The Scout

Tuesday, 27th of October, 198 A.C, 16:16

“Light. Blinding light. Pain. Friends fall. Friends gone. Sadness. Pain. Fear. Fleeing. Pain. Wings lock. Falling. Dying. Dying. Not… Not dead? Still here. Pain. Fear. Fleeing… Safe? Safe.” - ???

Inside my backpack, my shotgun clicked. That was okay, I still had a few spare rounds. I refocused my energy. Empty guns reloaded.

My backpack shifted, the shotgun opening its breach while spare shells slid their way inside.

I turned my attention to the fight. The corpi had broken through a window, but the survivors were doing a good job holding them off.

I took a swing with my tomahawk at a group that was approaching. I only hit a few, but it was enough to send the rest flying back to the safety of the swarm.

I heard a snap behind me. I looked over to see a man falling back, still clutching to the shattered chair leg he had been using as a weapon.

I split the flow of my Veil in two. Empty guns reloaded. Pocket knives whittled.

A steady chit-chit-chit came from my backpack. Before long, the flap at the top of the backpack whipped open and out flew one of the large sticks I had been keeping. I snagged it out of the air, and quickly studied it. It had been cut into a makeshift spear. Quick work, but it’d do the job.

I stabbed away a few birds trying to get at the man, then helped him to his feet and handed him the spear.

“Thanks,” he said, voice shaking.

I turned back to the swarm. “Thank me by holding off these corpi.” The man nodded, and readied himself once again.

My head hurt. The corpi swarm had no order to it. The birds flowed in and out as they pleased, occasionally flying straight into one another. Smaller swarms formed at random, like electrons spontaneously polarizing. It was altogether impossible to follow.

Then there was this ragtag group of survivors. Half the time they ignored my orders, and the other half they couldn’t maintain a cohesive unit. They would fall, break their weapons, or panic, sometimes all three at once. We all had the same goal, so why did they insist on making things difficult?

It was a wonder that I was managing to keep everything from falling apart. My shotgun finished reloading and I gave a new order with my Veil. Loaded guns fired.

K-THOOM *chack* K-THOOM *chack*

The blasts carved into the already diminishing swarm like it was that much smoke. Corpi that hadn’t even gotten hit started falling away. Even more started trying to flee, dissipating soon after. We were reaching critical mass.

The survivors gained confidence as the Psychons routed. Outcries became more triumphant, and any remaining attacks were repelled with greater force.

I deactivated my Veil and turned to survey the status of the survivors. The fighters made up less than half the survivors. The rest were huddled in groups, tending to and reassuring each other.

A fighter wearing a courier’s uniform collapsed, clutching his chest and gasping for air. I let him lean on me for support and guided him over to one of the groups.

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“Are you alright?”

The man started trying to wheeze something out. “Baaaa… *heff* bad *horf* lungs… Just… *haah* just give me… *huff* a minute.”

“We’ll get you to a hospital soon. Just waiting on some emergency responders to arrive.” Even as I spoke, I could hear sirens in the distance. Took them long enough. Paramedics I could understand not wanting to throw themselves into the way of Psychons, but the Watch were just afraid of ever actually having to face any danger.

The man waved a hand. “No… *horf* no ambulance. Can’t afford it… I’ll be okay. *heff* Just *hurf* just do your job and get us out of here alive.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Beck sneaking into the room. She noticed the courier and broke into a run, sliding in and hugging him.

“Shoot,” she said, “shoot shoot shoot. Are you okay?”

The man laughed weakly, then started hacking violently. “I’ve… I’ve been better, for sure. Nothing I can’t handle though. *kaff kaff* I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Ah. Gotcha.

He gestured towards me. “See, I’m… doing good enough to tell off this Veiled right here. Couldn’t take care of things himself, so he had to enlist all of us to help.”

I nodded, forcing away a scowl. “He’ll be fine. Just needs a bit of rest”

I turned away, partly to focus on the remnants of the swarm and partly because I could feel the short term effects of my Veil wearing off, leaving a quickly-tightening chest in its wake. There were less people by the front lines. Particularly, a significant lack of squadmates’ parents giving me a death glare.

The next hour or so was a blur. Once we got enough of the swarm to disperse, the Watch started clearing up the stragglers, confident enough that their armor wasn’t going to get scratched.

Paramedics made their way in soon after and started shuttling anyone that could afford the bill or was too injured to protest. Despite the gloomy situation, I could help but smile watching a few paramedics carrying he Runner around while he was zoned out. He was the only reason a handful of people were staying stable, so they had to move him along with the others until they could start treating people outside.

Beck quickly absconded with her dad, not wanting to risk blowing our cover or getting tangled up with the Watch. When the report came along with our reward a few days later, she realized for the first time just how many lives she had saved. She was stunned for a few minutes, but was soon bouncing around the safehouse, insisting that we went somewhere to celebrate.

Myself, I was just exhausted. Speaking was a monumental task, and yet I couldn’t stand still for even a moment. Every time a paramedic or survivor pulled me aside to ask for something or to thank me I could think of nothing but my warm bed.

It was well after dark when the van finally pulled into the safehouse. Even then, Axel and I had to get checked out by the Surgeon (who had long since given up on working around Yumi’s Haphephobia) and put away all our gear.

After what felt like an eternity, I was at last free to fall into a deep sleep. Which I promptly didn’t leave until the next evening.

When I finally managed to worm my way out of bed, I put on some clothes and *slowwwwly* opened my bedroom door. I sidled over to the living room and sat down, content to spend another few days melting into the couch.

Fate, however, had different plans. I hadn’t so much as turned on the TV when Yumi came rushing in, her face an equal blend of excitement and sheer terror. So, you know, how she was most of the time, but somehow even more.

She flopped down on the other couch. “You’re finally up! That’s good!”

I opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t get anything out before she interrupted. “Listen. This is big. Like, really big. Check SNN.”

I flicked on my Chipper and navigated over to the Spark News Network site. Nothing immediately stood out.

“Umm, okay? Why am I doing this?”

“Keep scrolling.”

I scrolled. And scrolled. And scrolled.

“I’m still not seeing anythi-” I paused, and navigated to an article buried on the 32nd page.

The title read, “Unknown Squad Saves the Day”

I somehow sunk further into the couch.

“Well, shit.”

We were on the map. Barely. They couldn’t even dig up our squad’s name. But that was us.

I looked up at Yumi. “Guess we’d better start practicing our public speaking, huh?”