With the help from the woman who called herself Becky, Jackie grunted from being dragged out of the car. Shards of glass sounded like rough sand, as her body went over them. She could tell that this Becky was trying to be gentle as she pulled Jackie out of the destroyed car.
"Watch your arm," Becky cautioned her when Jackie's shoulders past by where the window used to be.
Placing her arm on the highway, she felt the cold gravel dig into her palm. Gritting her teeth, Jackie tried to ignore the pain she felt as she felt Becky's hand on her chest.
Grunting out a laugh, Jackie said, "Normally, I would prefer getting dinner before letting anyone cop a feel."
"I may take you up on the offer if we have a chance," Becky laughed as she continued to support Jackie's body and slowly pulled Jackie out of the car.
It was only a few moments until she could finally place her feet on the asphalt. Jackie took her time, putting her full weight on her feet not trusting her body to be ready for the burden. Her muscles tightened as she adjusted her body weight. Considering the trauma she had gone through, Jackie was surprised by how quickly she was able to stand on her own. It helped that Becky had one of the hands on Jackie's left shoulder, giving Jackie some stability.
"You going to be good?" Becky asked, concern on her voice.
Looking at Becky, though her face was covered by the full face helmet, Jackie nodded. As Becky cautiously removed her hand from Jackie's shoulder, Becky still had a hand close in case she needed to quickly grab Jackie. "I appreciate you helping my friends and me out. We were driving in hopes of reaching someplace with people, especially a place that was safe, and away from those things. If it weren't the fact that the car needed gas, I would've never stopped the car."
"From the welcome center near the border?" Becky asked.
Jackie nodded her head.
Becky was quiet before saying, "It was probably a good thing that you did and rushed down the highway in such a manner. They seemed to have thought your method of escape like a game of cat and mouse, so they didn't finish you off as quickly. I'm guessing if they had caught you while you were on the highway, their numbers would have prevented your ability to escape." She was quiet before continuing. "We were just on a reconnaissance mission to see the state of things when we heard you blaring down the road. Your car flipping across the highway occurred just as we reached the road."
Hearing Becky telling her this information made Jackie shudder from the thought of how close they were to being killed. She cursed those women who made her accept this mission, especially without any equipment.
"Yeah... You guys are crazy lucky that we were close by, considering it's still a ways away before you'd have reached our base if you had known about it ahead of time." Becky said.
Getting a sense for what Becky was hinting at, she still asked, "What do you mean?"
"I'm going to assume that you'd have gotten off at the exit and gone into the city... but the thing is that there's not much left of that place. It's crawling with those creatures, though those things seem to keep to themselves, at least in the city. Unless you knew where we were at, I get the feeling you'd have been driving around and only attracting more of those things. On top of it being night, you wouldn't have made it without us having come in to fight off those things." Becky said in a serious tone, to stress how reckless they were being.
Jackie knew that what Becky was saying was right. They had been ridiculously lucky the entire time they were driving, not running into those things. "You know better than to accept potentially suicidal missions," she berated herself. "Why did you agree to such a thing?" Jacked asked herself, though it was likely due to being curious about what the women said in that conference room.
Likely from Jackie's silence, Becky shook her head and sighed in annoyance. "We were on our way back to our base, if you want to call it that, so you guys should come with us. I don't know where you guys are going, but being here isn't going to be an option since more of those creatures will be coming here soon."
"I appreciate you, guys, letting us come with you," Jackie said.
"Captain, we should get going as soon as possible. I don't like how we are exposed after fighting those things." One of the people in a similar armor suit approached them and said.
Looking back, Jackie could see that the others were safely out of the car with one of the players close by to offer needed assistance.
"I want you to contact whoever is on duty and request for support and to bring one of the rhinos, to put these people in. They aren't going to be able to keep pace with us, even if they weren't in their current condition." Becky ordered the woman.
Jackie liked how the woman acted, not arguing and following through with Becky's order. "Captain?" She asked.
"We're originally players in the World Athletic Battle Arena League, and I'm the captain of the team," Becky explained. "I'm having more players come here to support us in case more of those things come, and the vehicle I requested for will allow the five of you to keep up with us."
"What's with the name?" Jackie asked feeling curious.
"I'm guessing you haven't watched a game before?" Becky chuckled. Raising her hand up to indicate she wasn't laughing at Jackie, Becky said, "One of the game modes we compete in has us use vehicles called rhinos due to how they are armored and armed to the teeth."
Jackie reflexively raised up an eyebrow at hearing what Becky had said.
"Hey! It's a popular game mode amongst our fans." Becky said defensively.
Seeing that Jackie was doing okay on her own, Becky nodded her head at Jackie and went towards the other players to likely give out additional orders. Jackie watched as Becky waved her arms at the others in suits, though this time Jackie wasn't able to hear their words. They were likely using some type of communication device.
Turning towards the others, Jackie hobbled over towards them. They were already heading towards her, so they ended up meeting in the middle. All of them looked like a piece of fruit that was bounced around with how bruised they looked. Amanda was still cradling her side, likely in pain from her cracked or bruised ribs. Lacy and Lulu looked better, likely similar to what she was currently feeling. It was helpful being in numerous dangerous situations during multiple operations, allowing them to quickly adjust to being wounded.
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Jae-Hwa had a slight wild-eyed look but was keeping it together pretty well. Jackie wondered what this experience was going to do to her mind, and hoped that Jae-Hwa would be able to grow mentally stronger. This world wasn't forgiving and needed people who were adaptable, just like those creatures.
"What's going to happen to us?" Jae-Hwa asked Jackie, with a slight trembling in her voice.
The others looked equally curious, though they didn't have the same fraying on the edge look.
"Becky, who seems to be the captain of this sports slash paramilitary team is having more people come to us with a vehicle. We'll get in the vehicle and head back with them." Jackie said. She noticed how all of them visibly relaxed, likely relieved about the nightmare being over. Even she was feeling a little happy about the help, though she also tried to keep herself aware in case any surprises occurred. It wasn't good to voluntarily raise death flags, like lowering their guard when things were starting to look good.
Lulu gave her a slight nod, likely thinking the same thing as her. It was sometimes scary how good Lulu's instincts were and how they fit with a combative environment.
"What do we do now?" Lacy asked her, breaking Jackie away from her thoughts.
"I think we're just going to wait here and stay out of their way, while they organize things. Just keep an eye out for anything dangerous, though with how the players were placed around us, I think we're pretty safe." Jackie said.
------
They had moved away from the wrecked car and found two vehicles close to one another, sitting on top of the hood of the cars. Jackie watched as Becky stood in the middle of the perimeter she had set up. There was one person that seemed to stick by her, while others had their weapons out or were looking for the support team that should be arriving soon.
Jackie raised her hand and looked at her cut up hand, the blood dried up and preventing it from bleeding more. She was happy to see that it was no longer stress trembling, indicating she was no longer in hyper survival mode.
It had been a long time since she was placed in a position where her hands would slightly tremble. The trembling had become a way for her to understand her state of mind as gauge how bad a situation was. She still remembered being in that cave in the middle of the jungle, running away from enemy forces after running out of ammunition and her radio busted. A guy she had been seeing off and on again laying next to her, bleeding out and needing emergency help but only having the quick patch-up job she had given him. His hair wet from the jungle rain as she ran her fingers through it while she reassured him that they were going to make it.
"Jackie, I think they're here," Lacy said to her.
Closing her hand into a fist and then opening it to give it a shake, Jackie looked up to see several beams of lights appeared in the distance. Judging by how noisy the vehicle was, Jackie guessed that the thing was huge. Occasionally, the sound of twisting metal could be heard.
"That thing isn't silent, is it?" Amanda commented. She seemed to be as curious as all of them about what this thing looked like.
"Why do you think
they call it a rhino?" Jae-Hwa asked.
A car could be seen being flipped over and crashing through it was a massive horn. The horn was attached to a large vehicle that looked to be a mix between a dune buggy and a tank. Several people were running behind the bulldozer of a machinery, holding weapons just as ridiculous looking as Becky and the others.
"I feel like I'm in some kind of bad science fiction book," Jae-Hwa murmured after seeing the reason the thing was called a rhino.
"I can understand that sentiment," Jackie responded. Amazed by how crazy it all seemed. That vehicle had no real tactical advantages, making so much noise to attract enemies towards it and not having much cover against weapon fire. She wondered what type of game would need such an obnoxious vehicle in it.
When it got closer, she saw seats along its sides that were inclined in a manner to make it easier to get out of. Even the driver was slightly standing, using some type of unknown steering mechanism. It gave the feeling of being used primarily for quick deployment after an engagement.
"It does take getting used to, seeing the rhino compared to a typical car," Becky approached their group and said. "The benefit is that it can plow into the opposing team's forces and help us quickly attack. Aside from that, the rhino isn't used for much else since our team doesn't use blasters."
Hearing Becky's words, Jackie had a bunch of questions, but she decided to put them on the back burner of her mind since she was worried about the loud noise that thing made.
Each of them quickly hobbled over to the rhino and grabbed one of the seats on the sides. To help them get strapped into the chair, Becky and the other players helped them put on the harness.
"If anything happens, just press this with your palm hard, and all the buckles will be quickly released," Becky held the middle metal pad on her chest that all the straps buckled into. "Don't worry about accidentally hitting it cause it needs a lot of force to activate."
Backing away from the vehicle, Becky gave a thumbs up to the driver. The driver looked back at them and said, "Cherry State University and the Battle Arena League team would like to welcome you aboard Rhino Airlines. I would like to advise all passengers to keep their appendages inside of the safety bars to prevent any limbs from being torn off during the flight. In the case of a sudden emergency, remember to slam your palm against the metal pad in the middle, and I will launch you out of the rhino. Remember to roll upon impact considering none of you are wearing protective suits."
Jackie heard the words of the driver followed by Jae-Hwa yelling, "Did she just say we could be launched out of the vehicle?!" The end of her words was drowned out by the woman's laughter and the rhino tearing a path towards the direction it came from.