The Will To Live✔️

Chapter 26: Turning Point

"We'll take care of things, Sergeant. Get some sleep."

"Thanks."

He disappeared into the closet, though he left the door open. Well, at this point he could probably sleep through a marching band.

Greg studied the datapad. Most of it was basic stuff, the kind of work that just needed an actual, physical person doing something for a little while.

He looked at Izzy. "You ready?"

"Yep," she replied.

"Let's get to work."

They left the office, closing the door behind them.

* * *

Despite everything that could have gone wrong, and a lot of disaster scenarios ran through Greg's mind as they worked throughout the remainder of the day and into the night, things went pretty well. He thought he'd have to sidestep uncomfortable questions of why exactly were a pair of Corporals suddenly doling out orders, but either most people were too tired to question it, or, and this seemed increasingly more likely, stories about their survival of Polaris Island and their subsequent trip had spread among the local population.

Either way, it was nice. They told people to do stuff, and they did that stuff.

He and Izzy oversaw repairs to the perimeter fence, ensured maintenance was performed on the few vehicles they had left, at one point Izzy broke off to help perform repairs, or at least evaluations, on a pile of broken or malfunctioning weapons that no one had really had time to deal with, while he went to update the guard rotation schedule. After that, they'd run into Ellis again, and had helped her perform a sweep of injuries, mainly to change bandages, and then a reorganization of the two makeshift infirmaries they had.

They ran through a dozen other little tasks that ranged from really irritating to almost fun.

By the time midnight was on approach, they'd gone to check on the Sergeant, and found him in the process of waking up. He'd apparently had a nightmare bad enough to kick him squarely out of sleep, especially once he realized how much time had passed, and although he'd freaked out a bit at that, once they assured him that nothing had gone wrong and, in fact, several things had gone right, he'd calmed down. Though he'd insisted they catch some sleep. At that point, they were both exhausted, so there hadn't been much argument.

After a quick meal and a lengthy shower, made a bit lengthier after he'd gone to shave, and Izzy hadn't wanted him to, and they'd finally settled on him buzzing his facial hair, not his hair though. Not that it'd make much different. Despite how much he lamented having short hair in the frozen environment, too much facial hair bugged the crap out of him. Sandpaper stubble he could more than live with though, since he thought he looked stupid clean-shaven. Which meant he thought he looked stupid most of the time, given his career.

Apparently Izzy agreed with him, although she was at least nice enough not to say he looked stupid, just that she liked him with some face fuzz, as she called it.

Finally, after all that, they found themselves curled up in a stranger's bed together in almost total darkness. The only light came from a clock mounted on the wall and some from the window. All around them, they could faintly hear the sounds of activity as Marines and civilians moved about, doing whatever was needed to keep the outpost running. Greg thought it would bug him, but the sounds were actually deeply comforting.

"So what happens now?" Izzy asked, breaking the relative quiet that had fallen over them.

"I don't know...I guess we chill out here and help Becker run this place until...I don't know, he reestablishes contact with Command HQ, I guess. Then I'm sure we'll get reassigned. Or maybe we'll just get stuck here, helping run this place," he replied.