I woke up the next time on somebody’s shoulder. The guy was pretty big and obviously strong to be carrying my temporarily dead weight over his shoulder with one hand.
“Hey Chuck.” –Me
“Oh come on, how did you know it was Charlie?!” I heard Steve say from in front of Charlie.
We both stared at him, “You’re a twig, dude.” –Me
“I think you’re sexy, baby.” –Katie
“Let’s keep it PG, guys.” –Sarah
“Kind of a crappy first day, huh Ryan?” –Charlie
“It’s not all bad, at least I’m not just watching.”
“True.”
We walked in silence for a while. Well, I rode in silence and everybody else walked in silence for a while. Then I remembered my most likely way out of this, the OS messages I’d been missing out on.
What’d I miss?
Oh look who decided to check his messages.
Bout’ time!
Yeah yeah yeah I get it, but excuuuuse me for being dead!
Dude, we went over this in training like 50 bajillion times. You’re not resistant to it yet?
Oh, you mean when you and Steve shot me over and over? Gee thanks for easing up.
You’re welcome!
That was sarcasm.
Oh.
That was just sad, John.
Amen.
Ok so yadda yadda yadda what’s the plan?
For starters…. I’m getting REALLY cramped in here.
In where?
A urinal.
The $#%@ing gun, dip$#*%!
Oh yeah, you haven’t gotten out of there yet?
No I haven’t gotten out of here yet! If I had, this war would be over, man!
Pssh, you wish.
Guys I think we all know how this war would end quick… I’d snipe them all out.
Are you serious? How stealthy is a body just randomly falling from a shot no one saw?
Uhhh, because they didn’t see the shot?
What’s the shot got to do with anything? It’s the kill, jack@$$!
I….. Ummm… Just tell Ryan the plan.
Take a look down and to you’re right, Ryan.
I did as I was told.
You see that pistol on Charlie?
Sure do.
Take it.
Now?!?
No, when monkeys stop eating bananas.
Monkeys do like bananas.
That’s true. Yes, now Ryan. Follow my lead. Go.
Taking a swing and a big load of momentum, I reached over and took Charlie’s gun right out of his holster. I fell off his shoulder, partly due to the reaching, and partly due to Charlie turning and pulling his assault rifle on me. After landing on my back I quickly rolled up to a kneeling position. Now everyone was turned and had their equipment trained on me but no one was firing. My aim switched nervously from Katie to Sarah to Charlie to Steve, yet I couldn’t pull myself to taking a shot.
Then Sarah started to pull away from her stiff composure but still kept her eyes pinned on my gun.
“What the f” –Sarah
But there was not time to find out what the hell she was talking about, because just then Katie’s gun went on the fritz. It shocked her enough to “kill her” just as a normal shot would. When the gun fell It let out an array of bullets.
“It’s Rick!” –Steve
Too late, Steve dodged the bullets due to his pre-awareness, Charlie let the bullets that went his way bounce away from, but Sarah was too tired from her last “time rewind” to do it again, though she tried. She got his in the leg and the arm, making them immediately dead weight.
“Baby! Help me out here!” –Sarah
Rick jumped out of the gun and started emptying out on them with his automatic pistol. His brother suddenly collapsed to the ground.
“Oh yeah! Suck it!” John said over our com link.
“Sarah get over here!” Charlie yelled at his girlfriend.
“I’m #%$@ing trying!” Sarah hollered back while limping over to him.
“Move in!” –Rick
Charlie held us off fairly well with his assault rifle. I mainly hid behind cover but I tried to blind fire him. Rick was more open, running from place to place, barely ever moving behind something, but yet still dodging most of the bullets somehow. Sometimes, if he felt cocky, he would move into the bullet for a little ride. When Sarah reached Charlie he pulled her in tight.
“Hold on!” –Charlie
He tucked into himself like he was having indigestion. I was confused but I looked over at Rick and he was already 20 yards away, sprinting for kingdom come.
“Save yourself!!!”
Charlie burst out of his trance, shoving his arms out to his sides and his shoulder blades painfully close together. All of a sudden I went flying backwards; Rick went flipping head over heels. The trees bent over themselves, the shrubs were blown clear off the ground, and every single thing that didn’t have a creepy loving hold to the center of the blast was destroyed. Well, more pushed away, like an antigravity type thingy.
I landed on the grass, which is good. The wind was knocked out of me like never before, it was ridiculous. At the time I had NO intent whatsoever of getting up or even lifting my head far enough to see what happened to Charlie. But a battle hardened White Op like himself must’ve been able to work through the pain, no matter how strong.
“Holy $#*% I felt that from here!!!” –John
“Ok guys let’s move, move, move! We have one down, one about to wake up, one wounded, and one VERY charged White Op.” –Sam
“You got a plan?” –Me
“What is it with you and plans? Do we have a plan do we have a plan? Dude put a cork in it.” –Rick
“Want a little nice with that sass?” –Me
“I was just air lifted 20 yards onto my @$$. NOT in a great mood.” –Rick
“Let’s just… play it as it goes, move out!” –Sam
I ran for some cover and found Sam was already there.
“Did you need the com?” –Me
“It helps. And wouldn’t you? It’s fun! (giggle)”
Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight started echoing in my mind”. Yes I can, Elton. Yes I can.
We peeked over the cover we were hiding behind (a log from the damage) just in time to catch Katie doing some work on a rock. She was taking the atoms out and reforming them.
“What is that?” –Me
“Oh God.” –Sam
“What?!?”
“She does this a lot.”
“Does what a lot?”
“It’s a combo move.”
“The emphasis on the WHAT means I don’t know what the #$%@ing hell you’re talking about!”
“It’s a hammer.’
“$#*%.”
“Yeah.”
We looked up again and saw the whole other team opening fire on us.
"$#*% we’re pinned down here!” –Sam
“Tell me about it!” –Me
“What can you do?” –Sam
“What do you mean ‘what can I do’?!?”
“I mean what’s you’re ability?”
“Sorry I don’t even know my ability yet.” –Me
"&@##*+! Nice to meet you finally, by the way.” She extended her hand.
Finally she gets to know who I am. I thought. I took her hand in mine. Suddenly images appeared before my eyes. I snatched a couple and realized that these were her memories. She let go and I stumbled back. Just as soon as I had, she rushed me and kissed me.
“I love you, Ryan.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Just then Chuck hurled our cover over us. Quickly we rolled apart and took our shots. I got Charlie, Sam took out Steve, Rick was able to sneak up behind his brother’s girlfriend, and John sniped out the girl he was feuding with from the start. Game over, we won.
“Good work team, you’ve done me good.” –John
“Oh shut your @$$.” –Sarah (we had to share copters back to The Fort)
As John and Sarah dissipated into an argument about if you can really shut someone’s @$$, Sam leaned her head against mine and we drifted off into imagination.
Sam and I got to spend some time together before I was shipped off to train more, but not much. 3 months to be exact, and a literal 2 weeks, 5 days, and 6 hours were training. Another literal 3 weeks, 2 days, and 8 hours were spent writhing in pain. Another literal 4 weeks, 6 days, and 23 hours were spent sleeping. We spent our only free time talking, just talking, about anything really. After a while things started to fall into place, into routine. The feeling of a family was resting, and it felt good. I didn’t really care about my old life, it was gone and done for. I thought about my parents every now and then, and was tempted to even call Carl a couple times, but resisted. They weren’t dead, they weren’t in any sort of danger at all! Stop worrying, Ryan. One dreadful day I got on a plane to leave
Forgive me, but this moment in my life.........it’s too sad, too dreadful, too gut-wrenchingly depressing that I cannot bring myself to explain it. I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry. Please…please forgive me.
The plane dropped me off in Tar Mowe, a large town in the G-District. I wandered around in the bazaar for a couple hours, loading up on a bunch of things I thought I’d need for my time in the district(mostly souvenirs). Eventually I went to the edge of town to find my ride. A guy in his early 20’s covered in stubble and 5 o’clock shadow stood holding a sign with my name on it. I had to sprint up to him because as he kept nodding off and he almost fell over.
“Aww, thanks man. Are you… uhhh… are you, uhhhh…”
“Ryan Garan?”
“Yeah…that guy…are you…are you…are you him?”
“Yeah… yeah I am.”
“Soooooo, uuuhhhhh…we should probably…uhhhhhh….probably, go. Yeah…go. That’s the word…’go’.”
“How about I drive?”
“Whoa….. I…. I totally didn’t think of that.”

We got in his car, an old-school rusty bucket, and I took the wheel. The car was clogged with smoke or some sort of fog. I coughed and waved off the stench.
“Ok are you stoned or tired?”
“Both, man.” He grinned.
I got placed in a remote Beacon outpost, with 3 other guys who spent most of their days owning “noobs” on Halo. Yeah not all that fun driving 120 miles to the nearest grocery store. There was Gary, a big guy who didn’t like moving around too much, regardless of the fact that the shack was about 100 square feet, Luke, who was on the wiry side but pretty funny, and Zach, who was the guy who picked me up. They were all A-Class stoners and kept offering me joints but I turned them down along with the booze. The guys were fun but besides that life was awful in that outpost.
One day it happened. We were going through some shooting drills outside. I grabbed the next gun, went down into a roll, and when I came up… no gun. We looked for about an hour and didn’t find it. Jokingly, I shot a finger gun at the empty target. The bullet came out of my hand. The guys were astounded but we’d figured out what my ability was. I could absorb objects and use them again later. The best news to me was that I was going home after 6 hard months out in nowhere. I would finally go home to my new family, and to Sam.
I landed in an airport not too far from The Fort and grabbed a taxi. Beaming with anticipation I told him to step on it and we soared through the streets. Winding around the mountains’ edges we rounded the next turn and…… where did it go? Nothing was there. Where The Fort stood there was only half a mountain, the highest peak in the whole Babel District cut in half. Only smoldering ash and rubble stood there now.