The Drifts

"What do you see?"

"The hell do you think I see?"

"Well, if I could take an educated guess, then it would probably be snow and ice." For once, my companion wasn't wrong.

As he had postulated, snow and ice stretched out before us in an endless plain, the world that I viewed was entirely white, save for the sparse dead tree every few hundred yards. The area that we were in would have been bustling with life only a few months ago, before the big freeze came through, but now it seemed like we'd be lucky if we managed to shoot a damn rat for dinner that night. After a few more moments of staring down the scope of my sniper rifle I shook my head in dismay and got up into a crouching position, picking up my rifle as I did so.

"Heading back?"

"Well, I'm not going to stay here and waste my time trying to get my rifle frozen." I said, my voice sounding oddly distorted through the system that my suit channeled it through. I couldn't see my companion's expression as he shrugged off my snippy comment, instead he just picked up his rifle and stood next to me, staring out over the plains.

"You would think there would at least be some merchants or something coming through. I mean, they're always coming this way on their way to the Dome, aren't they?" That, unlike most of the other things that we had talked about during out long stakeout gave me pause for thought. He was right, there should have been at least a few wanderers heading toward the Dome after all the time that we had been standing out here.

"I've suddenly got a bad feeling about this." I murmured as I adjusted the backpack that I had scooped off the ground moments before, now holding my rifle with my finger on the trigger, staring out over the landscape, scouring it for any sign of life. It took me a few minutes, but then I started to notice the footprints that led off into the forest close to the edge of the clearing that we had been observing the entire afternoon.

"Did you see anyone go into the woods?" I asked my friend as I turned to look at him, now in full panic mode.

"No, Sandra and Kat are still back at the camp. I would've told you if they had radioed that they were going anywhere, why?" I pointed to the tracks at the edge of the clearing in response. Slowly, my friend raised his scope to his eye so that he could observe the tracks. I heard him curse under his breath, though it came out as more of a distorted breath through his suit.

"Radio them." I said as we both turned at the same time, beginning to lope back toward our camp, eyes wide open and observing everything as we moved. It seemed as though someone had already managed to slip by us, we weren't about to take the chance of letting whoever that was get the drop on us in an ambush.

"Ferron." He hissed after a few minutes of movement. I turned to look back at my friend with surprise in my eyes, though he would never be able to see it through the heavy visor of my suit. We were never supposed to use our real names when we had comms on. Anything that would point to our identities could result in terrible consequences for anyone concerned with us.

Ari had one finger up, as though he were telling me to wait. He stood there for a minute with his fingers to one ear of his suit's helmet, trying to press the radio close to his ear in order to hear better, no doubt.

"They've got the girls." He said as he suddenly put his hand down and started to lope ahead of me. At this point, I didn't feel the need to ask who in the hell "they" was, I was just concerned with the fact that our friends were captured.

"How in the hell did they move so fast if they were using camo?" Ari wondered out loud, a question which I could offer no response for. My own suit required that I move slowly in order for its camouflaging systems to work, if I moved at a pace quicker than a brisk walk then it would short out. On top of that, I could only keep it on for thirty seconds at a time if I didn't want to freeze to death.

"Get down." I suddenly told Ari, noticing that a figure was standing with his back to us on the edge of our camp. The small fire that we believed we had contained had been snuffed out, offering us little light to see who it was that was observing the girls, who were tied together in front of this individual.

I grabbed Ari and pulled him down behind a bush, we moved along in a crawling positions, trying to prevent the snow from crunching under our suits.

"You go left, I'll go right." I instructed him as we got to what would have been the point directly behind the guy who had watch on the girls. The only unfortunate thing about this plan of attack was that we didn't have any clue about how many people this guy had with him. I would assume that it was more than one more, the girls would've been able to hold off two guys on their own, or three. Unless they were ambushed, that is. Nevertheless, we were going in blind.

I saw Ari pull his knife from the sheath on his waist as he moved about the treeline, making sure to stay behind bushes and trees as he moved. I did the same, though I went in the opposite direction, keeping my knife up and ready to strike if anyone came around the bend that was in front of me. I listened intently, trying to hear if anyone was around. I couldn't even hear Ari's movements though, which bade terribly for me if I needed to hear someone that was doing their best to sneak up on me.

Suddenly, I heard a branch crack and turned to see someone moving out of the trees, rushing at me like a bull. I sidestepped his charge, but he drove his shoulder into my chest nonetheless, sending me sprawling out onto the ground as my knife flew from my hands. I heard the steel bounce off stone a few feet to my left, but before I could move to try and get my hands on it I could feel someone else's hands around my neck, working under the armor of my helmet to get at the thin insulation that covered my neck.

I directed my gaze at my attacker, who was basically sitting on my chest at this point. Like me, he wore a helmet with a tinted visor, so I couldn't see his expression as he squeezed my throat like he was trying to get his hands to meet in the middle of it. Pain burned through my lungs along with my neck, my entire body screamed for air as I watched darkness creep at the edges of my vision, but I was stunned by the first hit. By the time I had managed to regain my senses the vital readout on the edge of my helmet was blinking red, indicating that my oxygen levels were severely low.

Needing a quick solution, I fumbled about on the ground for anything stronger than my fist. After a few moments of fumbling, I managed to get my fist closed around a stone that was about as large as the palm of my hand. I bought it swinging up, smashing it into the man's visor with a loud crack as the glass shattered, sending splinters all over me and into his face.

He cried out in pain and horror as he reeled back, releasing my neck from his grip. Taking advantage of the momentary freedom, I lunged forward and delivered a quick blow to his throat that sent the man onto his back, choking as I rose quickly. I located my knife and picked it up as I sprinted toward the camp, from where I could now hear the sounds of a struggle. When I got to the edge of the fire's light I ducked behind the bushes. Ari was doing his best to fight with a half dozen guys in the middle of the camp, but he was clearly on the ropes. On top of that, I saw Sandra and Kat slumped on their sides where they had been kneeling moments ago. Blood oozed out of the holes in the front of their visors. I knew they were dead without having to taking a second look.

At that point, there was nothing I could do for any of my friends. My best option was to get the hell out of there, to live to fight another day. But as I turned to run I was met with the blood smeared face of the guy who had been trying to strangle me in the woods. In all of the confusion, I hadn't heard him sneak up on me again. This time, he didn't hesitate to end my life. As I raised my knife to deflect the blow that was coming he drove his own blade through my visor. I felt it hit my left eye, and go through it.

I screamed in agony as I felt everything go red in my head, then, just as quickly, everything went black as I collapsed from the pain.