

While she talked, Sofia moved closer to the makeshift steps. Cole and Paduk moved desks, the wooden behemoths scraping the once polished floor. Baird threw himself into one but barely budged it.

"I'm Kristin, my sister is Tori. We came here two days ago looking for our parents. They're not here. Then the building came down."

Two days? Shit.

"Didn't the crisis crew come through here?" Baird asked. He strained to skid the desk along the floor. Paduk came to give him a hand. "You're not supposed to hide from the good people, idiot. What were you thinking?"

Paduk gave the desk a final shove. As soon as it was in place, Sofia vaulted up to the next floor without casting Baird her typical glare. Kristin was crying again. Cole ambled up after her, always ready to play the teddy bear. Baird and Paduk followed.

Sofia was already comforting the girl by making promises. She was safe, her sister would be okay; everything would be fine. The girl was younger than Baird anticipated. Ten or eleven, not the fourteen or fifteen he was hoping for. If her sister was even younger, their rescue mission just became difficult. Kids were stupid; reactive instead of logical.

"It's okay, Kristin. We're here to help you. Take us to your sister, alright?"

Rubbing Kristin's back seemed to have the calming effect Sofia wanted. She grasped Sofia's hand and led the squad towards the back of the building. The floor slid and shifted with every step. Baird tried not to worry that he would go through it, but, not for the first time, he cursed his regulation COG boots.

The stairs from the second to third floor were still functional. Unable to shake the uneasiness in his gut, Baird tested every metal step before setting his full weight on them. Kristin bounded upstairs as if she had been born here. If they could safely get her and her sister out, could they make the rendezvous?

Last they checked in with Hunter-Two they had forty-five minutes until evac. Making it in thirty minutes was pushing it; now they were wasting precious time on the rescue mission. Even if they got both kids out, there was no guarantee the Ravens had room for them. Not that Gears would leave kids behind. That's why he originally agreed to this. He was working on his heartless bastard persona, but he couldn't imagine being abandoned in a ghost town.

If we don't get them out quickly, I'll find out.

Kristin's sister, Tori, was in what could have been a personal office. The left wall had collapsed to show the outside and the interior of the neighboring building. A support beam bridged the small gap, crushing a pile of rubble with a small hand peeking out from underneath. Sofia sucked in a horrified breath.

"Tori! Tori, soldiers are here to help. Just hang on," Kristin said. She knelt by the pile and grabbed her sister's hand. For a moment Baird thought they were about to dig out a body, but the hand squeezed back.

His stomach flipped. Holy shit—she's alive under there!

"Lieutenant, what can we do?" Sofia asked.

Nothing that he could see. The top of the pile was too heavy to move and the bottom—sure, there was a way, but not without shifting things and crushing the girl. Where was she exactly? Could she breathe? Should he call Control? And what would they do? She was trapped on the third floor of a building; they didn't have the machinery or spare man power to safely remove her.

With Kristin staring hopefully at him, he cursed his rank for the first time. Why did he have to make the call? Why did Sofia have to make promises?

He was saved from an immediate answer when his radio clicked.

"Kilo, this is Hunter-Two. We should've had visual on you by now. Where the hell are you?"

Cole crouched by the pathetic hand, saying something with a sad smile on his face. Baird turned away to talk.

"We have a situation, Hunter-Two," he replied.

"Well so do we. The sensors are picking up movement eight klicks out and the Ravens are ten minutes away."

"A civilian situation. Two kids are stranded in a building." Baird sighed. He didn't want to see it; he definitely didn't want to talk about. "One girl is almost crushed by debris."

The link went silent. Yeah, try visualizing that one. I see death every day and this is what shocks me? But she's just a kid.

"Can you get her out?" The voice was suddenly worn, exhausted.

Baird paced away from the group, from Sofia making more promises. "I don't think so. It's too risky to move it with only the four of us."

"Then leave her. Bring the other one with you and we'll send out an evac team later."

"I don't know how much 'later' this girl has. They've been here two days already."

"Lieutenant, you have seven minutes to make your rendezvous. Are you going to strand your squad out there in a situation you can't fix? Bring the kid. We'll come back for the other."

Baird swallowed past the lump in his throat. Could he do that? Could he leave the girl behind?

If grubs were moving on their position and only one flight out of the city, yes. He would save his own life, his squad's. Kristin wouldn't like it. What if she refused? Did he have to leave her too?

"Wilco, Hunter-Two," Baird replied. His legs were suddenly heavy. "We might be a minute late. Hold the door for us."

"Good luck, Lieutenant."

It would take the crew chief of each bird at least three to five minutes to hook up a Centaur for undersling transportation. Why did he have to make the call? If they were lucky, they would get there in fifteen.

Why did I want to become an officer? Did I think I could push papers all day? Why did I use Jocelin's influence for this shit?

He returned to the group, sobered by the news. They all heard it. Cole was trying to pretend it never happened but Sofia looked close to tears. Paduk was, perhaps, the only one unaffected. What had he experienced in his war that leaving a child behind was okay?

"What happened?" Kristin asked.

"Sweetie," Sofia started softly. She smoothed the tangled hair away from the small face. "Plans have changed. Tori is going to be okay but right now we have to go."

"What?"

"People are waiting for us. People who can help Tori but we have to get to them first."

"You said you would help Tori," Kristin sobbed.

"Right now we can't. We thought we could. All of that debris is dangerous to move with just us. We need more help, okay? Do you understand?"

"I'm not leaving her!"

"We're not," said Sofia, and now she was crying. Baird shifted uncomfortably. They were wasting more time. "We need to get more help. Right? We're not leaving her."

Kristin was about to reply—probably another disagreement—when Paduk stepped up behind her and, with one swift motion, knocked her unconscious.

"Paduk!" Sofia gasped, horrified. She checked the girl for an immediate injury but Baird couldn't see any blood.

Paduk shrugged. "We were all thinking it. This is the only way we'll get her out of here. She has a chance."

"Not the best way to do it, man," Cole said, shaking his head. "She's just a kid."

"She'll be fine." Paduk motioned to Baird. "Lieutenant?"

He glanced at the small hand under the rubble. Kneeling beside it, he noticed just how tiny it was compared to his. It was so fragile yet gripped his glove with strength he'd never felt. His heart pounded in his ears. Tori was strong. He just hoped he could do something in time.

"We'll come back," he promised quietly. "You'll get out one way or another." Then he stood and brushed off his pants. The moment never happened. "Cadet, can you carry Kristin? We've got a bird to catch."