Interval 00: Prologue
Point Man
Day 2, 0900 hours
Pain. That is what shot through his body. Excruciating pain that made every nerve ending in his body cry out for relief. He heard a high pitched metallic whine coming from outside. It was rhythmic. It repeated itself over and over again. It must have been the propellors spinning in circles. It almost drowned out the sound of the flames that were seemingly everywhere judging by just how loud they were. Uncertainty flooded through his mind. He had thought that the mission was a success. The Origin facility had been destroyed. The remnants of Alma, his mother, had been destroyed alongside it. Then how did the woman still find her way onto the helicopter? It was all supposed to be over.
His eyes opened to meet the floor he had been resting upon. He slowly pushed himself up off of it, groaning in pain as he felt his side ache sharply. Heavy bruising was preferable to anything worse, and could only hope that nothing broken. Once he was to his knees he looked around the fire-lit helicopter. No sign of Jin Sun-Kwon, Douglas Holiday, or any of the helicopter crew. At least, that had been the case until he heard coughing coming from the cockpit. He stood up and made his way over to it, avoiding the debris that littered the floor as he did so.
He poked his head inside and was greeted with the sight of the pilot. The woman pulled her helmet off before looking around, jumping in her seat as her eyes had met with his visor.
"Fuck!" The strawberry blonde cursed, "You could have said something, or knocked or something!" She chastised the man as she shifted and unlocked her seatbelt before reaching and grabbing for her sidearm from the holster nestled on the side of the chair.
Once she retrieved the weapon, she stood up and hobbled towards him. "You're going to have to help me, man. My leg's hurt pretty bad." She informed him as she reached out to him with one of her arms.
He took it and guided her out of the cockpit. He was not in any condition to be carrying another person, but together, he figured, they would be enough to support one another.
"I don't know what that interference was, but there was nothing I could do to counteract what happened. Have you seen the others? My co-pilot is missing." The woman asked.
The man shook his head. He was wondering where they were himself. Especially Jin. The woman had been through a lot the night prior, and she was one of the few people he knew had his back no matter the circumstance. They made their way outside and into the morning air. Normally, it would have been polluted, but somewhat refreshing city air. What they had walked out to, however, was the overcast of debris in the air thick enough to blot out the sun. A horrible shade was casted over the district they were in because of it. To make matters worse there was fire all around them because of the crash.
"Jesus..." The woman said as she looked around, "Let's get away from the crash. Find a building somewhere and hole up until we can come up with a plan of action."
The Point Man wanted to pry around to see what he could find, but he knew he had to get the woman to somewhere relatively safe. She would not be able to survive any confrontation with enemy soldiers, let alone anything that his mother might get the terrible idea to throw at them. As a result, without another thought he started walking away from the wreckage. When he had been picked up by the helicopter he had none of the equipment he had previously utilized, and it didn't seem like anyone other than Douglas had a weapon on them. Surely there was something left behind in the helicopter, though. He made a mental note to circle back once the pilot was safe.
They walked for some time until they were about four blocks away from the crash site. They both were getting tired of walking, and they saw a decent apartment building ahead of them. Plenty of places to hide away in, and thus worthwhile for their needs. It did not look abandoned, however, and he moved to the wall of the building beside them to obscure himself and the pilot.
"Alright, get inside." The man said softly, "I'm going to try calling Andy again."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to try that at the roof?" A woman's voice asked, "It's dangerous out there, haven't you heard what nuclear explosions can cause?"
"Oh yeah. Sorry. Wait, wouldn't going to the rooftop make it even worse?"
"Yeah, but we can at least try going to the top floor. I'm sure one of the neighbors will let us in."
The pilot looked at Point Man, and the man looked at her in return. "We should try asking them for help." She stated softly, "A little help is better than no help."
Maybe, or maybe they would be trouble. That being said, he knew that the woman's leg would be in serious need of help by then. So her suggestion won out once again, and he pushed away from the wall and started walking across the street.
"Rick! Look!" The woman said, and this time the Point Man could see her. A nondescript brunette with fair skin wearing a t-shirt and jean. The man was not much better off. He looked like your typical office worker on his day off. "It's the military!"
The man turned, and as he saw them he jogged over to them. "Woah! Hey, you two must have been in that freak accident with the helicopter, huh?" He asked as he helped the Point Man support the pilot.
"Yes." The pilot confirmed with pain and gratefulness in her voice. "You'll have to pardon my companion, he doesn't speak..." she informed the man, "...You wouldn't happen to have access to a first aid kid, would ya?"
"We do." He said, "My name is Rick, yours?"
"Valerie." She said softly, "And you don't have to worry, the explosion was not nuclear. It was just a really big boom."
"I...see. That's somewhat of a consolation. Nuclear or not, the city is a shitshow now." Rick stated with a grunt as they walked inside.
"You'll have to fill me in once we get to your apartment." Valerie stated softly.
The man nodded, "Cat, get the door open for us."
The woman opened the apartment door as wide as she it could be for the three. Once they were inside, she followed and closed the door behind them. She locked the security door, and followed them to Rick's apartment on the third floor. Apartment Eighteen. It took a bit of time due to Valerie's wounds, but they made it nonetheless. Once inside the man's apartment they brought her to the couch and sat her down. At first glance the place didn't seem too terrible. In fact, it was quite well kept. Rick disappeared down the hallway of his apartment to retrieve the first aid kit. Valerie groaned lightly as she looked up at Point Man.
"Thanks." She said softly, "Before you go running off like I got told you tend to do, you need to get some rest as well."
The man nodded. He was feeling the exhaustion of the night before, but he had to push through it for now until they had all of the information they needed. To compromise he sat down on the couch beside the woman, grunting at he did so. He could not wait to get the gear off of his body.
"Thankfully the apartment building has a private water reservoir, otherwise we'd be like the rest of the damned city." Rick said as he returned from the bathroom, and placed the kit on the table before opening it. "But I can't guarantee it'll still be working for much longer. You two should get cleaned up, feel free to use whatever soaps you can find. It's just me and Cat living here."
"Cat. Rick. Understood. Thank you. Both of you." Valerie said as she looked at the woman, and then to Rick. "You said that the city is a shitshow. What's going on?"
The man chuckled as he started to get to work on the woman's leg, rolling her pantleg up to access the wound on her thigh.
"Where to start? About an hour and a half, to two hours ago, that explosion went off and we were certain we were going to die. Not too long after that, your helicopter fell out of the sky for seemingly no reason, and activity started to get crazy. It sounds like a war out there. We were only on the streets because we needed to get some supplies for our people." He said softly, "This city has been a warzone for the last twelve hours at least, since last night, and that explosion did nothing to fix it."
Valerie nodded slowly, "Yeah, that sounds about right. Nothing is ever easy. Have you seen or heard of anything related to the military? Other people like he and I?"
"No." Rick said with a shake of his head, "You are the only ones we've seen. We haven't even seen the fighting. Only heard it. It's surprisingly quiet right now."
"Yeah, but you can ask some of the others. They might know more." Cat added softly.
"How many people are in this building?" Valerie asked.
"Thirty." Rick said, "But if anyone is going to know of anything, it'll be Andy. He is currently out scavenging for some electrical stuff we've needed."
Valerie nodded, looking over at the Point Man. "I see... do you know where he was scavenging?"
Rick replied with a sigh, "The old mall, about five miles down the road. He should have been back by now. He's well overdue, and I can't get any reception on the phone."
Point Man just nodded, and slowly stood up.
"No." Valerie stated, "You need to rest..."
The Point Man then looked at Cat, and motioned towards Rick's phone on the table. She tilted her head at him, briefly unaware of what he was asking before the context caught up with her. She then nodded, and grabbed the phone before pulling up the map. She then showed him the location of the mall. He then turned to look at Valerie briefly.
In a defeated tone, she relented, "Fuck it. I'll hold down the fort until you get back. Stay safe. Don't do anything stupid."
Rick stopped what he was doing briefly to turn and address the Point Man. "Thank you for this, sir. We'll be in your debt. It isn't much, but... Cat, can you get the man the pistol in the junk drawer, and its magazines? He's going to need to protect himself out there."
"Mhm!" The woman said as she walked into the kitchen, and in only a minute she returned back. She offered the Point Man the weapon, which he took and holstered whilst also stowing away the magazines she provided him.
"We'll keep your friend safe. Don't worry, she's in good hands. When you get back food'll be ready, and you'll have a bed prepared." Rick stated warmly before turning back to Valerie.
The pilot then smiled, "Good luck, sir. Get back here in one piece. Who knows, maybe your lady friend has gone shopping."
With that the Point Man turned and promptly left their apartment, and walked down the stairs. It was not pleasant to be moving right now, especially with such haste. In truth he had been looking for a few hours of rest, but that would have to wait. He needed to find this Andy and get him back to safety. He needed to find Jin.
Author's Notes: Hey guys. I told you I would be getting to work on bringing this back. I had pondered whether or not I should make a new story entirely, or just use this one. To avoid the hassle of you guys having to hunt down a new one, and since it'll be very similar to the previous version, I opted to just remove the previous chapters and start 'new'. If you'd like, I can find a way to put the old story back up. It'll just require some more extensive thought on my part. I hope you like the beginning of this new installment. Do not worry! The originals have been saved, and a lot of the ideas will be transferring over. Most importantly, the characters will be as well. I hope you enjoyed!