Chapter 8

Sorry this took too long, but I've been busy and Stuff has been going on. With a lot of stuff done and over with, I think that I can get back to writing. Everybody who has checked up on me, and kept me going.

BAIRD

Training so much training the the way they look at me. Some are sympathetic, others almost seem angry. Jelous maybe? Bernie is great and all, but man is she strict when it comes to training. By the end of each day, I am exhausted. Throughout the day, I try to learn more about the people around me. It's hard when Bernie gives me so much to learn, but little by little I am starting to learn about the people who call me their friend.

I'm not too sure about the big guy. I think Marcus Fenix is his name. A sargent. Very quiet, and he keeps to himself. Doesn't talk to much and only two people really stick near him most of the time. Dom and Anya. The others sometimes are with him but not like those two. When he does talk, it's a monotone and he doesn't really change the pitch. Never really sounds angry or sad...nothing. Just gets louder or quiet depending on what's going on around him.

Marcus doesn't look like somebody you would mess with. That guy is just solid muscle. Looks like he could knock down a whole building with one pumch. The solem man has several scars marring his perfectly angled face. I can't help but to wonder how he got the one just below the eye. Looks pretty knarly.

He doesn't look at me much, like he regrets something. Did we not get along? I wish I could remember what kind of "relationship" we had. Marcus looks like he would make a really good firend. Dom and Anya think so.

He also acts like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. As if he takes the blame for every little thing that goes wrong. Hes' not too responsive when his 'friends' call out his name but they probably know him better than I do.

Then there is Dominic Santiago, but everybody calls him Dom. You can tell he's loyal to a fault and everybody's friend. I've heard he lost his wife after searching for her for fifteen years. He's always acting brave for everybody so he doesn't get sympathetic looks. You can tell he doesn't want it nor does he feels as if he deserves it. Dom always sticks by Marcus. I think somebody once told me that he and Marcus has been friends since grade school.

Dom's always been really nice to me. Offered to help me in any way he can. Too bad he can't help me get all my memories back.

Dom is now on his own. No wife, kids, parents his brother all gone...well no I take that back. He will always consider Marcus as his brother. They only have each other now. Dom's ciool and all, but he's got his own problems to sort out. I hate to be a burden to him.

Anya Stroud, a beautiful blond that's always on the radio in CIC. She looks at Marcus with such an adoring look. She would follow Marcu to the ends of Sera and back, all he's got to do is say the word and she'll do it. You can tell by the looks she gives him.

She's a very sweet girl, seems ariound my age maybe. That girl has her own baggage, and loyal as well. Another one who has offered to help me in any way they can but like I said, I don't want to be a burdern to anybody.

Cole seems the most friendly toward me. We must have been friends for some time now. I feel aweful for forgetting such a great firend like Cole. That guy is HUGE and built like a solid brick wall. When I first met Cole, he didn't give me a sympathetic look, but acted like he always did with me. A nice hard pat on the back that could land me right on my ass and a loud greeting.

And I can never forget that dark haired woman from my dreams. Especially after the greeting she gave me my first day on the base. I get teased about it all the time. She suprised me that's all. I just wasn't expecting it.

I think they call her Sam. Samantha Byrn. She looks like she did in my dreams, even sounds the same. Loud and obnoxious come to mind, though, she seems to keep her distance fom me. I hope I don't cause her any pain. She won't even look in my direction any more. Her attitude toward me did a complete 360 and now she's pretty much stays on the oppisite side of the base.

I wish I could just turn back time and make it the way it was, before we came to the base. Comming here seems to be a big mistake and I just keep causing people pain.

Both Maria and Rob have never left my side. I am greatful for that, but still this all just seems so wrong.

MARCUS:

I don't like this at all. You wouldn't really call us friends, but this isn't who Baird really is. He seems to have compeltely changed. I think Dom has noticed, because he seems to hang around me. Probably thinks I have a death wish.

I'm just tired. We are all extremely tired. After moving so many times, killing off thousands just to keep the Locusts from getting the upper hand and losing so many friends and families, we all have just had enough. After fifteen very long years, we all just want to give up.

Truthfully, I am ready to give up. I am getting tired of all this, and after Dom found Maria, he's just falling to pieces. It's hard to watch your best friend fall apart like that. He wakes from nightmares, screaming waking up all the sleeping Gears around him. His mood changes so quickly and he snaps at people over the smallest things.

I walk through the last of the survivors of Jacinto, and the stranded who have come to join us. This isn't how people should be living, cramped together on a small island clutching what little personal items they have left.

I've heard people muttering about the posibility of disease spreading. There is a rumer of some people being pretty sick, and it's sending panic throughout the civilians and Gears alike. We don't have the supplies to fight anything life threatening.

Even I find myself avoiding people now. We can't afford to have Gears sick too. Not with all the dangers still hidden out there and now there are rumers of exploading Locuts now. I'm worried about what dangers this will bring.

It started with one of the fishermen brough up a big strange looking fish and Cole freaked out. Of course all the fishermen laughed at him adn teased him about it, but something just didn't seem right about it.

Hoffman and Bernie must know something, they have been meeting with the Chairmen a lot more than normal. Whispers and secretes don't sit well with me.

Cole:

Barid is just not the same. No sarcastic comments or selfish attitude. It's different that he's so polite and helpful. He looks litke a lost little boy wondering the base. Both Maria and Rob keep an eye on him, but you can see that he's depressed. It's just not the same without my best friend.

I remember the first day we met. In a bathroom... Yes I know it doesn't sound like a very memorable meeting, but we have been insepreable ever since. He had opened his mouth and ended up pissing off his fellow Gears. They were getting ready to dunk his head in the toilet when I came in and stopped the fight.

Yeah he's a little self centered and sarcastic, but once you get past all that, he's a pretty good guy and smart too. Without him, everything would be broken. Somehow through all this war, after most of our squad was killed, but we somehow survived and stuck together. Joining Delta Squad we seemed to have better luck with our squad not dying.

I think we are all done with this war.

Going from one war to another with not enough time to take in a breath we went from Locusts to exploading creepy crawlies that eventually changed shaped. They just keep getting uglier and uglier.

I remember the first one I saw on the island. The fishermen just laughed, but i had a really bad feeling about it.

Thinking back to when I first joined the Cog, I remember leaving my career as a thrashball player and how everybody cheered. It was a reaction I wasn't expecting. My fans suported my career change and even now, their eyes light up when they see me.

Then with Baird losing his memory, I felt like a heavy weight on my shoulders. He has become a shell of the man he once was. Baird has always been my little buddy.

I really miss him...

Bernie

I have missed so much while away for so long. Trust me I didn't want to, Walking across the contanent because I sure as hell wouldn't be staying in a boat! Everybody has changed so much. Marcus looks terrible with that long discolored scar across his cheek. Dom has become even more quiet even little Anya has c hanged.

I had heard the rumers about Marcus going to prison but i didn't want to believe it. I could never pictures Marcus punching Vic. I've known him since he was just a baby gear. He and his best friend Carlos were close and Marcus a guy of few words pratically shut down when Carlos died.

Now it's Marcus and Dom. The two are inseprable. Poor Anya has always been there for Marcus. She truly loves the guy, but when it comes to feelings, Marcus is completely lost. Something he really didn't get from his parents. He is lucky to have both Dom and Anya there.

Dom... There are no words to expreass what that guy has been through. Pratically losing EVERYTHING. Marcus is the only one left as a reminder of the happier times. You can see it when they are together and you can tell that sometimes that Anya feels left out.

After being away for so long, I realized how much I missed my friends. I know now where I belong.

Anya

I feel like an outsider. Being in CIC for so long now that I feel out of place among the front line gears. Out of all the years I have been a gear, I have never been in a single battle. With Jack Bot, I have seen what Delta Squad sees, but that's as far as it's been.

Finally I got Col Hoffman to agree to get me out there on the front lines with the others. There is much training I have to go through again because it has been so long. Get retrained in using the lancer. I admit that the lancer feels ackward in my hands, but with in time, I will be able to go and protect what's left of the human race.

There is so much to take in about this war weatching people dear to you die and the human population dwendle down to almost nothing. Our supplies are also dwendling as well. Disease spreads through the crowded camps and with stranded now living among us, arguments and fightas are breaking out. It gets more and more difficult to keep the peace around the base.

There is never a day that goes by that I think of my mother. I miss her so much and I wish she could see me now. I think she would be so proud of me.

I watch as the people try to get on with their life. You can see that they are tired, the dark circles under their eyes from the lack of sleep. The very little personal items that they still own are still on hand, ready to be grabbed at short notice of another move.

We are all tired of moving. Every time it seems like things get better, the carpet is pulled out from under our feet and once again things seem hopeless. After a while, people grow depressed and soon, they don't smile at all. That's what it has become. Just as we think it's all going to get better, the lambent show up and once again

Sam

I am speachless. After all this time, I feel like I have lost another person dear to me. First my father, followed by my mother and friends and now Baird. It's difficult to see him like he is now.

Baird isn't the same anymore. The smart ass self centered ass is now a quiet selfless kind person. And he's polite! There is just something so wrong with it.

I do what I can to keep myself busy so I don' thave to think about it. When i have free time, I have time to think, and thinking is something I don't want to do. I can tell that the others are worried about me. I see the looks they give me. I don't give them time to try to talk to me though.

Everybody had seen my reaction when I threw myself at Baird. I just couldn't help myself. After what had happened, and then not seeing him for so long, I was just flooded with reliefe.

Bernie has been retraining him and slowly you can tell that things are coming back to him, but nothing about me that I know of. He hasn't spoken to me or about me to anybody. He seems to be doing well. Another sign he is starting to remember.

Still, I can't help but to be embarrased of my actions. I admit that I wasn't thinking when I threw my arms around him.

But what do I do now?

I know it seems a little rushed, but I wanted to get another chapter up, and I've been super busy and not feeling good. I got hit by a car again. My hip is what really hurts right now, but I'm fine. I kicked his car! Stuid driver. I'm slowly healing. Just not thinking too strait right now.

Be warned I might end it real soon. I hope the ending will be alright for y'all.