Break through and remember (Krii7y)

The outsiders

"Dammit! So fucking close..." Smitty sighed, slumping down against the old shack's wall. "Marcel, can you tell what went wrong?"

"Nah, sorry man. I think they just... saw the signal and deleted it. Sorry, Smit."

"It's fine. We can try again, I guess. I'll talk to Brian later, he might know what failed."

Marcel turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll get him back, I promise."

Smitty sniffed and wiped away the tears threatening to spill over his eyelids. Marcel turned to leave and Smitty whispered to himself, "I hope..."

~Small time jump~

Smitty opened his tent, flopped onto his mattress and sighed, rummaging around his backpack for his voice recorder. Placing it in front of him, he clicked the button to begin recording.

"Attempt 23 just failed. We at least know that Brian's transmitter works, but I'm not sure how to get through to John if they can just detect a signal and remove it. I know we made a breakthrough and all, but it's so hard to stay optimistic all the time... I miss him. Tyler's been saying we should just go in guns blazing and break him out now, I swear he's gone insane. We still need to wait for Craig to find us weapons, and besides, we're outnumbered! Can't save John if we're dead, after all." He chuckled weakly, "Still, Tyler's idea is shaping up to be our only option, and if things continue this way, I think we just might have to go through with it. End recording." Tossing the recorder beside his mattress, Smitty unzipped his tent and went outside to greet the others.

The others were all huddled around the fire. Brian was fiddling with a machine, doing a great job ignoring Nogla's billion questions. Tyler was cooking some rations over the fire, occasionally looking up to laugh at Brian's misfortune. Quickly, Smitty was greeted by Craig, who came up to him and patted his shoulder sympathetically.

"Hey Smit... How ya holding up?"

"Fine, I guess... Any news about getting the weapons?"

Craig's face lit up brightly.

"Oh yeah! I was meaning to tell you about that. I was looking around the forest area and it turns out that if you head around the dense area, there's a few abandoned factories people must use as dealing spots. There's tons of hidden ammo and weapons, but it's a little hard to get to." He explained

Smitty nodded, pure determination shining on his face.

"Right. Are we all going together to grab them?" He asked.

"I'm going if we get to go through with Tyler's plan!" Nogla yelled from across the campsite.

"We'll consider it, Nogla..." Craig sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Aw, come on man! We get to blow people up, what's not to love about that?"

"Well-."

"Thats my point!" Tyler interrupted, already putting on his helmet. "Plus, its easier than going with Marcel and Brian's plan."

"We could die, Tyler! It's not like we can just waltz into the city, you know it's not like it used to be."

"Craig, we're low on rations. We needed to go anyway, and it'll basically just be like a food heist. We either go or we stay here and starve without getting John back!"

"Food heists are different! You know John's being held in the city center, not the outskirts. Who knows how well-guarded the center is?"

"Boys, boys, relax." Smitty interjected. "We'll go get the weapons, Brian and Marcel and stay here and keep trying, and if they can't figure something else out, we can consider Tyler's idea. But it is a last resort, remember that."

"Fiiine, but I call dibs on explosives." Nogla groaned, tying the laces on his boots. "Lead the way, Craig."