I choked and tried to remember past the pain, “Uh… Urbetes… on the edge of the Outskirt Forest.” I said weakly. I didn’t know what had happened, but I had some vague memories that were zipping through my mind.
“Wait...” the comms went dead and I was left to silently ponder about the disturbing spectacle that was my home city, “How close were you to ground zero?”
“Pardon?” I asked groggily as bits and pieces of my memory forced their way through and answered questions such as how I got dried blood all over my face.
“We were called in after a bombing run that hit Urbetes and some of the surrounding regions, how close were you when the bombs fell?”
“Um… I don’t… know. Twenty..? Thirty..?” I was barely able to understand myself, and after the word ‘thirty’ my throat became dry and no more words would come out.
“Kilometres?” the operator asked, stopping my impending power nap.
I shook my head but realised he couldn’t see me shortly after, “Metres…”
“Metres!? How are you still alive?”
It was at that point I realised this person was clearly not military.
“Luck I suppose.” I was finally becoming more coherent and, steadily, I found my legs. “Now, I’m sure this isn’t just a social call, what news have you got for me?” I said as I assured myself that my legs weren’t broken.
He stayed quiet for an almost unsettling amount of time. “We’re just here to medevac those who need it. If you head deeper into the Outskirt Forest you’ll find a drop ship that’ll bring you here.” Something seemed off in his voice.
“What else is there?” I asked.
Again, things fell quiet for a few seconds, “Let me just get the Captain.”
A few minutes passed by and my vision, which I hadn’t noticed was blurred, was starting to go back to normal to the point where I could just make out something that distinctly looked like fire on the opposite side of Urbetes. Whatever it was though was being obscured by the large rocks and stones that made up the mountain there.
“Cadet?” a gruffer sounding voice echoed in my ear, “Cadet Nokri?”
“I’m here.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” the voice said with a sigh, “my name’s Captain Zephyr.”
I chuckled, “That’s a nice first name you’ve got there, I’m sure it makes the job easier.”
Zephyr laughed in response, “That’s it grunt, keep humour about you. Now, Davin here was just telling me about your location. He seems to think that it’d be wise to just pull you out of there, but there are a few still down in the city. Most have banded together in small pockets and will be travelling out to the Outskirt Forest’s evac zone-”
“What about Cadets Mouse and Jadari?” I blurted out before he could say anything else.
He went quiet as he processed what I’d asked, “Just a sec… There! Seems they’re with one of the groups on their way out, currently in the tunnel, but there are some who are still trapped in the city.” he said, not giving me so much as a moment to be grateful that they were alive, “You think you’re up to the job?”
I looked down at the branch through my body, wrapped my hand around it and shrugged, “Why not?” I said before ripping it out.
Almost immediately I went into shock as a waterfall of blood poured out of my body. I resisted the urge to scream or collapse and grabbed for the can of med-foam that was supposed to be sitting on my belt. It wasn’t there, and I knew I had all of about ten seconds before I was counting sheep.
I cursed my eagerness to get the branch out while my brain eased those thoughts by rationalising the action as necessary to avoid it puncturing any organs when I moved. Then I saw the can at my feet and, with a gasp, scooped it up, popped off the cap and squirted it into the wound.
There was nothing for a minute, tunnels closed around my vision, but then, as I landed on my arse, there was a searing pain as the foam worked its magic, chemically cauterising the wound and stopping the gaping hole from letting any more of my life get out.
“What was that?” Zephyr asked in a panic, “Are you alright?”
My fingers tingled and I could almost feel my pupils dilating wildly, “Never better. Rarin’ to go,” I said as I shot up to my feet, “come on, times-a-wastin’, give me those coordinates.”
“Are you sur-?”
“I’m sorry Captain, but I’m on a time limit right now, and when the clock runs dry, well… Let’s just not let that happen.” I hoped to the Gods that the foam would hold up as advertised, but I did accept that normally it was used on stationary patients who were with their squad mates, and not people who were trying to get their heart rate up, and even then it was only meant to last roughly an hour so they could get to an actual doctor.
“I like your enthusiasm Nokri,” the Captain said with a laugh, “alright, let’s save some lives.”
Insubordination
There were ten soldiers on my list, the rest were either too far from me or in positions that could wait for rescue crews. Though, after the first half hour, I’d only found six and I was starting to drift, only just managing to force my eyes to stay open by focussing on the senses that could draw attention away from the pain.
The city was still growing, the sounds of trees carving through buildings made me jump every time, but I had to stay strong for the others. Of the six in my party, four were pledges, who were all mostly fine, shaken up but uninjured. The other two, who were sergeants, weren’t so lucky.
The first, maybe in his mid-twenties, had the dark skin of a Benetzian but spoke with the ‘Americanised’ accent that had persevered long after humanity branched out from Old Sol.
His leg had been crushed by a Rhino’s tyre when he’d been trying to save a family from a falling building. Didn’t complain about it though, instead he opted to mutter under his breath about how stupid the family had been while dragging his leg behind him and using a branch as a cane.
The other one was much paler, mainly due to the fact that she had been impaled similarly to me. However it was obvious that the branch, which was about five inches in diameter, had punctured at least her right lung as compared to only, what I was certain of, my spleen. By the time I’d found her some of the pledges had already managed to fashion a stretcher out of some tarpaulin and sticks.
I’d have called them industrious if they weren’t so insistent on whining about every little thing, ‘What if they bomb us again?’ ‘I’m covered in my friend’s blood.’ ‘Everyone I knew is dead.’ Wah, wah, wah.
I was leading a pack of children and just waiting for the moment that what was essentially a dam made of toothpaste gave way to my organs unrelenting desire to see the world, and I hadn’t said a bloody word.
That’s when I started to hear a moan for help.
“Where’s that coming from?” one of the pledges shouted.
“If you shut up I might be able to find out.” I snapped as I turned my ear to the sky.
It was hard to tell over the sound of the rustling trees and cracking buildings, but I finally got an idea of where it was coming from and turned to face it.
It was a building that would’ve been about fifty storeys high if it weren’t on a forty five degree angle, a tree had grown through it and was holding it in place almost directly above our heads. Another few seconds went by before I pinpointed the floor he was on, the fifth and practically completely crushed storey.
“You guys wait here,” I said without turning to the soldiers, “I’ll be right back.”
“What do you mean ‘I’ll be right back’?” the conscious Sergeant growled, “Nothing that starts with the phrase ‘I’ll be right back’ ever ends with the person being right back. We should stick together and-”
“And what?” I asked coolly but spitefully, “Leave him in there?”
“I didn’t say that.” the Sergeant retorted defensively.
“So you’re going to climb through the building with me then?”
He bit h
is lip, “I didn’t say that either. Look, I don’t want to have to pull rank bu-”
“Try it and see how far it gets you.” I said, challenging his piercing glare, “We’re in Urbetes Sarge. Here the person who gets listened to is the one who earns the right, and the way we settle disputes of who has the right is through combat and, with all due respect, I don’t think we need to try that in order for us to know who will win.”
He scowled at me, “I could lose both my legs and still stomp your arse into the ground, Cadet.” he spat like it was supposed to insult me.
“I’ve been charged with getting as many of our men out of the city as possible,” I said, completely ignoring him, before walking over to the building’s warped entrance, “and unless you’re going to chase me, I don’t see us sparring.”
The Sergeant went to bark after me but went silent as I punched out the loose parts of glass in the door and let them crash to the floor. I waited for him to continue with his berating or to attempt to get the control he’d been used to having over subordinates, but he was done.
With a seethe from the pain that I’d been hiding, I crouched through into the all but destroyed atrium, ignoring the blood running down my side.
A Hero Falls
“Private!?” I called through the labyrinth of destruction that was the severely angled office building.
In the few short minutes that I’d been in there I’d dodged a dozen falling staplers and slipped on twice as many stacks of glossy paper, none of which were doing good things for my wound.
“Private! If you don’t answer me in the next thirty seconds I swear I’m gonna leave your arse in the here!” I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, I had a mission and I was going to stick to it.
Then there was a faint groan just a few metres away and I released the bubbling wound that I’d been subconsciously holding as I clambered over collapsed cubicles and desks toward the sound.
“I’m almost there! Just hold on!” I shouted as my foot got caught on an ergonomic chair.
It took a great deal of ignoring baser instincts that I was pretty sure were there to stop me from killing myself, but I managed to flip over the table where the sound was coming from and found a weak and broken but not quite dead Private, a hefty piece of rebar mesh pushing against his mid-section.
“Okay… okay… fuck… fuckfuckfuc- Hey!” I said as sweetly as I could when I saw his eyes start to flutter, “Hey, you’re Private Uhir, right?”
He tried to speak, but gave up as blood bubbled at the back of his throat and just nodded.
“Okay, good, good… So you can’t move?”
He shook his head and I could feel myself starting to really panic.
“Okay… Um… I guess I’ll just… No… Fuck!” I shouted under my breath.
The building was starting to creak and I was starting to have thoughts of self-preservation. I couldn’t though. There was no way that I could leave him there.
I tested the weight of the rebar and wasn’t surprised to discover my initial assessment had been accurate in that it was at least 150 kilos, which my busted up body simply couldn’t manage. What I needed was a team of medics and a construction crew, and all I had was me, myself and I.
That is until I heard footsteps running up from behind me, “We have to go!” an unfamiliar female voice shouted.
“I can’t,” I shouted back, turning to see a young Asian woman in uniform, I was guessing Chinese in ancestry, running through the mostly demolished building, “there’s someone trapped here, and I ain’t leaving without him!”
I expected her to either keep running or try and drag me along, but, without saying a word, she bounded over to me, crouched down next to the rebar, and got in a position to lift it, “On three.”
I was shocked, but mimicked her and locked my hands under the metal, “One.”
“Two.”
“Three!” we roared at the same time as we shifted but still held the piece of rebar, showing that Private Uhir wasn’t nearly as I crushed as I thought.
“Hurry up and grab him!” the girl snapped, “This whole place is about fifteen seconds from being on our heads!”
“We can’t just move him! We could kill him!”
“If we leave him he’s dead anyway, along with the both of us.”
I was liking the fact that she’d landed on the decision that if I was staying she was as well, but at the same time I couldn’t get behind her on what she was saying.
“Just… just get me out of here…” Uhir groaned, “I can move my toes now…”
That’s when he fell unconscious.
Angrily, I let go of the rebar and dragged Uhir out from where it could fall, allowing the girl to finally let it go.
I scooped up under one of Uhir’s arms and, after she quickly caught her breath, the girl went under the other, “Which way?” I asked, my vision starting to blur again.
“The way I was going, follow me.” she said before guiding the way toward the building that the one we were in had fallen into.
“What’s your name?” I asked as we trudged through the broken glass and I tried to pretend I didn’t hear the creaking metal.
“…Private Xiang.” she said hesitantly, which seemed weird to me, but who am I to judge?
“Nice to meet you, I’m Cadet Nokri, Freyja Nokri. Friends call me Frey for short.”
“That’s all well and good, but can we do our introductions when we’re out of the building? We’re running out of time.”
I was right about to get catty when I felt the ground starting to move beneath me, “I think… we just did.”
Neither of us bothered trying to run, the exit was another hundred or so feet away and we were already going down. Instead we both dropped to the ground, covering Uhir as best as we could while falling.
Everything was so quiet for me, though I was sure it was actually a roaring cacophony for everyone else. Before long the building had hit the ground and we were more or less okay, the fall only being around thirty feet.
That wasn’t the end of it though, no, turns out the bombing had weakened the integrity of the road above the subway and, before I could make the classic ‘Well, that wasn’t so bad’ line, the building was swallowed by the road.
I felt an incredible pain rip through my leg to my lower back, keeping my mouth shut as I looked down and made sure nothing had landed on it or impaled it, smiling weakly when I saw it hadn’t.
“You okay?” I asked the two unmoving people with me.
There was nothing for a few seconds, then Xiang nodded and Uhir groaned.
“Good… good. That’s good.” I mumbled as I got to my feet, a limp being added to the list of crap that was wrong with my body.
“H-hello?” I heard a voice ask from the tunnel beside us.
I turned to face the source, smiling when I saw it, a train car filled to the brim with survivors.
“Hi.” I said drunkenly with a little wave.
I’m pretty sure that’s when I fell on my face.
Eir
I woke up on a soft bed with a knitted blue blanket over me. It took a few blinks in the harsh white light, but pretty quickly I was able to make out the several medical apparatuses and dividers that surrounded me.
There was a green LED flashing close to my head, and soon after I woke a doctor and a nurse came in, the white coat being the only way I could differentiate between the two.
“You’re one lucky son of a bitch.” the doctor said with a smile as the nurse started looking me over.
“What happened on Urbetes? Where am I?” I asked surprisingly calmly.
The doctor smiled as he approached me and looked over the instruments, “You’re on a medical frigate, Eir. I believe you talked with the Captain about getting some troops off the ground?”
I prepared myself for the bad news, “How many did I lose?”
“None.” the doctor said without losing his smile.
“What?” I asked.
Clearly he was mist
aken, the last thing I could remember was falling and, shortly afterwards, blacking out.
“You, Miss Nokri, successfully got all you were sent for off-world, as well as an additional thirty that were trapped underground.”
“The girl!” I shouted, shooting up as everything came flooding back, “There was a girl, Private… something.”
The doctor regarded me confusedly for a moment and then realised what I was rambling about, “Oh! Private Xiang? Yes, she’s fine, but she made it clear that all she did was get you over the finish line. You’re the real hero.”
I laid back down and smiled, I didn’t know why, but knowing that she was safe made my heart swell with joy.
“Well that’s good,” the doctor said, his attention back on the instruments, “here I thought these were broken. That’s the first spike we’ve seen in your heart rate since you got here,” he said, ruining a perfectly good moment, “you are, by far, the calmest patient I’ve ever had. Well, with the exception of the rest in your little troupe.”
It took me a moment to realise who he was talking about, “Tyr and Mouse are okay?” I said as I slowly sat back up. It was like the universe’s slowest work-out.
The doctor nodded, “Mouse is fine, she’s just nursing a broken arm.” then the doctor paused for a second, and it wasn’t until he started to speak that I understood, “Mister Jadari on the other hand, and do excuse the pun, suffered some fairly severe wounds. He’s alive and he’ll be fine by all counts but-”
I interrupted him with my stretching and cracking, “Where is he?”
“Cadet Nokri, I’m afraid you won’t be able to move for a couple of da-” I jumped out of the bed, “Oh… um, alright then.”
“Where’s my brother?” I said more fiercely than the first time.
The doctor straightened up, “C Block, but I must insist that you-”
“Thank you.” I said as I left the room. I felt like I was being rude, but Mouse was injured, and apparently Tyr had something worth saying ‘He’s alive’ about.
Guardians (Æthyrium Rising - Guardians Book 1) Page 10
