“Whatever, we can piss on a Herc when we kill it,” says Alex.
“I’ll piss in your mother’s mouth,” says Isaac, doing a jerking motion to him.
“Aren’t you a bunch of riled up marines,” says Blake.
Yeah, just by the click of a button.
XII
It’s quiet again. We walk carelessly though the ruins of the city as the DT runs carelessly through us. We cross countless streets while the skeletons of once great buildings watch. Drones hover above the wasteland, occasionally releasing missiles at unseen targets. Blake turns our unit down an expansive avenue with white cheery trees lining each side. The avenue would look beautiful if not for war: potholes and upturned asphalt everywhere from ordinance, storefronts collapsed in on themselves, and trash and debris invading the lanes of demolished cars. The few standing cheery trees release their white petals into the air and they mix with the falling ash.
Blake raises his hand, and we stop on the alert against a street corner brick wall in front of the intersection, the street sign before us labeled Mendocino. “Alright, Private Peter and Julian, you will take the left and right lanes and advance cautiously. The rest of you form a fire position in the center avenue on me.”
We prepare to move, Blake calls out, “Switching you back to Buzz. Just in case.”
Peter and Julian begin their deadly dance down the avenue sidestepping obstacles and remaining alert as they hope for a fight. Peter hears rustling on his side from within an alleyway.
A Herculean?
Peter grins. This would put him at two confirmed kills, at least equal to Isaac. He places a hand on the edge of the wall and holds the XM tightly against his bicep with the other. Julian pauses on the other side of the lane and grabs cover waiting. Peter leans over into the alleyway, rifle poised and ready to hose away the filthy alien, but instead, a small tattered object comes stumbling down a pile of rubble to his feet.
It’s a little girl.
“Woah there, hey, don’t look so scared, I’m a good guy,” says Peter disappointedly. They both look at each other confused.
“What the hell is the hold up, Private!” says Blake down the avenue.
“A little girl ran in front of me!” says Peter. “What do I do?”
Julian sprints over to them and leans down to assist the girl. Peter determines she is probably no older than seven. Julian nudges him aside and tries to gently grab the shaking girl. She jumps back from his touch.
“Look like yours back on Earth?” Peter says, remembering that he mentioned he was a father.
“Just about the same age,” says Julian with a glowing grin.
Blake shouts out at them, “Well shit, it’s not safe out here! Tell her to go home.”
Julian and Peter stare at each other for a moment, then Julian looks back at the girl. “Alright, it’s dangerous out here, get home—” he falls on top of the little girl screaming. Plasma fire from down the avenue breaks out all around. Peter drops to his stomach crawling for the rubble. The little girl tries to crawl away too but Julian has pinned her legs.
“Take cover!” says Blake, “Suppressive fire!”
“GOD! Help!” Julian rolls over off the little girl smacking his limp leg where the fabric is on fire from a plasma bolt. The girl moves frantically away, and Peter stretches out his arm for her to crawl towards as he fires blindly at the Herculeans down the avenue. Asphalt flies up around them and her hair sizzles from being hit. She screams louder and cradles up against Julian’s side instead. Peter leans back into the alleyway for cover while he reloads. “Little girl, hey...” Julian tries hard to suppress a moan, “it’s going to be okay. Come here and hide under me.”
“I have to get back to my daddy! “You ca—”
Julian shrikes. Another burst has hit him in the lower back and he lies flat on his belly unable to move. His sack is blown away, the straps singed, and a black bubbling line forms over his back where the burst burned through. With stronger resolve and restraint in his voice he continues, “Come here little girl, you have to. I’ll protect you.”
“But the monsters are shooting you!”
Julian speaks quickly, “They won’t hurt you.”
“How do you know!” she says.
“Because you’re… you’re innocent.”
Peter roars a battle cry and steps out to save them. There is finally a fight to have with the Herculeans! He reaches out to grab the girl, but feels a sharp pain in his head and falls over confused. The world is blurry and his head hurts tremendously. His body lies useless on the ground. In his strained tunnel vision he can see his outstretched arm and hand yearning for Julian and the little girl. He tries talking but the words are mumbled.
“Are you going to live?” says the girl, cowering against Julian’s arm.
Julian has stopped talking, his limbs seizer about and steam rises from his wounds.
The girl shakes his arm. “If you don’t live my daddy won’t live! He was shot like you, will he get better? If you’ll live he will too!” Beams of light and returning bullets haze the air. The firefight is intensifying.
“Don’t look at them little girl,” says Julian. “Look at me, okay. I have a little girl like you too.” The girl grabs his twitching arm, hugging it tightly. Julian cries into her messy hair, “I’ll be fine. Your dad will live.”
A canister lands by their position and smoke fumes out rapidly turning the street into a white cloud with exploding lights. Alex reaches Peter and lifts him up. “Can you hear me man!” he says while giving him a morphine shot.
Peter’s head remains cloudy but things start to become coherent.
“You got grazed in the head,” says Alex, he holds the crushed bullet tip in his fingers before Peter. “Helmet saved your life.”
“Ju-Julian!” says Peter as he recollects himself. He gets up and rushes inside the smoke.
“Hold on!” says Alex.
“Cover me! I’m getting him,” says Peter.
“Peter,” it is Julian speaking very weakly. “Take her quick.” Peter comes to his side, assessing his wounds.
“I’m getting both of you out of here, can you get up?” says Peter pissed. “Those fucking Herc’s!”
Julian weeps bitterly with what little strength he has left, “No, no I can’t.”
That is no way to act like a warrior.
“Shut up Julian! I’m getting you out of here!” Peter finds the girl and raises her in his arm, and places his free hand on Julian’s collar to drag him.
A searing hot motion on Peter’s hand makes him let go and Julian cries out. Peter shakes his hot glove off as he turns around to Julian. His shoulder has been hit by another plasma burst, the dissipation splash slightly burning Peter’s hand. Yellow tissue on Julian’s shoulder hisses and bubbles as it pops and leaks out onto his burnt clothing, revealing white bone underneath. Blood pours out of Julian’s mouth while he opens it, “Go. Please.”
Tommy breaks into the smoke to help as well.
“Peter!” says Alex from the alleyway, “Get back to cover. Where’s Julian? We can get him.”
Peter points at the direction of his body through the smoke. “He’s hurt bad, I’ll take the girl you guys grab him.” Peter sprints away towards Blake’s voice, holding the girl close to his chest.
Isaac stops Peter as he exits the smoke through the intersection, and pulls him into cover. The rest of the unit is waiting in safety with them as Blake fires over the corner covering Alex and Tommy dragging Julian. Moments later the other two marines come back, Julian dragged by the shoulders and his head slumped over unnaturally.
Blake lobs a grenade down the avenue and turns to Easy, “Alright! We need to move down this road fucking fast back into friendly lines.”