Battle Scars

Chapter 56: Storm Clouds over the Soviet

Chapter fifty six: Storm Clouds over The Soviet
The atmosphere was so tense, it could have been cut with a knife. The last time I remembered it being this way was the first time I fought Vikk in the training fight that began the rivalry between us in the hunger games arena. This time, it was as if we were waiting for something to happen. For something to go wrong.
Mitch, Vikk, Preston, and Jerome were with me on the ground within the capital of The Soviet. We were now trekking the streets of the deserted Soviet capital, it's people all fled to escape certain destruction. Lachlan and Hannah were being dropped closer to the destination, to start the fight from within. A particularly dangerous position, and I was worried for them. However, I couldn't think about that now. We had a job to do. Now was the time to block all emotions, and become, as much as I hated it, a tank. A machine designed to destroy or overrun anything in it's path to get to it's destination.
The five of us were walking silently but quickly down a backstreet of the city. To get to the building that was our destination, we had to weave our way through a series of backstreets, and finally onto the main street that led directly to the parliament building. As we got closer to the main street, the noise of battle became louder. And then we began to encounter Soviet soldiers.
The first lot we came across took us by surprise by trying to shoot from behind. It was Jerome who gave the alarm, and saved us from certain destruction by rushing into a side street, out of the way of the gunfire. The rest of us followed him with all possible speed. Mitch peered around the corner, and fired quickly. As he pulled back to reload, I took his place at the corner. There was three more soldiers there, and I peppered the first two with bullets. It took many bullets to penetrate their armour, and I only destroyed one of them before I had to withdraw and reload, allowing Vikk to take my place. Once we had dealt with them, we continued on down the road, feeling much more alert. My fear was beginning to fizzle away, and adrenaline was taking it's place. But I refused to allow my confidence to run away with me, remembering to be careful.
We encountered another group of heavily armoured Soviet soldiers a little closer to our destination. Unfortunately one of them managed to shoot Vikk with enough force and accuracy to penetrate his armour, and he cried out in pain. Whilst the others attended to the enemies, I pulled a Vikk to safety in the sheltered door of a deserted building. He looked up at me worriedly.
"So much blood," he said quietly. "I'm worried I've lost too much." He looked tired, and I suddenly realised he might pass out if I didn't do something quickly.
"Vikk no, you've got to stay awake dude," I whispered. "Is it just your arm?" He nodded.
"They got my left arm twice." I tore part of his shirt off, and removing the armour that covered his upper arm, I tied the wound up tightly. I heard footsteps behind me, and soon Mitch was looking over my shoulder.
"Is he ok?" He asked.
"I'm worried he'll pass out, he's lost that much blood," I said. Vikk shook his head.
"It's not my legs or anything, I should be good to keep going, although my left arm is useless," he said determinedly. "Give me one minute." Mitch looked at him critically, then nodded. The others joined us, and after a little more time, Vikk stood up, and grabbed his gun with his right hand.
"Ready?" Asked Preston. Vikk nodded. We continued down the road. It was evident that The Soviets had expended most of their effort into protective armour for their soldiers, and been stingy on the weaponry side of things. As a result, they were struggling to do any real damage to the invaders, and I wondered if they'd underestimated the number and skill of the rebel soldiers. I glanced at the others to see that Mitch had also been shot, although not as badly as Vikk. The side of his chest was leaking a small amount of blood. He noticed me looking at it.
"Nothing to worry about," he assured me.
"Mitch you should strap it up or something," I warned him. "You'll pass out too, if you loose too much."
"My armour is pretty tight, I'll be fine," he said. "The bullet actually missed me, it just scraped my side pretty bad and lodged into my armour."
We continued on, until we finally got to the main street. Soldiers from both The Soviet and the rebellion were everywhere, and occasionally one or two Soviets would encounter us, and meet their untimely end. But we weren't here to destroy all the Soviet soldiers, we needed to get to the building.
"We can hop from building to building, but once they see us we'll just have to run," said Mitch. "Ready?" We all nodded. "Let's get to that building over there then," he said, pointing to it. We ran under the cover of the other buildings to get closer to our destination. However, we didn't get far before a soldier sounded the alarm, and we had at least fifteen Soviets on our tail.
"Go guys! Straight to where Lachlan and Hannah are waiting," exclaimed Mitch. We followed him as fast as we could down the road towards the parliament building.