Emily rode back with the old Lady’s team in the armored personnel carrier. She wished for the numbness that she had been feeling for the past couple of day. She had to fight to keep herself from crying. Every few seconds she would crack and she would start to cry. She had to reach up and turn the little red light off over her head or the others would see her crying. She was seated by the back door of the truck again and she spent the whole ride facing the door trying not to cry.

To make it worse everyone was happy. Not that they were happy that Bubbles died but that the hole in the sky was closed. They were congratulating each other on a job well done. Emily understood that they really did a good job and the gate needed to be closed but she could not help feeling angry that Bubbles was dead and they were celebrating.

Once Emily had unloaded the truck she was released to head back to the hanger where she was staying. They wanted her to get her stuff and head back to the gym where the old Lady’s team was staying. Now that the gate was closed the next part of the mission was to get the team out of the country safely. She was told that she was going to stay with the team until they flew out to provide security. They did not want the team to leave to another base to fly out because the people in charge thought it was too dangerous. They wanted the team to wait until the weather to clear up enough before flying out. The Old lady also argued to stay an extra day to take readings around the area to see what effects having a gate to hell would have on that part of the base.

Emily caught a ride, with the same Sergeant who drove her before, back to the hanger to get her stuff. Emily opened the door to the hanger and froze. Memories flooded her as she looked in. The hangar was set up the same as Rudbar with the exception that there was no basketball hoop in this hanger. Emily was not able to hold it in anymore and started to cry.

In her mind, she saw Val and Rags playing basketball. Turning her head she tried to shake the memory away but a memory of Val chasing Bubbles who was flying in the air laughing popped into her head. “Never again.” Emily thought to herself sadly.

Taking a deep breath Emily scolded herself and tried to claim down. She closed the door to the hanger and wiped the tears from her face. She forced herself to stand straight and held her head high as she walked towards the dormitory door. She lost it when a memory of David without his beard popped up in her head. Cradling her stomach she sat knelt on the floor and cried.

“Don’t look.” She told herself when she was able to get herself under control and walk through the door to the dormitory hallway. She forced herself to look only at her door as she walked down the hall. She opened the door and rushed inside shaking. She grabbed her duffel bag and stuffed all her stuff into it not bothering to pack it neatly. She ran out of the hanger to the Humvee that was waiting on her. The talkative Sergeant was quiet on the way back. Emily resisted the desire to take one last look at the hanger. She knew if she turned around she would lose it again.

She stayed up that night taking a double watch by the door. She feared what she would dream that night. That morning the old Lady and her team were given permission to drive out to the site in an armored personnel carrier. Emily was ordered to stay with them to guard them. The sky was overcast with dark gray clouds and the wind was still blowing pretty hard by the parking lot next to the gym. There was a light sprinkling of cold rain when they stepped out to get into the truck but it was normal rain and not the oily rain that had fallen before.

The firebase was still there and manned with soldiers who looked miserable in their rain ponchos. The old Lady and her team stepped out in brightly colored rain suits looking out of place. Emily followed them tapping her weapons making sure they were there. She tagged along with the team to where a different Captain was giving on the brief on how to get to the site.

“We had the bomb guys come through today and disarm some of the mines to make a clear path for your team to get to the site. Do not get too close to the actual site because there are a few unexploded rounds in and around that area. The bomb guys have marked the area that’s a no go with yellow tape. If you get yourself lost and end up in the minefield stop and stay where you are and call us on your radios. Do not try and navigate the minefield on your own. It may look easy with all the mines uncovered but mistakes can happen so do not even try.” The Captain explained to the group. He had to talk loudly as the wind had picked up and was blowing pretty hard.

Emily slung her rifle off her shoulder and keeping it at her waist she led the group down the trail marked with orange flags. The old Lady and her team followed with a bunch of devices in their hands scanning the area. Once she led them past the minefield. The team scattered scanning the area. Emily walked up to the area where the hole in the sky had been.

The whole place was roped off with yellow tape. Emily thought it looked like a picture she had seen of the moon when she was in middle school with all the craters littering the area. She thought of Bubbles when she looked up into the sky. The hole in the sky was gone taking Bubbles with it. This is where David and Rags bought it as well. Rags might have made it out only to die in the plane leaving Afghanistan but this was where he really died. This was where David stayed and die to protect them. Emily felt the overwhelming emotion tug at her chest as she let the rain hide her tears.

The weather cleared up overnight and around ten that day the old Lady and her team left. Emily helped them load everything on the plane. After they flew away First Sergeant asked her if she wanted to be part of the ceremony to load the fallen on a cargo plane heading back home. She told them yes.

Aside from Emily’s friends over forty other military members had died during the attack. Emily stood in formation while several small but rugged looking carts drove up with caskets trailing behind it. To her surprise, her Colonel was standing by the front of the line. She wondered why he was there since he was just an invite to the change of command ceremony. Someone called them to attention and to salute. Emily saluted.

The caskets all had flags on them and Emily watched desperately trying not to cry as the pallbearers grabbed the caskets. The first to go had a French flag draped over it. She wondered who he or she was. Behind the French casket, there was a steady stream of US and other countries flag-covered caskets. Emily lost control as an American flag covered coffin with several golden tridents hammered into the top of the coffin.

“David.” She thought to herself as she felt her face crumple as she cried openly. She clenched her teeth together to prevent herself from making any sound. The last coffin to enter the airplane was covered in a Canadian flag. It was the only coffin with a Canadian flag.

“Bubbles.” She thought as the coffin passed her by. “It won't be long before I am in one of those. I am pretty sure I am not going to make it out of here alive.” She turned towards the plane as they were dismissed. The back of the cargo plane was filled with coffins.

Emily’s flight out was the following afternoon. The Colonel was on the same flight and look tired. He nodded to Emily as she passed his seat on the plane. She flopped down in an empty chair in the back of the plane. She nearly cursed out loud as the seat creaked alarmingly. She picked a window seat and laid her head on the window after she buckled her seat belt. She briefly woke up when the plane took off and then when it landed. If she dreamed she couldn’t remember it.

Emily found Jan waiting on her with her stolen ambulance when she got her stuff from the plane. “Hey, Hero,” Jan said with a smirk.

“Hey, Jan,” Emily said tiredly as Jan reached out and hugged her.

“How bad was it? They said thirty dead and three times that wounded.” Jan asked as Emily climbed into the cab of the ambulance.

“Bad,” Emily muttered leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hows David?” Jan asked nervelessly.

Emily breath caught in her throat for a second and she felt tears trying to break free behind her eyelids. She struggled to keep herself from crying. After she got herself under control she said “He’s gone. Rags and Bubbles also are gone. Val the Marine lost her leg and they sent her home.” Every time she said gone, it was like she struck a cord in her chest. She looked away from Jan so she wouldn’t see her tears. Emily was so tired of crying.

“I am so sorry Never,” Jan said with some emotion Emily couldn’t place in her voice.

“It's cool. Look I’m really tired let's just drop it ok.” Emily said leaning her forehead on the glass of the ambulance window.

Jan dropped her off at the barracks and left to return the stolen ambulance. Emily shuffled into her room and dropped her stuff on the floor. She stripped out of her clothes, carefully placing her weapons on her desk, and climbed into the shower. Emily felt out of control like she was on a bicycle with no brakes racing down a hill with a wall coming up in front of her.

Emily let the hot water pour over her and she soaked in the heat. She let herself soak for a long time before climbing out of the shower. She dressed for bed and climbed into the bunk and went to sleep. She woke up several hours later reaching for Righteous. She grabbed it like a teddy bear from under her pillow and went back to sleep.

She woke up in the morning to someone knocking on her door. When she opened her door she found Jan waiting on her. Jan reminded her that she was still on restriction and had a security muster in thirty minutes. Emily quickly got dressed in her working uniform. Jan helped shine her boots and switched belt buckles with Emily. While neither belt buckle was inspection ready Jan’s belt buckle was less scratched up than Emily’s.

She made it to the inspection with less than a minute before she would have been in trouble. “Private Emerson you do know this is Sunday and the uniform of the day is dress uniform.” The security Sergeant said as she lined up with the others.

“Sorry Sergeant. Medical cut my dress uniform off when I got stabbed.” Emily told him tiredly. “I just got back yesterday and I haven’t had the time to get a replacement.”

“You go back yesterday afternoon. You had plenty of time to get a replacement.” The Sergeant said stepping in front of her. Mentally sighing Emily focused on the Sergeant. She looked the Sergeant in the eye and found she didn’t really care anymore. Not about him or his stupid inspection.

The Sergeant gave her ten demerits for the failure of being out of uniform then ten more for all the things wrong with her uniform. He had her sign a paper saying that he was recommending three more days of restriction. Emily signed it angrily. He then told her that she had to the end of the day to get a replacement for her dress uniform. He told her that she had to be in the correct uniform of the day or he would recommend another three days of restriction.

“You want to say something Private?” He asked her when she finished signing the paper. “You already have three extra days of restriction and your working on three more. Any more demerits and it means another NJP. You want to test me?”

“How the hell did David last so long in the military?” Emily wondered as she stared at the Sergeant. “No Sergeant.” She told him not even feeling angry anymore. She just felt tired.

She spent a nice calming morning working in the armory with the armory sergeant cleaning rifles. “It’s because of your a Ranger and a Super.” The Armory Sergeant said out of the blue suddenly.

“Hmm. What was that?” Emily said looking up from M4 she was cleaning.

“The reason why everyone is giving you so much crap. A normal soldier who got a page 13 and a 45 and 45 would lose their Ranger tab. They never take a supers tab away from them. It creates a lot of hostility. It’s not your fault. It’s is what it is. The Rangers are supposed to be the best of the best. The soldier everyone in the army looks up to. The one who is always in the lead. We are supposed to know what to do no matter what the situation. It’s our motto.” The Armory Sergeant said looking up from his computer.

“Rangers lead the way,” Emily muttered.

“Everyone else has a choice whether or not to become a Ranger but not supers. You guys are not given a choice. Being a Ranger is a lot of responsibility and it's a very heavy burden to carry especially if you're not given a choice. But don’t let the Jackholes bother you. We all know that they pushed you too far. This will all fade away and get back to normal. Don’t worry and stop letting them get to you. You’re a Ranger. Lead the way.” The Armory Sergeant said.

Emily spent her and Jan’s lunch hour at the commissary getting her a new dress uniform then she headed to medical for a check up on her stomach. Medical kept her several hours before letting her go. Jan walked her back to the Ranger building.

“Hey, Never you got to check this out.” Sergeant Davis called as soon as she walked into the garage. He was sitting by a table with a bunch of people looking at a computer monitor. “Your famous or at least you ass is.” Confused Emily and Jan headed over to see what he was talking about. He had a major news channel on and when they got close he clicked on the video.

They were talking about what happened in Kabul. “We have reports that OCS detonated a technomancer bomb that opened a portal to another hostile world.” The new reported said in the video. “Colin McDougall a freelance reporter for Rutgers was on hand to take the only known photos of the event. Colin thanks for joining us.”

A short light brown haired man appeared in the split screen. “Thanks for having me, Michelle.” He said with an Irish accent.

“Damn, he’s cute. If I was gay I would totally be into him.” Someone muttered behind Emily and Jan. The room ignored him.

“We understand that you have the only photos of the OCS attack on Kabul airport during the change of command ceremony. Can you tell us why that is?” The new anchor asked.

“Yes. Sure. During the surprise attack, the OCS had some sort of EMP bomb that they set off.” The Irish reporter said nodding. “I like to take all my pictures the old fashion with wet photography so my camera was the only one not wiped when the EMP went off.

“Your pictures of the event have gone viral. Especially of the female super soldier battling what is being described as a horde of demons.” The new anchor said as she was replaced on the TV with a picture of Emily on top of a huge monster. It showed her hacking the thing in the neck. She was a tiny dark figure on top of the huge things head. Behind the huge creature, and the tiny figure that was Emily was the dark swirling hole in the sky that looked like something out of horror movie. “Can you tell us what is going on in this picture.”

“Well, I am pretty sure this is a super soldier. I watched her jump nearly twenty feet in the air. To be honest I am not sure if she is a flier or just jumped. Anyway, she gets on top of the giant lizard thing and started hitting the thing in the head. It looked like one of your American cowboy rodeos where the guy sits on a bull and rides it. I can’t imagine what she must have been thinking.” The Irish reported said shaking his head.

The picture change to one where Emily was on her hands and knees. Her hair hanging down hiding her face. Behind her, the monster was falling to the ground obviously dead. “I like this picture here.” The Irishman said smiling. “I got lucky. I am very proud of this picture. She had just jumped off the monster and landed in this awesome somersault. This is just after the somersault. It is once in a lifetime picture.”

“Oh yes, this is a really nice picture especially with the monster dying in the background. Our viewers clicked on this only second to this next picture.” The new anchor said as the picture changed once again.

The next picture was of Emily standing facing away from the camera. Her dress jacket was torn in several places and looked bloody. Part of her jacket was flapping in the wind towards the left along with her hair. The camera angle was angled upwards so that anyone who looked at the picture was looking upwards at Emily. Also, the camera seemed to be focused on her butt for some reason. Emily felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Now she knew what Sergeant Davis meant when he said her butt was now famous.

In her right hand, she was holding Righteous covered in gore and in her left hand was her pistol. She was standing facing the hole in the sky and a horde of demons. In between the horde of demons and her was the huge dead monster. On top of that, there were dead monsters everywhere in between her and the horde of still living monsters.

The Irish guy started to talk about the picture but Emily stopped listening and hugged herself. She had been looking for David and the others in the picture without any luck. The picture changed again and this time it was of her standing on top of the creature fighting off the horde. She was only a dark outline of herself and the picture caught just before she slammed Righteous down on a jumpers head.

The last picture was of her with a short pole like thing stuck through her. She looked like she was stumbling forward with her back towards the camera. She was far enough away that anyone looking at the picture knew that she had been injured by the thing sticking through her but you couldn’t see any gory details.

“How can they show that?” Emily demanded angrily. “I thought it was illegal to show this kind of thing on TV. You know how it’s illegal to photograph Super Soldiers.”

“It’s only illegal is if they show anything that can identify you. Your face is clearly concealed and they are not talking about anything that can identify you. Also, no network would show something like this without approval from the Pentagon. So this has to be legit.” Someone to the right of her told her. Emily cursed and stormed out. She had not become a super to be famous.