Chapter Text
The soft rustle of the leaves calms me. It helps me leave all my thoughts behind, I focus solely on the sound. The hot New Mexico sun beaming on my face. The forest is my safe space, my haven. Despite living not far from a desert, this almost magical oasis thrives. The dirt is still coarse, and the canopy rather bare, but it still exists, despite the world basically giving up on it. It’s a comfort where I can truly escape. I look down at my well worn sneakers as I walk, observing the little bugs that crawl across the dusty ground. Little beetles and flies and… something red? I lean down closer to get a closer look at this bug, only to realize… it’s a dot. And it moved, creeping up my body.
“No..” I look up in front of me and notice a tall wooden tower built outside of a dreary grey building. I’m at the edge of the forest. And there’s a sniper pointed at me.
I immediately tried to duck and weave, praying I was fast enough. God how could I zone out so much I didn’t even notice that big grey building coming into view?? I sprint back into the forest and duck behind the trees. My heart is beating out of my chest. I’m safe now, I’m safe. Oh my god did that really just happen??
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Sniper grumbles as he unscopes from his rifle. He takes a sip from his unwashed coffee mug and grabs a beaten up walkie-talkie beside him. He clears his throat and speaks:
“Hey, uh, it’s Sniper. We got an intruder on the west side, short, brown haired sheila, can somebody check it out? Over. ”
Scout grabs the walkie-talkie off the coffee table in the common room.
“Ohh! Me! Me! I’ll go!”
“Now Scout,” Engi leans forward in his seat, “You don’t have any.. ulterior motives for wantin’ to go, do ya?”
“What??! Nahh, course not. Can’t believe you’d even say that.” Scout quickly pointed his thumb at himself. “I’m the fastest, it just makes sense. I’ll be out and back in a second, it’s practical.”
Medic looks up from reading his newspaper, “Scout makes a good point for once.”
Scout makes a face in Medic’s general direction as he gets up and grabs his gear.
“I’ll be back before the fat man even finishes his sandvich!” He gloated and flashed Heavy a cheeky grin. Heavy only frowned at Scout, defining the wrinkles in his face. Scout nervously laughed, before quickly speeding out the door.
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The idea that I could have just died is still only sinking in. I haven’t been able to move from this spot. God what if that Sniper’s just waiting for me? How- how did I even wander this far? I didn’t even know this was here! For all I know I just ran into a band of criminals and I’m now on their hit list. Oh man, this is too much. I feel like my chest is compressing into itself. I’m going to explode, and not even because of a bullet to my brain. I-
The sound of footsteps brings me back. I look up and see a skinny man in a red shirt staring at me.
“Hey. Uh, whatchu on the ground for?”
I was not expecting to talk to someone. Let alone this random boy, I can only stammer out a pathetic, “What?”
“Um, well it’s dirty, ya know? Unless you don’t mind that kind of thing.”
“Oh, I- I was just walking and I saw a sniper dot on the ground, and I got so scared. I thought I was gonna die. I’m still kinda reeling from that, I dunno.” I really get a look at this guy. He’s wearing a dark baseball cap and orange one sided headphones. A pair of dog tags dance on his chest, a pair of tall socks are pulled over his pants, and what seems to be a sawed off shotgun is gripped in his hand. I instinctively push my back into the tree.
“Wait, wait you're not with that sniper, are you? God, please don’t kill me, if you want me gone I’ll go. I’ll never come back. I don’t want to get involved in whatever criminal… government… drug ring or whatever you guys are running.”
The boy smirks, “What? Drug ring? No way, we’re mercenaries.” He slings the gun over his shoulder.
“So you still kill people then.”
“Oh yeah!” he shrugs, “But I mean it don’t really count since they come back to life.”
I freeze.
“What.” My mind turning trying to process what I just heard. I stammer, “What do you mean come back to life?”
The boy tenses and his eyes flick around searching for an answer, “UHHHHH”
“You imbecile!” a voice I don’t recognize echoes through the air, seemingly from right beside me. But there’s no one there.
“What, who said that?” I hastily get up from the ground, scanning for anyone. I start backing away.
“Listen man, you don’t need to call for backup or anything, I’ll just go. I’ll leave. I’ll forget I was even here, we all good?” After making some distance, I turn around and start to run.
“Hey, hey wait!!” The boy calls, but I don’t stop. Until I hear a whooshing noise from behind me. I turn around, only for a sharp pain to radiate from my side. I fall to the ground writhing in pain.
“AUGHHH!!”
“Merde.” A man in a balaclava and pinstripe suit appeared from nowhere, covered in a veil of smoke. I opened my hands to where I instinctively grabbed the wound, to discover a knife poking out of my flesh. Each movement I made felt like hot fire.
“There’s a knife in me, no, no please. Please don’t kill me, I’ll do anything! Really!” I look up to the man, pleading for my life, helpless on the ground. The man fished a white handkerchief from his suit pocket and rolled his eyes.
“Oh, mais ta gueule.” He pressed the cloth against my face, I struggled to claw it off until suddenly it went black.
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Scout walked up to where the girl had fallen.
“Yo, yo Spy what the hell did you do to her?” He leaned down and poked her with his bat.
Spy stashed the cloth back into his pocket. “Something I wouldn’t ‘ave ‘ad to if you had kept your ugly mouth shut!” He turned to face Scout. “You told ‘er about respawn, that’s confidential!”
Scout crossed his arms nonchalantly, “Hey, I was just makin’ conversation, you should try it sometime.” He looked at Spy for a moment before realizing, “Wait why are you even here?”
Spy fished a cigarette out of his disguise kit and finicked with lighting it, “ I followed you so you wouldn’t mess this up spectacularly. Unfortunately I arrived too late.” He flicked the lighter shut to punctuate his remark.
“Listen I was doin’ fine before you yelled and spooked her.”
“You idiot, now she’s a liability. She knows too much.”
“Woah, woah calm down Spy.” Scout raised his arms in protest, “She’s just a civilian. I mean it ain’t her fault she wandered too close to the base.”
“Zis isn’t about ‘er knowing about ze base. All of Teufort knows about ze base!”
“Come on Spy! This ain’t fair!” Scout groaned.
“You’re a mercenary. By now you should know, life isn't fair.” Spy reached into his suit jacket, pulling out a revolver, promptly pointing it at the girl’s head.
“Can’t we just talk ‘bout it?”
“We ‘ave been, let me do my job.”
Scout stared at the girl, limp on the floor, slowly bleeding.
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
He ran past Spy and grabbed her, holding her with a fireman’s carry and sprinted away.
“SCOUT!”
But Scout didn’t stop.