Chapter 10
Promises
"Michaelson! Wake up! WAKE UP!" Maya, yelled at me, shaking me. Or was she? I couldn't tell, everything was black. "Corporal! Get your ass up, your boots on the ground, and rounds in your rifle!" I heard the Chief yell. I slowly pulled my eye lids open and pulled my hand away from my side, feeling something warm and moist. Seeing the crimson blood on my hand, I became suddenly aware of the burning sensation the came with the wound from a twelve gauge shotgun.
I stood up and stumbled. Standing behind a Scorpion as bullets flew around me and ricocheted off the armored plates heavily welded to the combat vehicle. I looked around and didn't see Maya or the Chief anywhere. Confused and light headed I took a good long puff of the delicious nicotine. I clicked the mag out of my pistol and checked to make sure it was full.
Shoving the mag back in, I stumbled around the tank and held my wound, trying to suppress the blood flow. I saw a Covenant Elite off to the right about the charge a few Marines. I brought up my side arm and popped off a shot. The Elite stumbled and fell. I took another cigarette out of my pack and lit it as the Marines looked over with a look of appreciation painted on their ugly mugs. I pointed to another wave of ugly alien soldiers running at us. I took a long drag then watched as one of the Marines picked up a rifle off the ground and tossed it to me. I caught it with both hands and dropped to a crouch, slamming the action back and making the weapon ready.
"GET READY! FULL MAGAZINES!" I yelled starring down the sight and putting the aim dot right on one of their heads. "UNLOAD ON THESE FUCKERS!" I yelled causing a roar of gun fire to erupt around me, green and blue fluids exploding out of these disgusting aliens.
They all dropped and it got quiet. A Marine standing next to me looked over and finally noticed my wound. His eyes grew wide. "Medic." He whispered stunned by the ever growing blood stain on my BDU. He shook his head violently. "Medic!" He yelled. "MEDIC! The Corporal is hit!" A man with a red cross on his helmet ran over and immediately ripped a field surgery pack off of his combat vest. "Corporal, how did this happen?" He asked.
"I honestly don't know, it's weird though. All I remember is everything black and then I woke up and realized I had been ripped into by a shotgun. While I was out I heard the Chief and Maya trying to wake me up." I lit another cigarette, the only thing numbing the pain from my side. The Marine's face suddenly grew dark. "Sir… They're gone. Don't you remember? You called out over the radio saying The Chief and The Siren were gone…"
It rushed back. A scene that had happened barely ten minutes before. It had happened in slow motion. A lucky covenant with a shotgun he'd stolen off one of my dead Marines. He'd screeched in his native tongue and charged, popping buck shot as he ran. Maya, oh god Maya. Her head was blown against a warthog. A second shell grazed my side, as I went down the Chief charged him but the bastard was smart, lit off five grenades just as the Chief got to him.
The medic filled my wound with blood seal, clotting the wound cutting off the flow of vital fluids. I stood up and double checked my rifle, pistol, grenade stock. "Sir, are you ok?" The Marine asked, his face covered in fear. "No." I said, holstering the pistol and patting the rifle slung over my back. "Bring up a warthog and don't follow me." He nodded and ran to the jeeps about a quarter of a mile ahead of us, bringing one back, "Full tank?" I asked. He nodded. I climbed in, putting my foot into the accelerator, then popping the clutch. Rocketing in the direction the covenant were staging their offensive from.
I began to cry as I screamed. "I promise you, Chief, Maya, this won't go unanswered!"