Redemptions Revolution PT2

Walking. The walk seemed much, much longer than it actually was. Odachi, a slightly younger man than Allen, walks a few yards in front of him carrying the previously captured radio, rucksack, and a silenced sub machinegun. Shorter than Allen he now seems similar in height due to Allen’s noticeably slouched manner and pace. Occasionally looking back at Allen, Odachi seems to have little concern for his comrade.

As the two near a small thicket of trees Odachi stops and slowly crouches, signaling Allen to do the same. While looking at Allen he points at his eyes with the middle and index fingers of his left hand. He then points slowly to his left where another tan clad soldier lays in the underbrush of the thicket. His scoped rifle pointed beyond the thicket the soldier seems to be scoping their path for the next half mile.

Odachi quietly suggests movement to the other soldier to Allen.

“Head over to Ursus. He’ll keep ya safe while I check out the next bend.”

Ursus, an older man of thick stature, it is a wonder such a man can be so elusive even to the pained eyes of Allen. Allen crawls over and lays to Ursus left.

In a gruff, fatherly tone, “Glad to have ya back ‘rider. We’ll get ya to camp and getcha fixed up.” He reaches into his left coat pocket and hands Allen several magazines for his pistol. “Better feed your bitch.”

Allen puts two of the mags into his the dual magazine pouch on the left side of his belt before pulling the pistol from its thigh ride holster to his right. Left hand shaking it seems difficult for Allen to feed the magazine into the well of the pistol. As he finally presses it in Allen racks the slide back, shaking hard as he does. After releasing the slide Allen checks once if the short wide cartridge had chambered before setting the safety to ON and placing the pistol in its holster.

“Here’s your can,” Ursus says handing Allen a gray toned silencer for his pistol, “and here’s some STIMS. I know you don’t believe in them but it looks like we could lose ya at any minute.” He hands Allen a small box which he shakes and can hear two small tablets rolling about.

Allen pulls the pistol back out and twists on the silencer before putting it back. Looking at the small box he begins to hand them back to Ursus and retracts when the gruff man gives Allen a “I’m gonna cut your hand off” look. Sliding the box open Allen pinches one of the tablets and places it under his tongue. Shuddering slightly Allen looks back at Ursus, his eyes slightly wider and less clouded.

“I’m sticking my boot in your ass when we get back.” Allen says with a low growl. He grabs the small canteen off Ursus’ rucksack and takes a drink before putting it back.

“Glad to have you back sweetheart. Now cover your corner so’s my ass don’t get shot off before you can kick it.” Ursus continues scoping the terrain far in front of them and Allen lays flat and turns his head to see behind them. To their rear he can barely make out the form of their tail gunner. Laying low at the base of a tree he lays even more still than the forest floor around him. Allen low crawls to some underbrush slightly above a noticeable trail; he scans for any movement or suspicious objects.

Ahead of them, movement. Odachi has returned to their line of sight and waves them forward. Allen low crawls at first then slowly raises up pistol in hand. He scans the area around him before taking a knee and waving the next man ahead. Behind him Amarok, the tail gunner, takes Ursus place as he moves ahead of Allen. Sitting still for a moment they all look and listen to their surroundings. Odachi sticks his left index finger in the air making a circular motion, the signal to rally on his position.

As they all slowly come together the tail gunner moves in last. As he reaches the group he takes off his helmet and unwraps his face from the strange scarf covering it. Distinctly of the cold desert people from Shadow the tattooed markings on his face help him closer resemble the name give to him by his forebears, Amarok.

Propping his shotgun against the tree behind them, “I can hear nothing coming from the camp. Thinks we got out in plenty of time. Them charges I laid will go off after they arrive to investigate.”

Allen seems to be staring off into the distance though at nothing in particular.

“Have I gotten a wave from my Lily?” Allen asks seemingly out of sorts.

Odachi and Amarok both look to Ursus for the proper answer.

Fatherly but gruff Ursus states, “We ain’t been off patrol for a week and a bit. Let’s see what came through to camp whilst we were huntin’.” Ursus looks back at his younger counterparts and lightly shakes his head. They seem to lie back for a minute before gathering themselves to move.

Odachi speaks as he readies, “I saw another small camp a kilo out. We could probably sneak about and be back to camp in two hours.”

Bringing his focus back to Odachi, Allen states coldly their primary mission, “We are to proceed on task and eliminate any threat or reinforcement to our section of the front. We can’t win the war by ourselves but we can do our best to keep the odds even between our boys and those gorram purple bellies.”

Allen moves a few yards forward of the rest of the group. Ursus seems understanding to the situation but Odachi and Amarok look confused on the state of their comrade.

“What do I do Urs?” Amarok says in a slightly somber tone.

“You give that to him after we get back to camp. No tellin’ what his reaction will be. I don’t want some rampaging monster tearing through the front. I know we are the four horsemen and all but emotional shit will get us killed. You know that.” Ursus replies, almost demanding in tone.

“I shoulda went into that camp, not him.” Odachi says with the slightest hint of remorse. “We all knew that he aimed not to ever come out even if he did join back up with us. Give it here.” Odachi tells Amarok. Amarok reaches in a pants pocket and hands Odachi two braided lockets of brown hair. “We should have never called him off his rock. We should have let him have his time and left him be. Now we owe it to him to get him the hell outta here.” Odachi puts the lockets in his pocket and checks his weapon.

“Where the hell did he go?” Ursus asks. He begins to scan the terrain beyond them with his riflescope. Amarok quickly rewraps his face and throws on his helmet before taking up his shotgun. Odachi looks at the dark sky and seems to say a small prayer before patting Ursus on the shoulder and moving forward.