Wings of Honor: Deciding Destiny

Chapter 3: The March

I really do hate walking on sand.
Walking miles in the stuff, in freezing weather, it's just suffering. Massive suffering.
McManus and Travers took point back again. They weren't dressed for the occasion. Both slinging their rifles, putting their hands in their armpits, and pulling up their collars.
I offered to breathe fire to warm them up, but they claimed it might draw too much attention.
I reminded them about Marvin's Jacket, and how I enchanted it to be "effectively" cold no matter what. But when both of them tried it on, they both promptly took it off. Both claimed to the same effect that it wasn't much warmer than what we were walking through. It was better used when the sun was out, and they needed to cool down.
We marched on, with McManus and Travers freezing their asses off through the night.
McManis and Travers talked tactics and whatever. I just entertained myself, watching the stars, scanning the dunes, or just blindly walking forward with my eyes shut. Letting McManis' and Travers' mental positions dictate mine.
We walked until we ran out of night to walk under, and the sun began to rise nearly in front of us. And with the dazzling sun, also the temperature.
At first, it was a welcome relief from the freezing night. But then the sun rose higher, and we began to sweat. The sand warmed, becoming almost like walking on lava, even to those with boots on. Then the swirlies began to rise from the golden ground, and the canteen started to be passed around. What water McManis spilled out onto the ground was gone by the time I reached it.
"Jesus. Fuck. How much longer?" Travers rubbed his forehead.
"God if I know." McManis consulted the compass. "All I know is that we're headed in the right direction of The Scorpian Den."
Travers sighed, holding his rifle in trail carry by its trigger guard. Thankfully still maintaining trigger discipline, even though I knew he knew he had a full clip with the safety on. The M1's safety could be easily flicked off, if accidentally, and be ready to rock and roll.
I myself was also battling heat. I was mostly camouflaged to the sides now. The rest of me, I kept a piercing white. However, I quickly became dusted over, turning me a dull tan and further heating me up. I sighed, I couldn't beat this one.
Eventually, the Scorpian Den walls loomed in front of us, but we were still a good ways away.
We knew the Talons of Power were definitely operating in the area, and now that we knew they were aligned with Goldman, we couldn't take any chances.
However, we had two choices to get to Thorn: either through a series of ruins, or skirt around them and lose a good chunk of time. Skirting would definitely be safer, and I had a bad feeling about these ruins; but if we chartered straight through we might be able to reach The Den before delirium sets in. And since we've already been out in the blazing heat for long enough, still wearing army green uniforms (albeit also dusted yellow), we were all practically dying of exposure.
I provided rear security while McManis and Travers kept scouting out.
"Ruins ahead," McManis commented. "Do you want to push through, or go around? Travers? Grace?" He looked back at us.
"I think we should go through," Travers stated. "I want to get out of this fucking sun."
"I-I think we should go around." I shivered. "I don't like these ruins."
McManis took a sharp breath. "Do you see anything in the future?"
I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate, but the warmth scrambled my mind. I couldn't even get into The Ether, let alone find a timeline. I shook my head, sighing.
"Shit." McManis cursed. "Well... even with plenty of water, we're beginning to undergo hyperthermia we need to find somewhere cool as... as soon as possible." He lost his breath for that instant. But as he tried to recover, he took in a long gulp of dry, desert sand. Coughing it out.
"Yeah." Travers held him up. "We need to get to the Scorpian Den right now."
I frowned. I still had a bad feeling about this. I didn't know why, and I couldn't confirm it. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. I followed my men into the ruins.
At first, it was dry, crumbling masonry. I could barely walk anywhere without crushing the remains of a structure, or cracking a tablet. It was loud, and the stone was rough under my claws. Every time I made a movement, I couldn't avoid making a terrible screeching noise that traveled up my spine, making me convulse. I was too loud, this place was not good for traveling through.
It hurt to keep seeing McManis and Travers look over their shoulders at my blundering. I was trying my best, and they knew that, but I was still being loud, and there was nothing I could do about it.
"Wait." I perked up. "Maybe I can fly, guys?"
If that'll quiet you down, sure. Travers looked over his shoulder.
McManis looked at me, hesitating. What about your wings?
I looked over at them. "They've been healing since we landed. I've been meaning to at least try and see if I healed at all."
He took a deep breath. Okay. Sure. Get some eyes in the sky. But don't be obvious, and don't hurt yourself.
I nodded, carefully extending my wings so as not to hit any of the half-collapsing constructions. I could still feel the dull aching with them extended, but the stinging was gone. At least some progress. With an awkward leap up, I was airborne, with my wings fully outstretched. They still stung, noticeably bad, but manageable.
At least I can fly if I need to.
As quietly as I could, I banked around to glide back over where McManis and Travers were heading. Flying over where they were going. They both looked up to see me pass, they knew where I was at. I wiggled my semi-transparent wings at them.
But when I looked back down, I saw movement that made my spine ice over. I think McManis got the same feeling as I did because he dropped.
"AMBUSH!" I roared.
"FIRE!" McManis ordered, laying down heat on the Japs.
Travers took cover and tried picking them off from a low wall, but then opted for suppressing fire as well.
I was too hot to breathe ice. I was hyperthermic as well. So, I created a wall of fire between McManis and Travers, blocking them partially from view.
Adrenaline fueled, and the concern for exhaustion out the window, I landed behind them.
"Quick! Climb on!" I yelled.
Travers looked over at me. "I thought you said-"
"I KNOW WHAT I SAID! GET ON!"
"GO!" McManis motioned. "COVERING FIRE!"
McManis emptied the rest of his magazine, covering Travers' mad dash for me. He quickly swung onto my back, while I crouched down in as much cover as I could manage.
"COVERING FIRE!"
Travers fired as rapidly as he could, covering McManis's retreat. However, his ammo ran out midway, and the Japs suddenly ran through the fire!
"NO!" Travers yelled, as he tried to meet the charging SMG gunner.
Instead, I opened my maw and spat a long-range stream of venom at him. But the wind aerosolized it, defusing the effect. It went all over him, and not where it would incapacitate him immediately. In retaliation, he held down the trigger, spraying wildly in my direction, screaming madly.
I felt the rounds pling off my hide. Stinging hailstones all along my abdominal area.
"CHRIS!" Suddenly Travers exclaimed.
I looked down, seeing McManis slump against me, his Bren falling taut against its sling.
Oh no.
"Come on!"
Travers reached down, trying to pull him up. I tried to support him with my tail, hoisting him up. But my fire break was extinguishing, so I did my best to rebuild it. It was close range, and concealment was no cover against rifles. They started firing through the fire.
"I GOT HIM! LET'S GO!"
With a sharp breath of the burning, dusty air, I lunged myself into the sky.
The air still crackled and snapped around me as I tried my best to turn back to camouflage. However, I knew I still had orange and white rings still running around me, on top of the silhouetting dust.
With every wingbeat, I felt my energy drain, my breath leave me, my mind growing foggier. But I had to get my friends safe. I couldn't leave them there.
Shit. Suddenly, McManis' mind said. I'm shot.
"Oh fuck." Travers noticed the blood on his hands.
"I need... I need a medic." "He needs a doctor!" Travers yelled.
"I know! I know!"
The only one that could tear him was at Thorn's palace... a ten-minute flight away.
I poured into every wingbeat. Newfound strength sent straight to my wings, beating harder and faster than I thought possible. My lungs burned, worse than before; like with each thrust, I was losing a part of myself.
"He's, He's losing blood!" Travers called.
"Fuck!" McManis cursed, as he turned to retrieve his med kit. "Pack it. Pack it. You need to pack it."
"Fuck-fuck-fuck." Travers cursed.
Then I saw Thorn's stronghold.
"We're there! Right there!"
"HURRY!" Travers screamed.
I dove, making Travers waste the entire packet of hemostatic powder. We slammed down in the middle of the courtyard, unaware of just how many SandWings were following us now.
Immediately, Travers slid McManis off my back. I got out the tent with my teeth, laying it down for him like a tarp.
"Hey-hey-hey." "Where-am-I-hit?" "You're-gonna-be-okay." "Where am I hit!" "You're okay." "Your stomach. Right side." "F-uck."
McManis coughed up blood. "Shit. S-start packing it."
"What?" Travers leaned in.
"Pack it! Pack it. Pack it. Pack it."
"Fuck-shit-fuck-shit." Travers fumbled with the med kit, while I tried to get bandages out.
"S-s-see if it went through."
Travers ran his hands around McManis' back. I started taking apart all the medicinal equipment, letting it drop around him.
"No exits."
"G-g... hemo... STAT!"
Travers ripped open another pouch of powder, pouring it into his wound.
"Water. Water! I can't fucking see!"
I poured the water over his abdomen, washing away the blood. Revealing new oozing red liquid.
"I need... I need morphine."
"No. No-no-no-no-no. Don't give up yet."
McManis's head rested against the ground.
"I feel... dizzy."
"What do I do? WHAT DO I DO? GRACE!"
I shook my head. "J-just keep packing! We have to stop the bleeding!"
Grabbing some bandages, I ran it around behind him. Forming a tight harness that I carefully pulled to try and close the wounds.
"Shit," McManis said softly, before his hand thudded softly on the ground. His head rolled over.
"SHIT! McManis! Stay with me!" Travers was on top of him. "McManis! MCMANIS!"
I shook my head, tears flooding my vision. I couldn't stop crying. "Keep packing!"
Travers got another packet, shoving the powder into his bleeding wound.
"C-c-can we cauterize it? I can't stop the bleeding!"
"With what?" I looked around, spotting a tent stake. "With this!" I picked it up, taking a shaky breath, I breathed out a small flame to begin heating the small stick of metal.
"Come on. Stay with me, McManis. STAY WITH ME MCMANIS!"
The powder was everywhere. Sand found its way into the wound, everywhere was dirty. The tent underneath was pooled with so much blood. McManis was still, his eyes closed, but his lips kept moving. Whispering softly.
"Keep packing. Keep packing. Keep packing."
I handed Travers the glowing red stick.
I felt the sizzle of his hands being fried by the heat, but he still removed the bandages and stuck it into his wound. Wiggling it around to cauterize all the damage.
McManis showed no reaction to the pain.
Once all his wounds were fully cauterized, Travers dropped the iron bar into the sand, making the contacting sand flash to glass.
"Come-on." He growled. Grabbing more hemostatic powder, filling the holes, and washing the rest of his body with water.
We worked and worked and worked to try and save the Lieutenant. But he didn't wake up.
Travers tended to some grazing on his arms and helped patch up some of the medium-sized shrapnel holes in my wings with cloth. But we didn't leave McManis's side until Thorn carted him off to Ankh.
I couldn't fit into the passageways anymore, so Travers went with him.
I used my mental projection ability to transfer all that I knew to Ankh, hoping she'd be able to save him. If anyone had the chance, it was going to be her.
I paced back and forth in front of her fortress tents. Thorn herself tried to comfort me, but I couldn't stay still. I tried to lay down, curl myself up into a little ball, and try and wait. But it was then that the tears came. An intense burst of dread filled me. It was like if I wasn't constantly doing something, anything, even walking, McManis wouldn't make it out. So then I would get back up, kept pacing, walking the perimeter, back and forth.
I got a few snapshots through Travers' mind. Glimpses of his condition, and how his progress was. He had lost a lot of blood, so much blood. Ankh said that a dragonett of comparable size would have bled out in 2-3 minutes with the amount and severity of his wounds. He was still unconscious and would be until his body recovered on its own... in around two months. He was still unconscious and in critical condition.
Ankh started looking around for ways to do blood transfusions, and makeshift IV drips, but with just the equipment available to her, it was more than impossible: it was unthinkable.
I couldn't use my magic. It was a miracle Travers didn't use his. If we did, Goldman and Darkstalker would know exactly where we were, and Thorn couldn't face their combined army alone.

It was hopeless, utterly hopeless.

I swept my wings over my head, shielding myself from the outside world, so that nobody would see me cry. The tears started slowly, but then rapidly pooled into rivers. My vision blurred, a headache pounded, my nose ran, and my throat burned. Crying turned to sobbing, and everything only got worse.

You've been through worse.
I kept saying to myself.
I survived SERE school when I joined as an Airborne. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape training. I had been through a faithfully simulated German POW interrogation. I memorized all my information I would need, and I am an innately creative person.
But as this soldier smacked me across the face with a club, feeling like he was breaking my jaw, causing me to spit blood, the pain rocketing through my entire being, I realized I might not have prepared as much as I could have.
This might be my worst
Suddenly, I was manhandled by my collar.
"The, beatings will stop, once you tell me where your friends are." He said in crusty Japanese English.
"I told you." I gasped, breathing heavily. "I don't know. The enchantment only took them somewhere safe. I don't know where."
"You are lying!"
The soldier slammed me on the stomach, causing me to spit up more blood, onto his uniform.
He took me by the collar, meeting me face to face.
"Look." I closed my eyes. "You can bring a mind reader to read my mind. They won't find anything. They're too smart to return to any camps I know about."
The soldier thought about it for a second. But then stepped back. He raised his club to strike me again.
I merely closed my eyes, accepting the pain.
Suddenly, there was a loud clang of a door.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the soldier saluting. Then I made out the blurry face of a man wearing a clean M42 uniform.
He angled the light onto me, dazzling me. Then he took hold of my chin. I withered in silent pain as he stared directly into me.
"I know I won't get any more intel out of you Marvin." He let me go. "Seems there's an enchantment someone placed on you that doesn't allow me to read your mind. Pity." He knelt down so we were at the same eye level. "That trick will only work for so long. And in the meantime... I might just have a little fun with you for the hell of it."
My mind was a confusing compounding mess of hope and dread. This was Travers or Grace's doing no doubt.
"I'm going to want you awake for this."
I suddenly felt a needle stab my arm. I watched as the blue liquid was shot in.
"Wh-what?" I mumbled out.
Suddenly, another person decked in white scrubs and a face mask wheeled in a cart.
Goldman donned a mask of his own, picking something from the cart. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."
I heard a drill spin up.
"No."
I saw him angle the tool down toward me.
"No!"
I shook my bindings, but I was locked in tight.
"NO!"
I felt the diamond drill bite.
And then darkness overcame me.