The Will To Live✔️

Chapter 26: Turning Point

Despite his attempt to maintain mental control and clarity, Greg found himself pushing the Warthog faster than he should have as they finally closed in on Adamant. He kept expecting something to have gone horrifically wrong. Even though he heard no gunfire, saw no pall of smoke billowing into the air, and heard no distress calls over the airwaves, (he'd left his radio open and listened to the chatter as Adamant reached out with their newfound comms abilities, it was shockingly calming to hear that clipped radio chatter), he still was paranoid. But finally they cleared the last of the trees, and he saw Adamant, still there, still standing, still intact.

It actually seemed to be bustling with activity.

Greg announced his presence over the radio and then parked where they instructed him to. He, Izzy, and Ellis dismounted and turned the vehicle over to the local forces.

"I need to go check in with a few people. Thanks again for the save," she said, and then she hurried off towards the main building. Greg and Izzy followed in her wake, though more slowly. It was obvious that more people had shown up while they'd been gone, mostly Marines from the look of it. The relief that he felt as they entered the main structure was almost as good as finally laying down in a bed after a horribly long day or getting into a warm room after spending hours in the cold. As he and Izzy moved through the building, however, looking into rooms as they hunted down Becker, his good cheer quickly bled away.

Everywhere he looked, he saw something that reminded him of the staggering amount of devastation, suffering, and loss of life that had hit Wintermute. Injured civilians and Marines seemed to be in every room, sleeping or recovering or waiting to be tended to. But they were being tended to, he saw, and that only made the fact that he and Izzy and Larsen and Ellis had managed to recover that medical supplies much more satisfying. He only wished they could have done more, and he fully intended to do more.

They found Becker in his office, asleep in his chair. As they came in, he came awake with a start and knocked over a few empty cans of Monster Energy drinks. "Dammit! I wasn't sleeping," he muttered as he sat up and rubbed his baggy, bloodshot eyes.

"We're back, Sergeant," Greg replied diplomatically. Izzy snorted.

"I can see that." He picked up another can, this one of some kind of chilled coffee, shook it, grunted, then drained what was left. "Thank you," he managed after crushing the can and dropping it into a nearby wastebasket that was almost full of cans. "You did very good work out there. Those medical supplies are literally saving lives right now." He broke off and yawned. "Goddamn, I haven't slept in..." He looked at one of the datapads, then at his terminal, blinked a few times, shook his head and sighed. "I don't know. But you two have earned a break."

"Respectfully, Sergeant, you've earned a break. Why don't you get some sleep and let us handle things for a little bit?" Greg asked.

Becker opened his mouth, then hesitated and closed it. Finally, he sighed. "Yeah, I need to sleep or I'm going to pass out. I've dozed off like five times since you left and...dammit, all right." He sorted through the datapads for a moment. "We're actually to the point where we're fairly autonomous." He selected one of the datapads and handed it to Greg, who accepted it and began studying it. "There's a list of shit I was hoping to get done today. Wake me up if any decisions need to be made or if there's an attack, or if you hear from Command HQ. We're still trying to get in touch with them. But otherwise...yeah, I'm gonna go pass out in the closet there."

"The closet?" Greg asked, looking up as he stood and began making for the only other door in the room.

"Yes. It's just big enough to shove a cot in, which I did. Goodnight, afternoon, whatever."