Sasha had kept watch over the human the whole flight back to base. Its clothes were spattered and thoroughly soaked with a murky crimson. It was still breathing however, and that's all that mattered. Carter and Emily were caught in their usual debate over what to say to the commander. But that debate was quickly halted when the commander's voice echoed on the radio.
"What's the situation on the human?"
Before anyone could answer or react Sasha pulled her microphone down to respond.
"Is banged up but stable now. I estimate its condition to be serious but not critical." she answers with a heavy accent.
"Understood, Sasha. Bring it to med-bay six, keep the vitals monitored. I'll meet you there for a debrief."
"Understood, Sasha out." flicking the microphone back up as she finishes.
The chopper sets down on a designated landing pad close to the medical wing of the large compound. Everyone aboard stands and gets ready to disembark.
"Mav. Mind letting a hand here?" she asks the tired dragon.
Maverick turned and nodded, picking up the stretcher as we both awaited the back ramp to drop open.
"Where we headin'?" Mav asks groggily.
"Med-bay six." she answered while asking herself whether or not Maverick actually slept for once on the flight back.
The ramp drops, exposing the hot summer sun, Emily and Carter walked ahead of the pair as they followed down towards the medical wing. The crew passes multiple anthros on the way. Most if not all of them had the same disgusted or angered expression. Continuing to walk down a few more corridors we made it to the infirmary's entrance. Carter opens the door allowing the two carrying the human to enter the infirmary's main hallway. Upon entering Emily is greeted by one of the many doctors that practically inhabited the place.
"Ah, Viking. Great to see you again. I see you've brought me anozher problem to look after?"
"Maybe. Depends on how much blood it has left." Carter jokes.
"Ah yes, joke around now, vhile it's unconscious and not actively trying to murder us all." The doctor says going from his polite stature to the equivalent of a drill sergeant.
"'Kay doc, you don't have to remind us of what happened." Emily replied, trying to defuse the situation.
"My best surgeon is still recovering from that backstabbing piece of scheisse!"
While Emily's argument with the doctor progresses, Sasha and Maverick decide to walk past them towards a room designated with a six. The two enter the room to see General Jones and two doctors awaiting their arrival. After setting the human down on the hospital cot, the doctors went to work examining its wounds.
"Would you mind leaving us?" Asked one of the two.
General Jones nodded and gestured to Maverick and Emily to walk out into the hallway. Closing the door behind them the soldiers stood at attention to their superior.
"At ease, Viking."
Maverick and Sasha loosen up stance themselves more comfortably as Emily and Carter arrive more than likely having left someone else to deal with the doctor.
"So Viking, do you have Blackburn's data?"
Sasha looked to the others hoping someone would respond to her question, thankfully Carter stepped forward.
"Negative commander, when we arrived at the combat area on the bridge this human bought time for the others to escape with it."
This caught her attention, her eyes shifted curiously towards Carter as she folded her arms.
"How?" She asks, her voice filled with a curious tone.
Stepping forward, Sasha stood next to Carter ready to explain.
"It killed three of Blackburn's mercenaries with nothing but small arms before I was able to incapacitate it next to the last known position of the enemy."
This seemed to interest her even more as she chuckled, a small smirk forming. "Three, huh?"
"There are more casualties all along the road and mountain side leading up to the bridge, so it may very likely have killed more." As Sasha finishes the general slowly shakes her head and chuckles.
"Looks like we got a spec-op on our hands." she mumbles to herself just barely loud enough for the others to hear.
"You guys go get some R&R, not much we can really do with it unconscious at the moment." As she finished General Jones dismissed them with a wave of her hand as she turned around to talk with some of the other medical staff present.
"Welp guess we'll come back later." Maverick says, his eyes heavy.
"Dа, I guess we will." Sasha replied a little exhausted from the long day.
The tired anthros left for the barracks which of course just so happened to be on the other side of the compound. Carter and Emily elected to stay behind in case their new guest decided to try something. Which Sasha thought to be stupid because with the amount of blood it lost. It wouldn't be awake for a few days at least.
—————————————————————
The beeping of the heart monitor became monotonous to the passing medical staff as the days ticked by. The human's condition had become stable enough to the point of death no longer being a concern, but it was by no means healthy. After the possibility of death was removed the anthros stripped the no-fur of his gear leaving only his uniform and balaclava. The medical staff assigned to the human did only the bare minimum in order to keep the human alive. After all, if things went right, they won't have to worry about it for much longer.
—-----------------------------------------------------------
Waves of pain surged throughout Cole's body, pulsating all the while. The pain felt most intense around his wounded shoulder and leg. Cole wanted to cry out, shout for it to stop. But the drowsiness combined with a skullspliting headache kept his mouth shut. The doctors for the most part kept their distance from him. They only came close when they had to change out bandages and or swap out the IV, which hung above him next to the heart rate monitor.
Hours easily turned into days, Cole lost track around maybe the third or fourth day. He couldn't remember much due to the constant pain.
While lying on the cot Cole began questioning himself for what would happen next, interrogation was basically guaranteed. He knew that from when Hector escaped from his capture years ago. He told him about how they try to be nice at first, then moments later they try to beat it out of you. But what comes after? imprisonment, camps, who knows?
The door to the hallway opens grabbing his attention, through the door came a familiar leopard wearing a black tank top with urban camo pants. She was followed in by a single guard who stood bye at the door.
"Human..."
slowly moving his head towards her, even though the movement was small, he felt exhausted after making eye contact with the anthro.
"My name is Sergeant Richardson and I have a few questions for you."
Cole remained silent and stared at the wolf at the foot of the bed. A small hatred started to boil at his core.
"Sit up." She commanded.
Shifting his eyes away from her gaze Cole attempted to push himself up with his good shoulder. While refraining to look at her prying eyes.
"Name and rank, soldier?"
Cole avoided the question by staying silent, the anthro seemed to take note of it.
"Perhaps something less personal... How do you feel?"
"Aside from the sore knee, shoulder, nausea, and exhaustion, I feel fantastic! Just peachy." Cole responds, wincing at the pain in his shoulder.
"Good, that means the doctors are doing their job, to a level of sorts. Sasha really did a number on your leg." She says, gesturing to it.
"You know who shot me?" Cole asked calmly, focusing on trying to hide his obvious anger and hatred.
"Yes and no. Sasha took your leg out, however, I have no idea who got you in the shoulder. On the other hand, you should thank her, she's the one who ended up making sure you got to see the sun again."
Cole's head dropped down slightly as the silence engulfed him once again. 'I should have bled to death. I would be dead, but that meant I wouldn't be here. Alive on a cot talking to a leopard who might be putting on a show to get what she wants.' Cole thought angrily to himself.
"Should have left me there, would have saved you the medicine." Cole stated resting his arm on the cot's railing.
"Trust me, you're not the only one who thinks that." The leopard responds, folding her arms. "But we needed you alive."
"Alive for what? It's not like anyone is going to benefit from me."
"That's where you're wrong. You see, your team is in possession of a hard drive containing data belonging to John Blackburn. And you just so happened to be a part of the unit responsible for its disappearance. So I hope it's not too much to ask but, where is the data?" the leopard questioned.
"Sorry, but I'm sure you already know I'm not going to tell you that." Cole answered, turning his gaze to the window.
"Why? Your unit left you for dead while you were trapped on that bridge with nowhere to go."
"Correction; I bought them time to escape by staying." Cole retorted.
"Why though? Why stay behind when you could have gone with them?"
"It was to make sure they couldn't be followed. I wasn't going to leave it up to chance."
"I guess that's fair, but in my unit no one gets left behind. We all look out for each other." She finishes as the guard approaches.
"Glad that's the case, congratulations your team cares...Also who?"
She went silent, puzzled for a moment about the question? "Wha-"
"Asked." Cole interrupted, smiling behind his mask, contempt with his childish behavior towards her.
The leopard's confusion quickly turned into annoyance as she covered her eyes with a hand.
"Time's up, the doctors are on their way back." the guard says before returning to the door and opening it.
The leopard nods towards the guard, turning away from Cole and walking to the door. Opening the door she turns her attention to him one last time. The leopard shook her head in disappointment then continued to walk out the door, the guard following her as she left.
Glad her presence was gone, Cole laid back down on the hard table-like cot and rested his head on the poor excuse for a pillow.
"I'm going to be a while, Noah." Cole mumbled to himself.
Moments later the doctors walked into the room and began their daily routine procedures, his eyes felt heavy as they administered another heavy sleeping agent.
——————————————————-
Hector's grip on the drive never loosened since the survivors got off the chopper and onto the carrier taking them to the U.S. he refused to let anyone else come close to the item. Not even the techs on the carrier, wanting to check if it was intact.
Upon returning to his cabin from a meal at the galley, Hector pulled out the drive along with a computer the rest of the team was happy to 'borrow' for him.
Hector positioned on the bunk and opened up the computer, hooking up the server in the process. The computer finished loading up as a small pop up appeared on the screen.
-start decryption?-
Hector hit the enter key with little hesitation, whatever was on this drive had better be worth all of the blood spilt.
The computer began to silently hum as a bar appeared on screen and slowly started to progressively fill up with a green color.
-time to completion: [4] [hour]-
He sighed heavily, waiting was never a strong suit for the Scottish man. He was about to attempt to get some rest when a sudden rapping came from the bulkhead door. Hector quickly shut the device and shoved it under the bunk's covers.
The knocking continued as He stood back up.
"I'm right here man, jeez." Hector mutters, annoyed.
He opened the door to be met by a panicked young officer practically bouncing up and down.
"Did you hear the news?!" The soldier shouted despite the fact Hector was no more than a mere foot in front of him.
"No, what's going on?"
"No time, come on!" He shouts once more, grabbing his wrist and dragging him through the doorway and into the halls.
Hector found himself all the way back in the mess hall. Everyone seemed to have their attention drawn to something.
"Oi mate, turn it up!" A soldier from the crowd hollered.
A nearby soldier walked towards the small television and turned the knob, increasing the volume.
"In other news, the president, along with all remaining world leaders have come to a conclusion regarding the situation with the new anthro government dubbing themselves the 'NAAC,' or New Age Anthro Coalition."
"This is fucked, man!"
"No way the Americas can support everyone."
A mutual groan drifted across the crowd of soldiers before another demanded silence. The news reporter continued.
"We will now take a statement from world leaders."
The president of the U.S was followed onto a podium by a group of soldiers along with other world leaders most notably being from Europe, South America, and Africa. The president takes a position behind the podium while the others find seats behind him.
"My fellow Americans, and newcomers from around the world, welcome... It is unfortunate for all of us that we are in a current state of crisis against the N. double A. C... All of us have suffered many losses over the last few years, and nobody has suffered more than the citizens back East. However, the main question that has arisen concerning a great many, is will the N. double A. C. going to continue their crusade here?"
The crowd gasps as the president continues his speech.
"Do not fear, your leaders have come up with a solution to make sure that all are safe so long as no boundaries are crossed."
"Tell me this ain't happening..." Another soldier says, covering his face with his hands as he bows his head to the floor.
"Your world leaders have decided to offer a treaty with the N. double A. C. allowing the continuation of mankind, while also putting an end to the bloodshed."
The room erupts into complete madness as soldiers yell with rage. Soldiers left and right spouting slurs and demanding violence.
"SHUT, THE, FUCK, UP!!!" Hector roared, silencing the whole mess hall.
"The boundaries holding this treaty in place are as follows; Any and all humans remaining inside NAAC territories are to be released back to the Americas. Under zero circumstances is a human able to set foot back onto NAAC territory. Any violent action or cruelty performed against either party is punishable by death, if the individual or group responsible for said violence or cruelty is protected by their respective parties, then war will continue." The president finished the dreaded speech solemnly.
"May god help us all..."