I'll Stay

Ch.12

The Walk, the Fire, and the Storm

Pov: O'brien

Turns out it was just one watch that night. The Spartan, being the Spartan that he was decided to pull an all-nighter.

"And here I was thinking that we were supposed to be a team?"

Tom only laughed as he ate some of the meat made last night, "You got your sleep, didn't you?"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, but we have to do our share! How does it help that our Spartan is tired?"

The man sighed mockingly, "Clearly you don't know much about us. We can spend days without sleep, days without food. I figured I would take one for the team and let you both get some shut eye. It's honestly no skin off my back. Unlike yours."

I sighed at the Spartans remark of my current apparel. Still questioning why I had no shirt or pants. Tom sat up and stretched before making a statement.

"We should move in the next couple of minutes, we have a long walk ahead of us."

He was right, and it made for a rather dull day. I had hoped for an easy operation, but this was too easy. All we were doing was walking. We walked across Rivers, rocks, and open fields. The only truly difficult part for me was my bare back and the sun beating down on it. That was solved a few hours into the walk.

Along the way, Tom made a poncho for me out of some debris we came across. When investigating the rubble we found a parachute bag with it. Look to be some remains of experiment back in the day when Reach was a testing ground for new space fairing technology. The fabric itself wasn't much but it was enough to protect my skin.

During this time we also had kept talking to a minimum, we were low on water and we had to use streams to supply us which was a risk there on its own because of bacteria. This time Pate came to the rescue and made a filter using some of the fabric from before and rocks. It was to filter out water from the stream into a container that the Spartan had carved out of a log the night before. The wood was sealed with a polish made out of who knows what.

With all our necessities met, we were well on making our way back to base. At least that was what I believed until we were given the bad news from Tom.

As we made our camp in another patch of forest, he gave his opinion.

"Well that was a good start for the first couple of days. At this rate, we should be able to make it back in 5."

My jaw dropped at the revelation.

"Seriously?!"

Tom wagged his head, "What did you expect? We can only go so fast by walking. If you want, we can probably get there a day quicker if we start jogging every now and then. But I know that most non-Spartans can't last for more than a few hours before they're worn out."

Spartan this, Spartan that…

I sighed knowing that there was no use, it looked like we would have to take the 5 days and hope we made it before the deadline. Pate was already set up to make camp by starting the fire. I was about to sit down before Tom spoke up, "Would you like to hunt tonight?"

It was out of the blue for me. Though it did make sense, I haven't really been providing as much for the team as I was the one who said we should be working as a team. I set up to get the bow, "Sure, I'll bring back dinner, just watch me!"

"Good, just don't wander too far from the camp. We want to be within earshot."

I took a few arrows and went on my search. Unfortunately, the prey wasn't anywhere for the hour I searched. I was about to call it quits, until I heard a hassle over the ridge.

"Come on you slowpokes! We're gonna make it to base in five days by my estimate!"

That sounded like that Sergeant!

I climbed the ridge and looked up the hill. Sure enough, there was the Sergeant, Dutch, and the other Spartan.

"Hey, guys!"

All their heads looked for the source, Johnson being the first to spot me. He laughed, "Hey son! Have either of my boys given you a hard time?!"

As soon as Dutch saw me, he made a dash with the others following behind.

"Hey O'Brien! Been a while!"

"Yeah?! Well we've been doing just fine!"

"Yeah?! I-... Where's your clothes?"

I sighed, "I don't know. Everyone else seems to have them."

The other Spartan, Emile, laughed genuinely for the first time.

"Knowing my brothers, the one you're stuck with tearing them off for tool making."

I sighed again, "No, Tom didn't find me until after I was awake."

Johnson suddenly laughed out of the blue, "So Tom is with ya? Let me guess, Private Pate is with ya?"

Shock went through my mind. Was the man in on this whole thing? Or was it something else?

Johnson seemed to pick up on my internal questions and answered them.

"It's how I would have handled it for an exercise like this. Send the 'Yes men' or grunts together to think for themselves. Have the hardheads together, being broken in by a guy with more experience. And have the leaders duke it out with one guy crammed in the middle trying to figure out who to follow. You dig?"

?

None of us said anything, Johnson took that answer and continued,

"Simply put, we were placed to get what we lacked. Example here is these two lumb nuggets needed a reality check that we need each other if we want to win. Emile here got a good lesson on that when he walked up to a-"

Emile shot forward with incredible speed to place a hand in front of the Sargent. He looked at his elder with fury.

"We agreed to never bring that up."

Johnson shrugged his hand away and laughed, "No, you and Duchy boy agreed. I'm free to say what I want."

The Spartan grit his teeth in fear as the old man continued, "As I was saying, Emilee unknowingly walked up to a baby Gúta… Became it's sweet little teddy bear."

Emilee groaned in external anguish, Dutch came over and gave him a pat on the back.

"It's alright man, I'll get you a drink when we get back. On my honor."

"Make it two…"

This brought so many questions more than answers, but I asked the pressing question to Dutch.

"Did you… Kill it?"

As much as I didn't care too much about killing a monster that size, I would have felt at least a little guilty about the baby.

Thankfully, my squadmate waved it off.

"Na, would have been too much of a hassle. But getting him out did cost us our breakfast and lunch. In fact, we're kinda running on empty."

I rolled my eyes and relayed instructions, "Just head down the hill, you'll come across our camp eventually. I'll keep looking for prey."

Johnson walked up and patted my shoulder, "Thanks, Skin. Might take you up on that. Let's move out men! Double time!"

I shook my head at my new nickname as they left, now resuming my hunt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After another hour, it was total darkness around the new forest. Luckily I was on my way back with new prey. Fortunate enough to catch a buck, (pretty proud of myself about that) unaware I was nearby.

And just like Tom said, I remained within shouting distance. It wasn't long before I saw the fire, and heard the laughter from the camp.

"Come on Emile, it's not that embarrassing."

"Yeah, Tom?! What about the time I caught you and Kat-!"

"Ok! Ok! I get your point!"

Johnson barked in the conversation, "Who's Kat? Some girlfriend?"

Emile laughed, "Yeah, she's our teammate. Tom here likes to spend an awful lot of time with her outside of missions."

Tom sighed, "This again? I've told you guys time and time again. Our friendship is strictly professional. We just so happen to talk about technology together."

He laughed, "Not the way I've seen you spar!"

By this time, I made it back to camp. Seeing everyone busy. Dutch, Emile, and Johnson were eating the leftovers of what we had cooked the day before. Pate was fiddling around with a new bone knife testing its sharpness on some wood. Tom was doing a craft of his own, one that looked like a new bow.

"Sup guys."

"Hey, Skins back!"

"Yeah, yeah. Tom, here's your bow."

"You can keep that. This new one is going to have more torque. Need some real strength to pull it."

My shoulders shrugged as I grabbed myself a spot by the fire next to Dutch and beside Tom. It was weird seeing all of us together like this. Maybe the Spartan was right and that this was just a vacation, only one where we just have the bare necessities.

My attention then turned to Pate as I asked him something, "You know anything about prepping deer?"

"Not really, No."

"I can show you if you want, come on over here."

Each of us had a deer antler in hand as we dragged it over to a nearby rock to do the procedure.

"Got to drain the blood, cut along the neck right here."

"Okay."

As the others talked about something I didn't really care about, I talked to Pate in a low whisper.

"Did I miss anything while I was away?"

"No, nothing much. We just talked about the logistics of how we're going to travel as a group. Johnson is going to be the final say, but Tom is going to be on point leading us on. Emile agreed to cover the back. The rest of us will be in the center."

"Alright. Did they say whether we're going to look for Cortez and the others?"

"No. If we come across them, it's alright. But it was agreed they understand the objective and will meet us there if nothing else."

"Alright."

I said nothing else as I did my best to show the noob how it was done. Cleaning out the guts, splitting the carcasses in half. I was honestly on autopilot the entire time. By the time the deer was prepared, I turned to the Private. He was in a daze. Time for a test.

"You get that."

"Uhhh…"

Yeah, went too fast there.

Nothing else was needed to be done. I was grabbing the meat when a sound of thunder echoed across the sky.

Rain… Perfect.

"Come on, let's get cooking before it gets wet."

"Right."

As our attention was back at camp, things were now on a serious note. Johnson was drawing out a map in the ground for the others to see.

"Now if I'm right, we should be in this forest for at least a couple of days. Then the rest is wilderness. So we need to get enough food and water to last the final leg of the journey."

Tom held up Pate's creation, "We could use this, but it wouldn't make enough clean water for the time restraint."

The old man pointed a finger.

"Unless we take it to another level. I've done my fair share of boy scouting in my career. All we need to do is find a stream with enough small rocks to filter out the bad stuff. If I'm wrong, we'll be at the nurse's office for a while."

For once, I felt like I had the better idea.

"Or we could just take advantage of the rain storm."

All heads turned our direction. Then they all looked at each other nodding their heads.

"Hmm, that too. You boys done with the meat?"

"Yeah. So who wants to cook?"

Thom bumped Emile's shoulder. In response, he looked like he was going to punch the man. But stopped when the spartan gestured to the fire. He gave an exasperated sigh.

"Alright."

He sat up and took the meat from us. Taking a bone knife he cut pieces and skewered them with the sticks they had sharpened. Placing them over the fire.

Thom laughed out of the blue. Taking all of our attention, "Now it's a camping trip. Got any song you all want to sing?"

Most of us sighed at the Spartan's common place of joking. Though truth be told, some music wouldn't have been bad…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was later in the evening, everyone had had their fill with the deer. Currently, everyone was asleep. Everyone except Thom as our watch, and me who had a case of insomnia.

Up in the sky, a starless night. Clouds covered overhead, light rain falling on us. Us being protected by the light covering of branches and leaves we had gathered after the meal. Earlier, Thom and Emile worked in the trees to make it happen while the rest of us gathered.

Outside the camp were containers of wood we had carved up. Gathering what water we could. Each bowl resonated a drip with every drop that panned in the water built up. It was calming.

Bored out of my mind, I turned to look at the watchman. Thom was fiddling with a twig in his hand whilst staring at the fire. His face no longer held the cheery demeanor, but that of a tired look. Not from being physically tired, but more of an emotional tired. It was a look I've seen on many veterans in this war. The face of one that has seen and done too much.

Gathering the nerves, I decided to ask.

"You want to talk about it?"

He looked from the fire across to me putting on that fake smile.

"Talk about what?"

"You don't have to pretend. I've seen that look too many times."

The unarmed Spartan sighed as he threw his twig into the fire. He gave his neck a good crack on both sides before responding.

"I've been at this for quite awhile, just as long as all my other brothers and sisters. It's been so long that the idea of a vacation seemed like a fantasy. Even now it's just for work."

I rolled my eyes, "Come on, I'm sure that's an exaggeration. They have to let you go sometime."

Thom's expression dropped more than before. Something was wrong here, I sat up from my makeshift bed. "They have to at least give you shore leave?!"

The man's head shook, "No, almost any or all free time is expressed as either honing our skills, or sleeping. That's as much vacation as we get."

Bull!

"What about you and your video games?! That's free time right?!"

"..."

"Well?!"

"I have to give up some of the time to sleep to play them. The last time I did that was about four years ago."

?!

"Our missions are always first and foremost, I get that. I made it my mission to never deprive myself of sleep before a mission. And these last few years the Covenant has increased its stride in finding our worlds… This could be the last time any of us get peace for a long time."

What are these guys? Some kind of super soilder-?...

I cringed at my own stupid thought. It was already stated time and time again that they were. I guess it didn't sit with me in what it entailed. Did Cal deal with the same stuff?

How much rest do they get?

"How long do you sleep for? Spartans I mean."

"Oh… A few hours… Every few days."

As tragic as it sounded, that explained why he took our watches yesterday. The thought or even the concept of just skipping sleep was mind boggling, especially coming from an insomniac.

"I don't get it."

It was my turn to be surprised, because I didn't say anything and neither did Thom. Dutch spoke up from his supposed sleep, still laying on his side.

"How do you keep your gains? Sleep is an important factor when building muscle. Same for nutrition and exercise. Yet you Spartans break all of the rules."

Thom chuckled, "I don't know the specifics, that's something to ask the scientists ONI has. Halsey even. All I know is that we have a watered down version of the procedures that the Spartan ll's have. Less equipment, less initial training. Spartan lll's are more experience learned in comparison."

Dutch didn't let up, "About that. None of that has been explained. Why don't you just shoot up every soldier with it."

"... Well, I may as well tell you. It's an expensive procedure, along with equipment that goes with it."

Dutch scoffed,

"Not buying that. We are talking about the extinction of the human race, and the concern of money is still on the table?"

"I'm sure they have reasons."

"Yeah? Like something they don't want to get out about how they're made?"

Thom cleared his throat, "Of course, it is classified material after all."

Dutch gave a, "Sure it is." And was going to leave it there, only for his line of questioning to be picked up by the old man.

"At this point I don't know if classified would even matter at this point, son. We're already in deep. Might as well come clean about your history."

"I don't know what you mean, sergeant."

"Mhhh, mind telling me when you started your career in the military?"

"That's classified."

Of course, we'll never know.

"What year were you born?"

"That's classified."

Why is the sergeant bothering it.

"Of course it is son, now tell me you didn't happen to be on a world that was glassed 20 years ago named Mako 2,... Thomas Kane."

"..."

"I knew it… Those ONI scumbags."

The air felt as if the sergeant threw gas into the fire that warmed us. I sat up from my bed, confused.

"Woah, I'm sorry? What?!"

Thom was now shuffled in his spot, putting his arms around his legs. Not once looking away from the fire.

"I haven't heard that name-… I forget the last time I was called that. How did you know?"

Johnson just laughed, "I would say classified, but I might as well tell. I was there. I was the one that pulled you out of that warzone that night."

Thom didn't look up from the fire, but his face scrunched up. A memory most likely.

"After I saved you, a day later I learned that you were orphaned… And I felt guilty… Had I gotten there sooner."

The Sargent shook his head, "Anyways. Then I had an idea. A cousin of mine was looking to adopt a kid. Specifically a victim of the war, his family wanting to do their part. I told him and his wife I found a kid…

"Only when I went to the medical station a few hours later, they said you didn't exist, and that I had never been there…"

I quietly gulped at the implication as he finished his story.

"Well, I knew better than to push things with 'you know who.' But it still hurt, and it hurt worse when I went to deliver the bad news to my cousin. Their world was attacked by the covenant. It all went down for me that day… Well either way I'm glad to see you're still kicking it. Did you at least have a choice?"

Tom sighed, "Yeah. I decided this was the best way I could get back at them…"

Johnson laughed, "That you did. Just tell me after the war if it was worth it."

The conversation stopped as the rain increased in intensity. Also, the sound of bowls tipping over got everyone's attention.

Johnson shot up and shouted out orders, "Soldiers! Grab the containers! Thom! Help me pull those other branches over! Emile! Get the big container ready for the water!"

Everyone did what they were told. For the next hour or so, (at least that is what it felt like) we gathered water from the bowls and added it to the container. It was filled to the top, and yet the storm persisted on our camp. The branches and leaves only helped a little bit. All of us were wet and had no fire anymore. None of us slept the rest of the night.

End Chapter